Stanley-Eric-Captive-Genders-Trans-Embodiment-and-Prison-Industrial-Complex

Captive Genderswhen asking our community members about their experiences with povertyand disability. We also found that a substantial number of low-incomequeer and trans people dealt with police violence because of the NYPD’sableist racism and homophobia/transphobia. We weren’t surprised whenwe learned that the percentage of people who named they dealt with policeviolence because of policing of disability was the same as the percentageof people who said they dealt with police violence because of policingof sex work. Of course, we also understood that it wasn’t just disabilityor sex work that the police were regulating, but also that the folks whowere disabled or sex workers were most often low-income, homeless, andpeople of color who were queer and trans.The experiences of shame and isolation when navigating police violenceare central issues for trans and gender-non-conforming people, especiallypeople who are people of color, immigrants, low-income, anddisabled. When we asked people how they navigate, 71 percent of peoplesaid they rely only on themselves when dealing with immigration issues;nearly half said they rely only on themselves when dealing with legal issues.If we want to create an abolitionist movement that faces the realitiesof people navigating the prison industrial complex, then we must createstrategies to generate safety and connection. So many low-income transand gender-non-conforming people in New York City are not leavingtheir homes or their shelters as a proactive way of navigating transphobiaand other forms of violence. If we’re trying to build a grassroots movementthat encompasses all of us, we need to make sure shame and isolationare challenged and incorporated into our organizing. Of course weare also not victims; we are fighting back and navigating state violence allthe time, and trans people are doing incredible work around the shameand isolation that the prison industrial complex creates. When the WelfareWarriors Research Collaborative asked our community, low-incomequeer and trans people, how we healed from discrimination and violence,114 community members answered: We tell others what happened (54percent); we write in journals (40 percent); we have fun (35 percent); weexercise (30 percent); we meditate (31 percent); we make art (25 percent);and we pray (58 percent).CG: How might the abolitionist movement speak to the demands andneeds of categories of labor excluded from mainstream union politics suchas sex work and incarcerated work? How do these labor politics fit intoconfigurations of class struggle by low-income LGBTQ communities of338