Queer Injustice, by Aspen Sullivan

While reading Joey Mogul’s Queer (In)justice, I was provoked with many questions about the US prison system and how it affects the LGBTQIA+ community who is incarcerated, and even who aren’t. The first questions I was presented with is what exactly is queer about the US prison system? One thing that immediately comes to mind is the fact that crime itself would be considered queer. Everything about crime goes against the social norms of what is considered okay and not okay. When thought about like this, prisons are one of the ultimate queer spaces. On page 95, Joey Mogul explains how any queer behavior “must be stamped out”. This eliminates all sexual behavior or feelings, queering the prison system because although society does make talking about sex taboo, there is sex happening and it is talked about, not cut out of our lives. Now this leads us to ask, if prisons are such queer spaces, how and why are the LGBTQIA+ people disproportionately victimized in prisons? The ways that they’re victimized are ways like the LGBTQIA+ community in prisons are victimized more in the prison system than straight cis people. Joey Mogul says on page 99, “One study of 6 male prisons in California in 2007 found that 67% of the respondents who identified as LGBT reported having been sexually assaulted by another inmate during their imprisonment, a rate that was 15 times higher than the rest of the prison population.” The reason for this could be many things. Part of it is the ideology of a queer person’s sex drive. There’s this stereotype that just because the LGBTQIA+ community is more sex forward and accepting than other communities of people, they must want sex 24/7 all the time. While it may be hard to believe, queer people are the same as others in that sense. They don’t always want sex all the time. Because of this stereotype, other inmates will force queer inmates to have sex with them and will bully them into it because, “they’re gay so they always want sex”. On top of that, the LGBTQIA+ community is victimized more than straight cis people is because people see them being sex forward as perverted. This in other people’s minds can lead to all sorts of things. Like people thinking that homosexuality is a gateway to pedophilia. This is also why they’re sexually assaulted more in prison than other prisoners. There’s also a reason that there’s more LGBTQIA+ people in prison that probably should be. Queer youth are seen in juvie and prison because they sometimes end up being kicked out by their parents and on the street for being gay. They sometimes end up using drugs and alcohol, which can lead to crime and then comes into full circle by them going to prison, a very queer place as we had discussed earlier. So being kicked out of home and living on the streets is something that could be very lonely and prison doesn’t make it any better. On page 97, Mogul explains how some queer prisoners are forced to go into isolation because of the guards. They keep an eye out like a hawk for anything that can be construed as “queer”. Or worse, if someone is identified as queer, because of the sexual stereotype, anything that they do is seen as sexual. This is a big no no in jails as something to control. Something else jails see as something they can control is someone’s gender. Something prisons will do is deny trans people to bunk in the same bunk as the gender they identify with. Theory is they will deny them in the bunk with the gender they identify with because of sex, as usual. What is not understood is just because they’re transgender doesn’t mean they’re straight. A trans man is not always attracted to women and trans women are not always attracted to men. The thing about sexuality and gender is it’s always fluid and there’s many things you can be. It’s hard for prisons to control everything about their prisoners, so they keep it heteronormative and keep men with men and women with women. There’s no regard for anything else. In conclusion, we ask why does queer activism attend to the prison population? I believe it’s because even though they’re incarcerated, the LGBTQIA+ community knows they need to advocate for their own. They know that prisoners in their community are more likely to be attacked in prison than straight cis people. In this thought, they need to advocate for the safety of other LGBTQIA+ prisoners because even if they are in jail, they need to be there for each other in their community.