Margaret Kiljoy

Hello, and welcome to It Could Happen Here, a podcast about things falling apart and how to put them back together. I'm your guest host, Margaret Kiljoy, and this is an episode about both of those things. Not Margaret and Kiljoy, but about things falling apart and putting them back together. If you live in the U.S., you might have noticed... that things are falling apart.

Hello, and welcome to It Could Happen Here, a podcast about things falling apart and how to put them back together. I'm your guest host, Margaret Kiljoy, and this is an episode about both of those things. Not Margaret and Kiljoy, but about things falling apart and putting them back together. If you live in the U.S., you might have noticed... that things are falling apart.

Hello, and welcome to It Could Happen Here, a podcast about things falling apart and how to put them back together. I'm your guest host, Margaret Kiljoy, and this is an episode about both of those things. Not Margaret and Kiljoy, but about things falling apart and putting them back together. If you live in the U.S., you might have noticed... that things are falling apart.

In the onslaught of new federal changes over the past few weeks, there is one that is both astoundingly important and also likely to disappear below people's radars. Because it affects prisoners. Trans prisoners. Prison is the place that society puts people to forget that they exist. It shouldn't be that way. Well, prisons ought not to be how we solve problems as a society at all.

In the onslaught of new federal changes over the past few weeks, there is one that is both astoundingly important and also likely to disappear below people's radars. Because it affects prisoners. Trans prisoners. Prison is the place that society puts people to forget that they exist. It shouldn't be that way. Well, prisons ought not to be how we solve problems as a society at all.

In the onslaught of new federal changes over the past few weeks, there is one that is both astoundingly important and also likely to disappear below people's radars. Because it affects prisoners. Trans prisoners. Prison is the place that society puts people to forget that they exist. It shouldn't be that way. Well, prisons ought not to be how we solve problems as a society at all.

But it is the way that things currently are. Things that affect prisoners are routinely ignored, even though we live in a society built on the idea of incarceration. It's been in the news that us trans people somehow just sort of don't exist anymore. That everyone is either male or female, dictated at birth and immutable.

But it is the way that things currently are. Things that affect prisoners are routinely ignored, even though we live in a society built on the idea of incarceration. It's been in the news that us trans people somehow just sort of don't exist anymore. That everyone is either male or female, dictated at birth and immutable.

But it is the way that things currently are. Things that affect prisoners are routinely ignored, even though we live in a society built on the idea of incarceration. It's been in the news that us trans people somehow just sort of don't exist anymore. That everyone is either male or female, dictated at birth and immutable.

Obviously, this flies in the face of biological and social reality, and it's going to impact us trans people quite a bit. One group of people that it's going to impact very immediately, very dramatically, and very dangerously is trans prisoners. According to Bureau of Prison Statistics, there are currently 1,529 trans women and 744 trans men held in federal prisons.

Obviously, this flies in the face of biological and social reality, and it's going to impact us trans people quite a bit. One group of people that it's going to impact very immediately, very dramatically, and very dangerously is trans prisoners. According to Bureau of Prison Statistics, there are currently 1,529 trans women and 744 trans men held in federal prisons.

Obviously, this flies in the face of biological and social reality, and it's going to impact us trans people quite a bit. One group of people that it's going to impact very immediately, very dramatically, and very dangerously is trans prisoners. According to Bureau of Prison Statistics, there are currently 1,529 trans women and 744 trans men held in federal prisons.

And not all of them are being held in gender appropriate prisons already. As we're going to talk about with our guest in a bit, prisoners have to go through an incredible amount of dehumanization in order to have a chance of being placed in the right facility. But now, that isn't an option, and women are being moved into men's prisons. Does the idea of being a woman in a men's prison scare you?

And not all of them are being held in gender appropriate prisons already. As we're going to talk about with our guest in a bit, prisoners have to go through an incredible amount of dehumanization in order to have a chance of being placed in the right facility. But now, that isn't an option, and women are being moved into men's prisons. Does the idea of being a woman in a men's prison scare you?

And not all of them are being held in gender appropriate prisons already. As we're going to talk about with our guest in a bit, prisoners have to go through an incredible amount of dehumanization in order to have a chance of being placed in the right facility. But now, that isn't an option, and women are being moved into men's prisons. Does the idea of being a woman in a men's prison scare you?

It should. It's terrifying. It's worse than what you might imagine. One trans woman prisoner who's using a pseudonym for her lawsuit, going by Maria Mo, has already filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop this new regulation. She is challenging it on both procedural and constitutional grounds.

It should. It's terrifying. It's worse than what you might imagine. One trans woman prisoner who's using a pseudonym for her lawsuit, going by Maria Mo, has already filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop this new regulation. She is challenging it on both procedural and constitutional grounds.

It should. It's terrifying. It's worse than what you might imagine. One trans woman prisoner who's using a pseudonym for her lawsuit, going by Maria Mo, has already filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop this new regulation. She is challenging it on both procedural and constitutional grounds.

The government didn't go about this in the legal manner, and to house trans women with men goes against the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. I simply can't imagine putting a woman into men's prison as anything other than cruel and unusual punishment.

The government didn't go about this in the legal manner, and to house trans women with men goes against the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. I simply can't imagine putting a woman into men's prison as anything other than cruel and unusual punishment.