Recently, a transgender woman spoke of a “hell on earth” after experiencing the tragedies of an all-male prison she was held in.
She had been raped and abused over more than 2,000 times in the time that she was there.
Her identity is undisclosed due to privacy issues, but goes by her pseudonym, Mary. After stealing a car, she was sentenced to prison for four years. Being imprisoned in Boggo Road Gaol, she has already faced difficulties once she stepped into the establishment. After her experience, she was traumatized to the point that she would “rather die than go to prison ever again.”
Located in Brisbane, Boggo Road Gaol is an all-male prison that is known for being the most notorious and largest prison in Queensland, becoming a spot for tourists to view from the outside.
Mary said that she was set up with conversations that pertained to being protected “in return for sex,” which is a manipulation tactic that the men inside the prison were using against her. She was threatened, even forced to have sex with them and others who pushed her in order to “protect” her.
She felt sick, but there was no way for her to defend herself without having to partake in the disgusting actions that happened between the walls of the prison.
She suffered the most abuse in this prison, trying to escape her hell but she was designated as a “high-risk” prisoner who needed to serve her sentence as a maximum security prisoner, living with the most violent inmates in the prison.
Not only did the men have non-consensual sex with her, they flogged and bashed her, which brought light to her having to survive in a cruel environment. She comments that “survival was basically for other prisoners’ pleasure. It was hell on earth, it was as if I died and this was my punishment.”
People also denied what gender she was, being denied of the hormones that she had been taking in order to keep herself at bay. Her long hair had been cut off, so that ensued her facial hair to grow back. She says that it felt like her identity “was taken away from me.”
She adds on, “I look like a woman and I think if a transgender person is genuine and they are living as the opposite sex, then they should be housed in a female prison, even if you’re in a wing on your own.point 282 |
” Mary had gone through an extensive process of seeing a psychiatrist in order to approve her hormone therapy, but was unable to have reassignment surgery.point 136 | 1
After being released, she says she does not “trust men and never will ever again in my life.”