Black & Pink News, Vol. 8, Issue 7—September 2017

Black & Pink News September 2017

By M. P. (CA)

By Michael Dwyer/AP

Protestors gathered in Boston on Saturday, August 19 to oppose fascism, Nazism, and white supremacy, after a violent right-wing rally in Charlottesville, VA the previous weekend left one woman dead and others injured

Volume 8, Issue 7

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A farewell message from Jason...

Dear friends, I hope this note finds you as well as possible. As you turn the pages of this magazine, I hope you feel the love and dedication that so many people put into making this happen. I hope you feel the care that volunteers and other prisoners are offering to you. I hope you know that even as the prison walls keep you from those of us on the outside, you are never forgotten.

This magazine is made possible by hours of volunteer time, hours of prisoners writing, and thousands of dollars donated by our friends.

Please know that this is just one of the tools Black & Pink has created to help us get closer to the world we dream of. Together, all of us, we have the strength to win the struggle for liberation.

I write my letter this month with a great mix of emotions. This is my last letter for Black & Pink News.

After founding Black & Pink 12 years ago, and taking on working full-time as the National Director five years ago, I am stepping down from my role. As I step down, I am incredibly excited that Tray (whose letter you will read on the next page) is stepping up!

Black & Pink has gone through a two-year transition process which many of you have been part of. We clarified our values as an organization (with nearly 200 people offering their feedback), we designed a structure chart, and we created a decision making system. All of these things have been designed to increase our work while staying true to our values. All of the changes in this transition have been worked on with intention and dedication. Our shift in leadership is about making

sure that those most affected by the harms of the prison industrial complex are always in the lead at Black & Pink. As many have said before, those closest to the problem are the ones with the best solutions. Transitions and change can be challenging, and there will be bumps along the way, though as a family, Black & Pink will always have one another and this this is an exciting time for Black & Pink.

As I step down from this position, do not think that I am stepping out of our movement for abolition. When I got out of prison I reached out to many mainstream LGBT groups to tell them about what had happened to me while I was locked up and to ask them how I could get involved in anti-prison work. Over and over I was told that these organizations did not do work on “criminal justice” issues. Black & Pink started because I needed to stay connected with those on the inside who had looked out for me.

I needed to respond to the things I had seen. Now, nearly every major LGBT nonprofit has some dedicated staff time focused on prisoner justice struggles. Many of these organizations have full time staff who work on prison, court, and police issues. There are also nearly a dozen organizations in the country who are focused almost entirely on LGBTQ and/or HIV prisoner struggles.

Much has changed in the last 12 years when it comes to advocacy work. Unfortunately, even as much has changed, far too much has stayed the same. Prisons continue to torture our members. Millions of people continue to be locked up. Abolition continues to feel too far away. While I am stepping out

of my position at Black & Pink, I promise you that I will never step away from our values or our larger work. I promise that I will keep fighting.

I am sorry that I will not be able to stay in touch with everyone. There are not nearly enough hours in the day to write to everyone who has been part of Black & Pink. However, you are all in very capable and

“This is my last letter for Black & Pink News. After founding Black & Pink 12 years ago, and taking on working full-time as the National Director five years ago, I am stepping down from my role. As I step down, I am incredibly excited that Tray (whose letter you will read on the next page) is stepping up!” loving hands. Tray, Monica, and Ty as the national staff are all dedicated to building with and supporting you. Black & Pink will continue to grow and the resources available will expand. Your vision, your voice, your ideas all need to keep shaping what Black & Pink does.

Be sure to share your thoughts.

Black & Pink is only possible because our prisoner membership calls upon us to do work. Give your feedback and keep up with what work needs to be done. We will all struggle in this movement together, no matter where we are, knowing that once there were no prisons, that day will come again.

Jason

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

A welcome message from Tray!

Dear members,

der 12, prison took my brother, and I was left with all the kids.

On May 10th, 2003, I graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale with my Bachelors degree in Administration of Justice and made the Deans List with

best inmate I could be, that wasn’t in the plan, so don’t think you are gonna get it from me. If you can’t Aloha and Greetings to you all, handle me, send me home.” I got I would like to formally introduce “transferred” for a head count. myself. I am Tray Johns (pronouns, I have been home for six years, she, her, him, he, they, or just tray), albeit I was sent back for four the new National Director for Black months in 2015 & Pink. First for leaving the off, let me district withexpress how out permishumble I am sion, when to accept this my mother enormous rehad a stroke in sponsibility Chicago and and immediI drove five ately give you hours to the the reassuranchospital and es that I fully called my PO intend to carry “an hour afon Jason’s viter I already sion and make left.” My secBlack & Pink ond year home everything JaI was making son continues $65,000 a year to dream of. I as an engineer am in awe of for Continenthis man. I love tal Tires. By him and his my fourth year beautiful spirit out I was knee and his amazIncoming National Director Tray Johns (right) and Tray’s wife Foxxy at the 2017 deep in Caning partner Black & Pink National Gathering in Chicago in August Do ClemenJohannes, so don’t fret: they will always be with eight kids. Then, five days later, cy advocacy for the White House Black & Pink because I refuse to let I was sentenced to 151 months Clemency Project 2014. Many of in federal prison for 9.7 grams of you may have heard of it. him go.

My rallying cry has been and will I’m 42 years old, born and raised crack cocaine. I served eight years, on the south side of Chicago at the seven months, and 19 days for less always be #freeTyniceHall. She is height of the crack epidemic, 1985- than $500 worth of drugs. I be- my prison daughter and friend and 1995. During those years, crack came a jailhouse lawyer, I helped I have been slacking in keeping up destroyed my family, but not me. I my sisters, I got “transferred” from but I will fight for her until she is joined the Navy and got out, but the Greenville, IL, to Hazelton, WV, to home. I will fight against the prisstreets always found a way back in Waseca, MN, to Pekin IL, to Dan- on-industrial complex, until it’s deme. No matter where I lived, when bury, CT. Because I believe in the stroyed. I don’t give up. In 2016, I the going gets rough for Tray the almighty administrative remedy traveled to 125 cities, went to the south side of Chicago gonna come and the tort claim. So I wasn’t the White House three times, was arrestout and I’m gonna make it. I was 21 most compliant prisoner. I once told ed at the White House by the Secret raising five children, the streets took a warden, “Growing up I have not my sister, by 27 I had eight kids un- once told myself I wanted to be the continued on page 7

September blackandpink.org 2017 (United States)

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September 2017

Sun

Mon

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Emmett Till lynched in Mississippi (1955)

Day 4 Labor World Sexual Health Day

Tue

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Day of 5 International Charity

Crazy Horse, defender of the Lakota way of life, killed after surrendering to U.S. troops (1877)

Cherokee Nation West established after the 'Trail of Tears' (1839)

10 National Grandparents Day World Suicide Prevention Day

Day and 17 Constitution Citizenship Day Occupy Wall Street encampment begins (2011)

Star Mother's 24 Gold Day

11 Patriot Day

Wed International Day against Nuclear Tests

12 International South-South

Cooperation Day

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observed

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Desmond Tutu leads huge antiApartheid march in South Africa (1989)

Air Force Birthday

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Day to 26 World Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

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Fri International Overdose Awareness Day

Vegas; dies 6 days later (1996)

Day

20

Thu

Tupac 7 Rapper Shakur shot in Las

13 International Programmers'

Leonard Peltier born, cofounder of American Indian Movement, political prisoner, painter (1944) Day and 18 'Constitution Citizenship Day'

World Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance

27 World Tourism Day

14

Sat

1

2 Eid al-Adha

Literacy 8 International Day

POW/MIA 15 National Recognition Day

International Day of Democracy

Garner Federal 9 Carl Lands Cleanup Day

Ozone Layer 16 World Day

Central America declares independence from Spain (1821)

Hashana 21 Rosh International Day of

22 Muharram September equinox

23 International Celebrate Bisexuality

Maritime Day 28 World World Rabies Day

29 World Heart Day

Kippur 30 Yom Cesar Chavez founds

Peace

Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation (1862)

Day

National Farm Workers Association (1962) Dasera (Hindu)

Now Free, Chelsea Manning Is Focusing on Herself

By Nathan Heller Vogue, Aug. 10, 2017 One hot, humid early-summer evening in New York, a hired car slows on Bleecker Street, and a young woman inside prepares for her first party out in years. She is wearing a midnight-colored semiformal dress by Altuzarra and Everlane ankle boots with heels. Her hair is trimmed into a pixie cut; her makeup softens, but won’t hide, a dust of freckles.

“I don’t know if I’ll know anybody,” she fretted earlier, but she seems to have quelled what nerves remain. Chelsea Manning—graceful, blue-eyed, trans—smiles and

prepares herself. Since her release from the Fort Leavenworth prison, on May 17, Manning has been living in New York, with a low profile.

Tonight she will make her social debut in her own skin. From February to April 2010, while living as Bradley, an Army intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, Manning sent 750,000 classified or sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.

The breach’s breadth was startling, as were its contents, ranging from the so-called Collateral Murder video, showing a U.S. helicopter killing a group of Baghdad pedestrians that included children and press, to hundreds of thousands of “Cablegate” documents, disclosing 44

years of State Department messaging. When Manning’s role became clear, she turned into a polarizing figure—celebrated as a whistle-blower by some, condemned as a traitor by others. In August 2013, after pleading guilty to ten charges and being found guilty of 20, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The day after the sentencing, Manning came out publicly as trans.

Tonight, a summer Monday, is a different kind of coming-out. To honor the occasion, she has picked an event with a celebratory turn: the after-party for the Lambda Literary Awards, which each year honor

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In This Issue News you can use A Welcome Message from Tray Johns, New B&P National Director pages 4, 7 Now Free, Chelsea Manning Is Focusing on Herself pages 5, 10-11 New Jersey Is Frontline in National Battle Over Cash Bail pages 7, 9 Texas Prisoners Face Deadly Heat and Contaminated Water pages 8, 12-13 Prison Recipes: Peanut Butter and Chocolage Fudge pages 13-14

Black & Pink family Letters pages 14-29 Poetry pages 16-17, 22, 29 Submit to Black & Pink! page 30

Black & Pink News Black & Pink Hotline The hotline phone number is (617) 519-4387. The hotline will be available Sundays, 1-5 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) for certain. You can call at other times, as well, and we will do our best to answer your calls as often as possible. We are sorry that we can only accept prepaid calls at this time. The purposes of the hotline are: Supportive listening: Being in prison is lonely, as we all know. The hotline is here for supportive listening so you can just talk to someone about what is going on in your life.

Organizing: If there are things going on at your prison—lockdowns, guard harassment, resistance, or anything else that should be shared with the public—we can help spread the word.

September 2017 work toward the abolition of the prison-industrial complex (PIC) is rooted in the experiences of currently and formerly incarcerated people. We are outraged by the specific violence of the PIC towards LGBTQ people, and we respond through advocacy, education, direct service, and organizing. Black & Pink is proudly a family of people of all races and ethnicities.

About Black & Pink News Since 2007, Black & Pink free world volunteers have pulled together a monthly newspaper, composed primarily of material written by our family’s incarcerated members. In response to letters we receive, we send the newspaper to more prisoners every month! Black & Pink News currently reaches more than 9,400 prisoners!

Give us a call! (617) 519-4387 Sundays, 1-5 p.m. EST

We look forward to hearing from you! This is our first attempt at this so please be patient with us as we work it all out. We will not be able to answer every call, but we will do our best. We apologize to anyone who has been trying to get through to the hotline with no success. We are still working out the system. Thank you for being understanding.

Restrictions: The hotline is not a number to call about getting on the penpal list or to get the newspaper.

The hotline is not a number to call for sexual or erotic chatting. The hotline is not a number for getting help with your current court case; we are not legal experts.

Statement of Purpose Black & Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other. Our

Disclaimer The ideas and opinions expressed in Black & Pink News are solely those of the authors and artists and do not necessarily reflect the views of Black & Pink. Black & Pink makes no representations as to the accuracy of any statements made in Black & Pink News, including but not limited to legal and medical information. Authors and artists bear sole responsibility for their work. Everything published in Black & Pink News is also on the internet—it can be seen by anyone with a computer. By sending art or written work to “Newspaper Submissions,” you are agreeing to have it published in Black & Pink News and on the internet. In order to respect our members’ privacy, we publish only first names and state locations. We may edit submissions to fit our anti-oppression values and/or based on our own editing guidelines.

Volume 8, Issue 7

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NJ Is Frontline in National Bail Battle

By Alan Feuer NY Times, Aug. 21, 2017 Less than a year after New Jersey established a sweeping new law that all but eliminated cash bail, the state has found itself facing a challenge familiar to others that have overhauled their bail systems: an energetic legal attack from the bail industry.

In June and July, two lawsuits were filed in Federal District Court in New Jersey challenging the statute, the Criminal Justice Reform Act, which took effect on Jan. 1.

While the suits have taken different legal tacks, they do have something in common: one was filed by a large corporate bail underwriter and the other has received support and publicity from professional bail agents.

Both parts of the bail industry have said that their profits have plummeted since the law took effect.

New Jersey is among a handful of states where courts and government officials have begun in recent years to modernize—and in some cases, abolish—the assignment of cash bail, which critics say discriminates against defendants, many of

them black and Latino, who cannot afford to pay. The New Jersey law, which was designed to keep the poor from languishing in jail—especially for minor offenses—has put the state at the forefront of a growing national movement toward major change and was notable for having the support of its Republican governor, Chris Christie.

But the movement has occasioned resistance from the bail industry, which has launched an assertive effort to preserve the prac-

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B&P Welcomes New National Director Tray Johns continued from page 4 Service. Went to the Department of Justice, organized a rally and march for Lashonda Hall in Knoxville, TN. My sisters Karen Davis, Lenora Logan, Mackese Speight, and Bernetta Willis, and my brothers Aaron Brooks, James Ortega, and Lawrence McCarroll—I have fought the good fight for them, and I will never give up. I have spoke at law schools and corner churches, crisscrossed this country, sleeping in my car, tired, broke and determined. I bring that same perseverance and determination to Black & Pink.

I met my wife in 2009 in prison Waseca, MN, I left her in 2010, I came home in 2011, and when she

walked out those doors in December 2016, I was standing right there in the airport and we moved to Hawaii with one suitcase and $200 so she would never be alone again. I bring that dedication to Black & Pink.

While Black & Pink is going through this huge transition, I am recently married and am moving my wife, Foxxy, from Hawaii to Boston and dealing with probation. I would ask for your continued support— this organization is nothing without its volunteers. I have a dream opportunity here, and amazing work is already being done throughout the country in the prisons and out.

Our chapters came together at the National Gathering in August and put together the future of Black

& Pink and they were simply brilliant—ideas flowed, the conversation was like we had known each other for years, and I was able to capture and see the passion that these volunteers have for this work and feel encouraged that when I officially join the team this train ain’t even slowing down. I applaud every last one of you. I thank you and I look forward to your guidance and your patience as I take on this task and align our visions to destroy the prison-industrial complex in our lifetime.

I look to hearing your feedback.

Yours truly, Tray “Rock” Johns Incoming National Director

Share your artwork with the B&P community! see mailing instructions on page 30

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

‘Cruel and Unusual’: Texas Prisoners Face Deadly Heat and Contaminated Water complaints in the Eastern District of Texas arguing that they must drink copious amounts of water tainted with lead and copper to cope with the deadly summer heat. The water, they say, has caused a chronic, untreatable stomach disease among some of them. Their complaints are closely modeled after the Wallace Pack Unit case, and could become some of the first tests of the new precedent set by Judge Ellison’s July ruling.

Outside the unit, Black prisoners in white jumpsuits worked without pay on the same land originally As a federal judge ordered the cleared by slaves before the Civil Texas Department of Criminal JusWar. According to the book Texas tice (TDCJ) to cool off elderly and Tough by historian Robert Perkinsick prisoners at a Navasota prisson, during the Jim Crow era, the on unit for the sake of their health, land was maintained by freedmen plaintiffs at another Texas prison are who had been leased back to landhoping to see a similar victory in owners after they were convicted of their own challenges to deadly heat crimes. Eastham is a chilling display and toxic water at their unit. of the evolution of the 21st century Judge Keith Ellison ordered TDCJ prison plantation that Keith “Malik” to come up with a plan Washington has expeto keep heat-sensitive rienced firsthand, and prisoners at the Wal- “People incarcerated in the Eastham has organized against lace Pack Unit near from behind bars.

Navasota, Texas, at a Unit have filed federal complaints in Washington spoke maximum tempera- the Eastern District of Texas arguing on behalf of Texas ture of 88 degrees, that they must drink copious amounts prisoners in the run-up and provide ready acto the nation’s largest of water tainted with lead and copper cess to respite areas prison strike last year for the unit’s other to cope with the deadly summer heat.” on September 9, but prisoners. Judge Elliwas prevented from participating.

Only son approved a plan to But even with the recent victory in a day before the strike, he says, temporarily move 1,000 Pack prisoners to other air-conditioned facil- the Wallace Pack case, the Eastham guards handcuffed and placed him ities. It’s a landmark case that could lawsuits face significant challenges. in solitary confinement. have implications for other Texas A federal judge ordered the original Washington says this punishment prisons—and prisons around the 10 plaintiffs to proceed as individu- was part of a larger pattern of retalcountry—without air-conditioning als and declined the main plaintiff a iation against him for efforts as a in cellblocks. lawyer to represent the case, calling member of the New Afrikan Black According to TDCJ Director of their claims “rather routine.”

Panther Party and in conjunction Public Information Jason Clark, The prisoners allege that the pris- with the Industrial Workers of the only 29 of 108 TDCJ units have on’s aging service lines have become World’s Incarcerated Workers Orair-conditioning in their cellblocks, so corroded that significant levels of ganizing Committee on a nationwith all units having at least some lead and copper have leeched into al campaign to end prison slavery. areas that are air-conditioned. The the water supply. Eastham, which This retaliation, he says, includes a Eastham Unit in Lovelady, Texas, opened in 1917, is the oldest prison fabricated “inciting to riot” charge, is among the state’s many prisons in the state—and looks like it. As I a “Security Threat Group” label, lacking air-conditioning in the areas drove up to the 100-year-old unit, I transfers to prison units with worse where prisoners spend most of their noticed the chipping paint and other living conditions and being assigned time. signs of weathering that reveal de- a cellmate who was a member of a People incarcerated in the cades of erosion to the prison’s basic Eastham Unit have filed federal infrastructure. continued on page 12

By Candice Bernd, Truthout, Aug. 8, 2017

Volume 8, Issue 7

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The former star of the TV show “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” Duane Chapman, far left, joined the family of Christian Rodgers in Trenton last month to announce a suit challenging the law overhauling New Jersey’s bail system.

NJ Is Frontline In Bail Battle continued from page 7 tice—and its own commercial interests. The Bail Bond Association of New Mexico, for instance, filed suit against the state on July 28, challenging a set of State Supreme Court rules governing bail that were passed just weeks before.

In January, Paul D. Clement, a lawyer who once served as United States solicitor general, testified on the industry’s behalf at a hearing in Maryland against that state’s new rules. Lawyers for the industry have also submitted amicus briefs in recent months in cases in Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans and San Francisco, trying to stop civil rights groups from suing in the federal courts to overhaul bail in those cities.

Concern about the changes has reached such a pitch among the country’s bail bondsmen that the president of the Professional Bail Agents of the United States, an industry trade group, issued what she called “A Declaration of War” in the

group’s August newsletter.

“We have the responsibility to stand against the forces of tumult and division,” wrote the president, Beth Chapman, who is married to the former star of the TV show “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” Duane Chapman. “We must stand united and strong, willing to fight back and wage war against the special interests who would destroy law and order in this country to advance their radical agenda.”

In the middle of the fight, the two suits in New Jersey have attracted attention not only because they are especially aggressive, but also because they may become a bellwether for other states that are trying to fend off attacks on bail reform.

“I think the reason you’re seeing such intensity by the bail industry to undermine reform in New Jersey is that it will have an effect on the national landscape,” said Alexander Shalom, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who is helping state officials defend themselves in one of the cases. “The industry is

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upset about losing business in New Jersey. But the bigger problem is: If there’s successful reform in New Jersey, it can be replicated elsewhere.”

At a news conference in Trenton announcing one of the lawsuits, Mr. Chapman stood in front of the cameras attacking New Jersey’s “dangerous, fake reform” of bail, which, he said, had been in effect for 200 years. Ms. Chapman added that “people are not in jail because they’re poor—they’re in jail because they broke the law.” In pursuing her case against the state, Ms. Rodgers is being represented by Nexus Caridades, a pro bono law firm that is funded by a company called Nexus that offers services to immigrants who need bail.

Jeff Clayton, the executive director of the American Bail Coalition, a national organization of bail underwriters, questioned the premise of the changes by saying that the various laws and rules across the country were damaging public safety—a notion that officials in New Jersey and elsewhere have disputed. Mr. Clayton also said that there were constitutional problems with the overhaul efforts not only under the 14th Amendment, but also under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Eighth Amendment, which guards against “excessive bail.”

But Alec Karakatsanis, a lawyer for Civil Rights Corps, a nonprofit organization that has been involved in several of the bail cases, called the cash-bail system “a catastrophe,” adding, “It’s enormously unjust and enormously costly.”

“And now that’s it being scrutinized by people and the government,” Mr. Karakatsanis said, “I don’t think the industry’s efforts to fight this movement will succeed.”

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

Freed, Chelsea Manning Is Focusing on Herself continued from page 5 books by members of the LGBTQ community.

Inside, the party is just starting.

“I love being around people,” she says. While living as a man, she often went to clubs and parties, even in stodgy Washington, D.C. “People are a lot more open and outgoing in New York,” Manning explains. “In D.C., you really had to, like, know someone.”

Music pounds through the room, which is dim and bathed in blue and fuchsia light. As the space fills, a few brave souls approach Manning, then a few more. Soon the platform is packed with people hoping to take a flash-bleached selfie.

“I just wanted to say hello.

You’re, like, a perfect hero.”

“I’m going to give you this card.

We’d love to throw a party for your return.”

Manning seems startled by the attention. “Thank you!” she By keeps sayA L eib nnie ing. Though ovi tz she’s petite—just a few inches over five feet—she speaks with a clarion directness, as if constantly projecting toward an unseen back row. In prison, she read the fashion press, and while she’s embraced her femininity, she eschews what she calls “fertility style”—“bunnies and hearts and stuff”—for more current, gender-neutral garments.

When Manning was growing up in Crescent, a town of some 1,400 north of Oklahoma City, she struggled to pinpoint a reason she felt so awkward. “I knew that I was different,” she says. “I gravitated more toward playing house, but the teachers were always pushing me toward playing the more competitive games with the boys.”

From twelve to thirteen, Manning grew up quickly. She realized that she was attracted to boys, and considered herself gay. Her father had introduced Manning to computers and programming at a young age, and Manning began to see the Internet—vast, anonymous, and full of answers—as an escape. “I learned that I wasn’t alone. I learned about all these different life possibilities and options,” she explains. She began to find her first natural identity. “Because I would actually be anonymous online, I could be

more myself.”

T h e Web held constant through a series of displacements. Manning lived for a spell with a

friend in Tulsa, then drifted to Chicago. In increasingly dire straits, she was taken in by her aunt Debbie, in suburban Maryland. She worked at Starbucks and Abercrombie & Fitch; she explored the LGBTQ scene of greater D.C.; she enrolled, briefly, in community college. At nineteen, she started seeing a psychologist for the first time.

“That’s the part of my life I replay the most: whether or not, living in Maryland and seeing a therapist, I could have finally been able to say, ‘This is who I am; this is what I want to do.’ It was the first time in my life when I really considered transitioning. But I got scared,” she tells me.

“I really regret the fact that I didn’t know or realize I already had the love I needed, especially from my aunt and sister—just to seek support.”

Rather, she made a defiantly different choice. It was the moment of the so-called surge in Iraq. The news on TV was grim. “I don’t know who I am,” she recalls in the park. “Maybe the military will allow me to figure that out.” She looks out toward the river. “It was a naive thought, but it was very real to me in 2007.”

In October 2009, after training as an intelligence analyst, Manning was shipped to a base outside Baghdad, where she became Specialist Manning: an anguished 22-year-old in a harsh environment, with access to some of the military’s darkest secrets.

Manning publicly came out in a written statement, sent to and read aloud on the Today show, in which she asked to be called by female pronouns and expressed interest in hormone therapy. She had thought of making an announcement earli-

Volume 8, Issue 7

er, she says—she had taken her first outing in women’s dress in February 2010 and had told guards at the detention center where she was first imprisoned that she was a woman— but had been advised that it would complicate the trial. “The opportunity to do it on the Today show popped up, so it happened a little bit sooner and a little faster than I hoped it would,” she told me. Still, she says, she was taken aback by the response.

“I was honestly a bit surprised by the outpouring of love and support that I got,” she says.

Prison bureaucracy was another story. After coming to the ACLU in 2013, lawyer Chase Strangio—a trans man himself—began work on Manning’s civil case, fighting for her to begin receiving hormone therapy. “Our goal was to get her the health care that she needed,” he explained. “Even when there are legal principles that are pretty unambiguously on our side, there’s so much cultural bias we’re confronting in the courts and in other systems.”

Meanwhile, behind bars, Manning sought equilibrium in other ways.

She took out subscriptions to “50 or 60” periodicals, she says—news and global-affairs publications, science magazines, technical journals, and, of course, fashion glossies. She describes it to me as “like having a printed version of the Internet.” And she read books: literary classics, fantasy series, contemporary histories. She liked biographies: Queen Isabella, Joan of Arc. She read Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild, three times. Many of Manning’s favorites seemed to emphasize personal strength or bureaucratic disaffection. She read Catch-22, she says, more than once. “I was institutionalized to such a point where my expectations were limited to, I’m going to eat the next meal. I’m going

blackandpink.org

to go to sleep. I’m going to be here the next day,” Manning says. Before commutation, this outlook had psychological costs; as recently as last October, she tried to kill herself for the second time. Then, in January 2017, the White House phoned the office of one of her lawyers.

In his statement announcing the commutation, President Obama emphasized that it was not a pardon for her crime. “Let’s be clear: Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence,” he said in a press conference. “I feel very comfortable that justice has been served.”

On the day of Manning’s release, things happened quickly. She picked her first outfit for life as a woman: a black-and-white striped blouse, with matching sneakers. She stopped at a roadside pizza joint, got a pepperoni slice, and posted a photo of it to Instagram. (“Freest pizza ever!” she tells me.) She had the lawyers who picked her up drive her to the countryside. “I think I spent, like, five or six hours sitting outside.”

In a Guardian column, written while in prison, Manning had discussed her nervousness about moving through the world as a woman.

Now that she’s no longer worried about being “found out” by the military, she says, the fear is gone. “It feels natural. It feels like it’s how it’s supposed to be, instead of this anxiety, this uncertainty, this ball of self-consciousness that comes with pretending to be male,” she says.

Twice during our conversations, I ask Manning what she regrets from the period when she was living as Bradley. Her leaking of state secrets doesn’t appear on the list, although that decision remains the most publicly controversial of her life, earning her accusations of treason and reckless endangerment. “I’ve accepted responsibility for my own

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decisions and my own actions,” she says.

“I think it’s important to remember that when somebody sees government wrongdoing—whether it’s illegal or immoral or unethical— there isn’t the means available to do something about it,” she says. “Everyone keeps saying, You should have gone through the proper channels! But the proper channels don’t work. We need to have more ways to talk about what’s going on in gov-

“The proper channels don’t work. We need to have more ways to talk about what’s going on in government.”

Chelsea Manning

ernment,” she says. I ask what those ways might look like. “I don’t know what’s right,” she says. “I have certain values. I live by those.”

Manning does not know what her career will be. While living as Bradley Manning, she expressed an interest in running for political office. I ask whether that’s still on her mind.

“I’m certainly not going to say no, and I’m certainly not going to say yes,” she says. “My goal is to use these next six months to figure out where I want to go.

“I have these values that I can connect with: responsibility, compassion,” she goes on. “Those are really foundational for me. Do and say and be who you are because, no matter what happens, you are loved unconditionally.” It’s the lesson, she says, that she wishes she learned earlier. “Unconditional love,” she says. “It is OK to be who I am.”

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

Deadly Heat, Dirty Water in TX Prisons continued from page 8 white supremacist gang.

Now, in addition to his work to expose prison slavery, he is highlighting the environmental injustices of mass incarceration from behind prison walls. When we met during a visit in July, Washington was relieved to have a brief reprieve from his stifling cell in administrative segregation—and simply to have some human contact.

“To fix the problem is a multimillion-dollar project... the state will tell a bold-face[d] lie in order to keep from spending money.”

Keith “Malik” Washington Washington told me TDCJ officials have not been following their own policies to mitigate heat-related illness and heat stroke among prisoners. He said he and other Eastham prisoners have been receiving lukewarm water regularly without ice, and have been denied access to regular cool-down showers and respite areas. Moreover, he says, not every prisoner at Eastham is equipped with a fan in his cell, mentioning a prisoner two cells down who does not have one. “[Eastham is] one of those old ‘red brick’ units, and this unit becomes a death trap in the summer months, especially for prisoners like me who are trapped in Ad-

Seg!” Washington wrote in a letter preceding our visit. During the visit, he described how the brick cell walls retain heat during the day only to release it again during the evening hours, making for miserable, sleepless nights.

Litigation has forced TDCJ to acknowledge at least 23 heat-stroke deaths in its prison units since 1998.

But the deaths are only the first indications of a much larger heat problem. Internal TDCJ emails obtained

by Truthout and Earth Island Journal from 2010 and 2011 reveal a pervasive heat-related illness within TDCJ cellblock areas. Despite the TDCJ’s Health Services Division tracking more than 100 instances of heat-related illness during those years, they have neglected to voluntarily introduce climate controls.

Washington told me he takes medication for chronic seizures, and says the extreme heat in his cell has brought on seizures in the past. He was previously incarcerated at the Wallace Pack unit, where he says he helped expose the arsenic-tainted water there, and was subsequently transferred to another prison unit for his efforts. Judge Ellison ordered TDCJ to truck in safe drinking water for prisoners at the Wallace Pack unit after tests showed the water contained between 2.5 to 4.5 times the level of arsenic, a carcinogen, permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). TDCJ installed a modern filtration system in January.

Washington, who has filed his own lawsuit, said contaminated water is a pervasive problem across TDCJ prisons. He described the water at his previous unit, Coffield, as containing high levels of Coliform

bacteria from fecal matter. Likewise, he says the water at Eastham tastes “nasty.”

“Personally, I try not to drink the water out of the TAP in my cell! The smell varies from a strong, sulfuric smell to a strong chlorine smell— and the taste is horrible, sometimes leaving a gritty residue in your mouth,” he wrote in a letter preceding our visit. He said that supporters sometimes send him small donations to purchase bottled water from the prison commissary.

The Eastham lawsuit’s plaintiff is a jailhouse lawyer named William Wells. Wells contracted helicobacter pylori, a chronic, untreatable disease that eats away at the stomach lining. Wells submitted his medical records as evidence in his complaint, and told Truthout and Earth Island Journal during a phone interview from Eastham that more than a dozen other prisoners there have contracted the disease.

Wells says that while he was once given “pink Pepto-Bismol pills” and antibiotics for the condition, he hasn’t received any follow-up treatment. “I told them, my stomach still feels bloated, and all this stuff,” he said.

According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the unit utilizes groundwater from two wells as its source of drinking water, and is currently in compliance with the federal Lead and Copper Rule.

The unit, however, has incurred previous violations for not collecting lead and copper tap samples to send out for testing under the rule during the 2013 and 2014 monitoring periods. Additionally, TCEQ has posted at least six public “boil

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water” notices at the unit in the last five years due to valve replacements, repair and line leaks. Wells’ complaint, however, notes that the prisoners are not permitted to boil the water.

“The commissary sells us ‘hot pots’ which heat water but [doesn’t] boil it. If we alter our hot pots in order to make them boil, they get confiscated and we are given a disciplinary case for contraband,” Washington wrote in an essay about the matter on his blog.

“To fix the problem is a multimillion-dollar project and, as we saw at the Wallace Pack unit in Navasota, Texas, the state will tell a bold-face[d] lie in order to keep from spending money,” Washington wrote in a letter. “The [TCEQ] is a state agency and it is not in their interest to expose toxic water in Texas prisons! And now that the EPA has been defunded, there is absolutely no oversight or protection for anyone, including prisoners. Even when the EPA was fully funded the agency still ignored contaminated water and poisoned soil especially when the victims were poor people.

Environmental racism is rampant throughout the United States.”

An analysis of two TCEQ datasets of violations of the agency’s

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environmental regulations at TDCJ prison units from January 2003 to March 2017—conducted by the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting—shows that the Eastham Unit incurred more notices of violation than any other state prison. According to the dataset, Eastham has incurred 235 notices of violation within that timeframe.

The violations ranged from several counts of “failure to prevent unauthorized discharge of wastewater”; “failure to ensure systems of collection, treatment and disposal are properly operated and maintained”; “failure to initiate planning for upgrading to the wastewater treatment plant”; and scores and scores of record-keeping, monitoring and reporting violations, including violations recorded in TCEQ’s Safe Drinking Water Information System related to the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule.

Meanwhile, Washington wrote, “the people who run these prisons sit in air-conditioned offices and sip bottled water!! They don’t give a damn

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about the prisoners languishing in these brick ovens!”

Prison Recipe: Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge

By Ty Hinson Black & Pink Office Manager, Aug. 17, 2017 This is one of my favorites. I hope it turns out as good for you as it does for me.

It’s for a dessert I call fudge. It’s peanut butter, chocolate, and ChickO-Stick (Butterfinger). I make it in two layers. It’s a melt-in-your-

mouth treat that will put a smile on your face :) 2 oz. granulated sugar 8 oz. creamer 8-10 oz. peanut butter 5 oz. mini-marshmallows 6 Chick-O-Sticks approx. 8 oz. hot cocoa mix 4 butter pats water

Add 9 oz. of sugar, 8 oz. creamer, 2 butter pats and about 2 1/2 oz. of water to a bowl. Mix thoroughly so that the ingredients resemble a paste. Microwave in 1 minute (or less) increments, stirring thoroughly in-between. (At a certain point, the mixture will expand to the top of the bowl after just 15-30 sec-

continued on page 14

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

Prison Recipe: PB Chocolate Fudge continued from page 13 onds, depending on the size of the bowl, so be vigilant.)

Continue until the mixture reaches the “soft ball” stage (Touch the lid or other surface with your spoon after stirring. Slowly try to form a tiny peak that stands firmly on it’s own). Once you have reached this stage of the cooking, add the peanut butter, marshmallows, and most of the Chick-O-Sticks (save enough to sprinkle over the top of the finished product).

Mix thoroughly, incorporating

everything. At this point, the product should be forming into a thick conglomerate that is pulling all of the ingredients into itself. Place this in a pan approx. 5” x 10”, and flatten out.

Next, combine the hot cocoa, the remainder of the sugar, 2 more butter pats, and approx. 1 1/5-to-2 oz. water in the bowl. Mix together thoroughly until it resembles a paste. Microwave in increments of 1 minute or less until it reaches the “soft ball” stage again. (Again, the amount of time you will be able to M/W the ingredients will diminish

to about 15 - 30 seconds.) Pour over the top of the first layer, level off, and sprinkle the remainder of the Chick-O-Sticks over the top of the whole thing.

Let sit until nearly set, cut into the size pieces you prefer, and then leave to set completely, and Enjoy!

I hope you all enjoy this as much as my buddies and I do, and I hope I get a few good ideas from the rest of you that will have us just as happy.

Take care, and keep focused on the things that matter. BE the love in the world :)

Got your own recipe to share? Send it our way! see mailing instructions on page 30

Black & Pink Fam: Letters from the Heart Dear Black & Pink, What’s up fam? This Ya Boi Jit (Born female but live, look and act and identify myself as male).

As I sit in my cell there’s something I want to get off my chest.

Pressure bust pipes. There was a time in my life where it seemed like overnight I lost everything from friends, to family, to peace. Even my appetite. I’m far from a saint but I’m also far from the worst sinner. I’ve done things I regret, I’m actually hard to love but I also have a heart of gold. When I lost everything I asked God “why”... why am I so lost within myself, why am I so misunderstood?” It took me to hear someone else cry out to God and

ask “why” (shoutouts to T-baby!!)

To answer my own questions.

God allows things to happen in our life for a reason- because he wants us to realize it’s for a purpose. God placed me in a position where my loyalty was tested, my love was on trial and my back was against the wall, plus he left alone to soak in my own mistakes. That’s ONLY because God wanted to show me something but he knew I wouldn’t see it unless he removed certain people from around me and filled them gaps with obstacles I had to face alone.

When the ones I loved spoke hurtful words to me, it bothered me but those were obstacles I had to face. I was at my lowest point but

God was making high plans for me!

I’m NOT a Christian but I know that God will sometimes place you in the lion’s pen, to keep you out the devil’s grip. But even in the lion’s pen, we’ll be scared but safe, alone but unharmed, stressed but blessed, mad but favored, feel me? It was by being alone on 6-8-16 I called to God. By hurting I learned to let my burdens go, by letting go I learned to forgive, by forgiving I learned to believe, my belief turned me to pray, by praying I learned patience (I’m still working on it, LOL).

I’m not a bad person I’m just one of those people that make wrong choices and don’t realize the total damage done until the problem is at hand. I’m not a bad person, I’m

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just one of those people who fail to realize their own strength. I’m not a bad person I just care what others think of me… but I’m not a bad person. We’ve all made mistakes, we’ve all made impulsive choices, we’ve all hurt someone we love, we’ve all got weak and fell short, I’m not a bad person! Does my misWhat’s good y’all.

I never would of thought I’d be writing, yet here I am. Still our friends/family with Black & Pink has struck up my courage. I’m writing for 3 reasons: 1—to express myself; 2—to shed light/info; 3—to hopefully encourage more to do the same.

I just turned 27. I consider myself a verse top. However to live and be me is hard especially in jail. See jail in New York is crazy. And if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself ostracized and abused internally for being you. Thankfully I haven’t met many of us that’s in jail. Then again the others may be “in the closet” as I am. See I’m Muslim, so I have major issues. :( I’m young and handsome. :) So I don’t look the part of I who is a “mook” (gay). Still some know me. The way the system works in New York deals with numbers. And as a whole, we are outnumbered and we don’t stick together. So we’re easily picked off/picked on.

This goes for C.O.s and inmates behind these walls. We’re constantly judged by others. Does it make me less of a man or a human because I like transwomen. No! But let them tell it. We’re an abomination. Don’t deserve to coexist with others. We should die or just be amongst ourselves. They’re wrong. They’re wrong. We’re normal because we’re human beings.

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takes make me any different from you?

To the ones that judged me (thank you)—to the ones that downed me (thank ya), you all you bastards that gave up on me… It’s through being stoned I realized I wasn’t built to break (Shadez). Despite it all, I’ll always love you! Only FATE Bae

4-29 It’s all in my veins (smurf) If you don’t get no bigger—ya still my lil Hitta.. Twin!!!!! Dontcha miss getn confused? (Q-) can’t nobody stick and vibe like ya, LOL (TJ) Fatboy statues all day (Monga-) I miss ya Ice cool aid.

I know it’s hard for me in here and honestly after reading a few spills of others that write, I feel none go through nor experience what we/I do in New York. It’s hard to be yourself.

I had to find my own lane and remain Muslim because with time and no outside support, being who you are can drive you insane and make you suicidal. Still if you have the will, you’ll find the way. Just be careful.

I don’t remember what issue it was or who mentioned it, but the info about not being penalized for any consensual sexual activity was/ is needed to be known because we’re constantly being punished by either going to the box or being kept locked (22 1/2 lock downs.) for being caught in the act. I did. I wish I knew this ahead of time. I would have fought and won the disciplinary ticket. Things like that need to be known.

C’mon we’re in an all male prison away from the world and restricted of our free will/freedom. You have butch queens, femmes, trans, gay, bi men, and females together. What do you think will happen. We like what we like and are forced to be together. It’s bound to happen. Yet even though LGBT is legally accepted/ approved in the laws, NYSDOCCS is in the 80s where being LGBT is wrong and to associate with such is wrong. No, they’re wrong. I just want all my brothers and sisters to stand strong and together, protect

ourselves and one another internally and externally.

I just wanted to write because I only seen one person write from New York DOCCS. I hope more write.

Share Black & Pink News with our brothers and sisters. They need this.

Leave it exposed in libraries. Leave it visible on your tier/company. People (we) will openly and secretively reach out. But only if it’s out there.

I’m always looking for support of others like me, reading and knowing there’s others like me. Yet we hard to be found. So hopefully we open up because we’re all we got.

Jit (FL)

“Share Black & Pink News with our brothers and sisters. They need this. ...

People (we) will openly and secretively reach out. But only if it’s out there.”

I love you all at Black & Pink because y’all are truly my friends and only family. And to our friends and family out there, reach out to us, find us, don’t forget about us because we’re alone in here and everybody needs somebody. Anybody as long as they have a soul. I’ve said enough.

Hope to write again. Hope y’all still awake.

I love y’all. Loyalty and love, Si (NY)

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Black & Pink News

Our Black & Pink Family: Letters, Poetry Dear Black & Pink Family, My name is Terra Okey. I’m a transwoman currently incarcerated in CDCR, long time reader, first time writer. I felt like the time was right. First, let me say, I love my LGBT family and, like all families, we fight and bicker, but we love each other all the same. The reason I find myself writing now, is to address an issue I rarely see addressed in all the letters to Black & Pink: self-realization/change/rehabilitation.

The letters I have read are filled with the abuses heaped upon us by staff and inmates alike, and I feel for each and every one of us who has suffered these abuses. Prison sucks, especially for trans people.

Life is not fair. Honestly ask yourself, “What is my part in all of this?”

What are you doing to better yourself, so you no longer have to suffer these abuses.

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”

Steve Biko

I used to be one of those girls who blamed all the bad stuff that was happening on “it’s because I’m trans”. I realized something after years and years of suffering. It wasn’t because I was trans (all the time); turns out, I was a bitch :). I was my own worst enemy. I was trans and I shoved that in everyone’s face, and used it as a shield and a sword.

How many of us are just doing time? Kicking’ it with our hus-

bands? Getting high or drunk? How many of us girls are experts at manipulating and maneuvering around the system? We can get or get out of a transfer, follow our men, get cell moves, yard moves, we fight to

get our bras, panties, and eye liner.

But how many of us use our powers of manipulating and maneuvering to get ready for release, those of us lucky enough to have a release date? I’m talking about education,

Sista Power Let the demons out, and be yourself, in this crazy world

lanes, that will spread happiness to my sister’s brains

Just believe what you’re about, and let your rose petals sprout, as a baby girl

I’m tired, see, of society, trying to teach me to be a certain way

Don’t let their hateful minds not let your rainbow shine They don’t understand, our struggle man They’re from another land, where there’s no loving hands They want me to live insane, in this prison cage, while they inflict their pain I got a different game, plan for these twisted

I’m tired of hiding discreet, in privacy, I’m out the closet, I pull the curtains away I want you to be in your own zone, cause you’re beautiful and pretty Because after your hormones, let your booty show with titties I’m not a guy, not a guy, just fly away with me I’m a butterfly, butterfly, I’ll fly away in peace.

-RiRi, aka Kodiak (AZ)

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something I never thought about in my first ten years of incarceration. I was much more concerned with being cute and having a man.

No longer. Four years ago, I realized I needed an education to stay out. Otherwise, I will leave here the same dumbass I came in. I enrolled in college and I’m one semester way from obtaining my AA degree. I just graduated from the only cosmetology vocational training class in a men’s prison (only trans to do so).

“How?”, you may ask. By first realizing I need to change my priorities and decide what is really important (the yard crap not so much).

I no longer recognize or engage the haters, staff or inmates. “They” call me faggot—so what? “They” take my property—so shat? I can’t wear eyeliner or live with my man—so what? I matter too much to let them stop me from being all that I can be. I manipulated, maneuvered, and appealed (602’d); when that didn’t work I begged, cried, pleaded and groveled. One time I went so far as to cut my hair off. All to get my education. I knew I have to leave here

Black & Pink, I am Michael A. H. I’ve been a member for a while who’s been slacking to write. I’m sorry my brothers and sisters. I’ve been in IDOC for almost 3-4 years. I’ve been looking for someone to write to that understands the pain and the hard cruel things that’s going on on the inside. I’ve been bi-sexual all my life but I would’ve never thought that trying to sweep (LGBTQ) problems under the carpet was an exception to the law but I’ve been fighting for (LGBTQ) problems ever since I got in. I been

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smarter than when I came in. No one will save you but you!

My dear incarcerated LGBT community members, get your education. Get vocational training. Let no one, including your self-doubt, stop you. Changing one’s self is scary, but you’re beautiful, smart, and can do anything you set your mind to. I have finally realized I’m worth more than spending my time engaging in prison yard bullshit.

You girls know what I mean. No one will hand it to you. It’s a long, hard journey, but it’s worth it in the end.

When people hate you, tell you you’re not smart enough, or try to keep you in a box that makes them comfortable, remember mermaids don’t lose sleep over the opinions of shrimp.

Get your education.

Lots of love, Terra (CA) P.S..—”The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed” (Steve Biko)

fighting the legal system involving PREA an others while Internal Affairs don’t like lawsuits but I will make every issue that affects the community a federal issue taken care of. I just want to know that my brothers and sisters are not alone in their struggle. I read the newsletter and feel the pain and situation they face. I’ve got a lawsuit against Centralia Correctional Center in IDOC and maybe Big Muddy River. But I’ve had zero tolerance for cruel treatment towards people like us.

Love you all, I need a penpal too, M.A.H. (IL)

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Love, in all its glory, for man and woman alike. Both familial and romantic, requited or not, my love is free for those who give love in return.

Giving of one’s heart, mind and soul to those they love. Sharing of beauty, of light, of pain and of anguish, knowing that you are not alone.

Believing in those you love, and those pleading to be. In the love being given to you, and in the love you give and bestow unto others.

Trust in being who you are, and who you will come to be despite homophobic rhetoric others blindly follow.

In those who believe in you, in giving of themselves, sharing their love to help you heal.

These are the true meanings behind these four simple letters, not labels, but actions. Only those with open hearts know of this, the rest we’ll have to teach!

-Joais (AR)

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

Letters from Our Black & Pink Family Dear Black & Pink, What’s crackin my lovable family? Chillin here. It’s about two in the morning on the 5th of December and I’ve been reading past newsletters and decided to write again. I wrote quite a few letters within the past year but none have been published. I am hoping this one gets published. :) So, I have some news! Multiple news, actually.

Before I get into that, I want to give a few shout-outs. One goes out to Baby J, from Texas, who was in the September 2016 issue. I wrote a letter and penned a greeting to you. Hello again =) I said that I am so happy that you finally accepted who you were and that you laid down your pitchforks! I know how it feels to lose what you considered your family for such a long time. I never had to lay down my colors because I’m not part of a nation with demands like that. I have my own crew. Anyways, I also said that if your family can’t or won’t support you for who you are, then they aren’t your family; family sticks together, no matter what! You are always welcome to my family! Mi familia y su familia =) My second shout-out: Lexi, from MA, who was in the May 2016 issue.

I’m not sure if you’re the same Lexi I met over at WCHOC in Maxi-B lower left in 2012, but if you are, I wish to apologize to you. You see, I always treated you poorly because I felt intimidated by you. You were so open with being yourself, you didn’t care what others said about you and you were liked by some great guys, like C.J. (R.I.P.). I envied you because I always wanted to just be myself, and to my friends I was, but to

everyone else, I was pretending to be a tough-guy when sometimes, I was scared inside. Although all that has changed, I still wish to apologize to you and hope you are well. I’m now being held at BCHC in Western MA. You won’t be seeing me in WCHOC anymore. (Peter P. went upstate for five years in 2015, May) My last shout-out is to Jessica, from MA, who was in the July/August 2016 issue. I’m sorry about the struggle you are going through. I have some information for you that I will give at the end of my letter. It might help you :) Also, I am going to be going upstate to a prison term of 25-30 years, maybe less, sometime between the end of March and in April of 2017. I hope I’m in the same prison as you, that way I can help you with the fight you’re going through. I’m a cis gay 24 (turning 25 in 15 days) male bottom, so I don’t have the exact same struggle as you, but I will help in any way I can.

Reach out to me through B&P newsletters and let me know what I can do, okay girl? We are family after all and we must stand together =) Okay, so here is my news. I have both good and bad news to share.

Good news: I had my bench trial for an A&B out of WCHOC (Worcester County House of Correction) on December 1st, 2016. The alleged victim said that he wasn’t going to cooperate with the commonwealth.

Not only that, but the C.O. who allegedly witnessed the A&B didn’t show up for court. Without the victim’s testimony as well as the C.O.’s testimony, there was insufficient evidence to convict me. So, my lawyer had asked for the case to be dropped and guess what guys? CASE WAS DROPPED! Got found not-guilty.

I’m so relieved, because if I got found guilty, it wouldn’t look good for me for when I get sentenced for my Superior Case.

More good news: I had two conversations with my biological sister a few weeks ago after not talking to her for over four years. They were alright. She finally realized that I was manipulated into doing my crime by my Co-Dee and understands that I never wanted to commit my crime. So she talked to me and is trying to help me out with my case. I also learned that she got her Associate’s Degree in Forensic Science and Psychology and is now going for her Bachelors in Forensic Science. Great Job sis! She’s a butch lesbian—both of my Mom’s children are gay, lol.

Here’s the bad news. I should’ve been sentenced on October 20th of 2016, but instead, I have to wait until Mid-March/April of 2017. The reason being is my Co-Defendant decided to go to trial at the last second instead of taking the proffered 25-30 years. He told me he had a slim chance of hope to beat our case, but he’s wrong in so many ways.

Both witnesses and evidence stacked against us is so high, that there’s 100% chance he’ll lose. What sucks the most is that the D.A.’s going to ask me to to testify and I don’t know what to do. He told me that he wasn’t going to survive more than a week upstate and I think it’s because he’s lied to everyone he met saying I told on him, when in reality, I never opened my mouth about him. I told the police what I did and never mentioned anyone else. And, he’s the one who said I did just about everything (I did few things, in which I admitted to). So, I don’t know what to do.

If I agree to testify, I’ll be the snitch

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and I can’t have that pinned on me.

If I don’t agree, he’ll continue to blame me and he might get released or a hell of a lesser sentence. I don’t know what to do! Both my Mom (who is really sick and who might not make another 20 years until I come home) and my sister want me to testify, but they don’t know what it will do to me. ... Does anyone have any advice? I could really use some.

Now, I have something else to share. A couple of things actually.

First, I’m kinda petrified to go upstate. Because I’m always open with who I am and what I like. I don’t want to find someone to be with because once they leave, or I leave, I’ll never hear from them again. I don’t just want to be with someone in jail, I want to be with someone for the rest of my life. I also don’t want to go up there and be a slut, sleeping with anyone who will have me. Should I just be celibate until I’m released?

Should I try for a relationship? Can anyone give me some advice?

Second, I don’t know if there are any support groups or many Gay/Bi/ Trans in MA prisons, and if there are, I don’t know how to go about looking for them. Does anyone know how to present oneself? Or how I can look for them once I go upstate?

Dear Black & Pink, I just got a hold of your December 2016 issue and I loved it. I was unaware that there was something like this newsletter for us in prison.

I’ve been to three different prisons in ten years and I just got this. To have a place where we can reach out to one another, share our stories, and the injustices of the “justice” system is invaluable.

Most of us have had to hide who

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Last, I almost go moved to segregation. I was in my friend’s cell one day and I went to retrieve some crackers and chili beans that fell under his bed, when all of a sudden, the C.O. came to the door, while doing his rounds, and asked me what I was doing. I had the food in my hand and when I told him why I was getting up from off the floor he said that I was a good friend.

The next thing I know, he gets pulled out of his cell right before shift change. He told me the Unit Manager (Captain) and an ADS (Assistant Director of Security) asked him what was going on between us. Apparently they thought I was performing sexual acts with him or we got into a fight and I was knocked down onto the floor. But I had food in my hand because my friend couldn’t retrieve it because he was sick. Like, wtf? The C.O. who made the allegations is a rookie, who doesn’t know who we are and is assuming the worst. Once my friend told the C.O.’s what happened, the rookie looked like a fool. Then, two days ago (Saturday, 3rd) he almost locked me in because I was talking back to him because we were watching a TV series called “The 100” on Netflix and the C.O. who was con-

trolling it changed it on us. Instead of the Pod Officer calling the C.O. who changed it and telling him the guys in my pod were watching it, he acted like a straight up dick and did nothing. I flipped out on him. Later, someone else requested something and he called and had the C.O. play it! Like WTF? I told him I lost all respect for him. So that’s two things he did to really piss me off -.Alright, enough of me ranting and raving. I’m going to close this for now. It’s past 3:30 in the morning and I have hand-ball and a “date” in the morning. Love You All and know that I love each and every one of you and am thinking about you all.

or what we are growing up and/or in prison. I am relatively new to “the life,” having only been able to accept myself for who and what I am openly and actively 2.5 years ago.

I fought myself since I was 14. I’m now 29, openly gay and happy.

Had there been a support system this strong available when I first noticed my feelings, I may have been a whole other person than the one I am today. To be able to accept yourself when you live in a place that makes

you feel like you have to hide constantly is a major victory for someone when they’re young. Black & Pink gives confidence to those of us who haven’t had any because of the way we were raised. I’m so glad that Black & Pink is here offering support and encouragement, letting people like me know we’re not alone.

In Love and Solidarity, JJ (MA) XOXOXO P.S.—For those in prison in MA, please try to reach out to me so that I can find you once I get to prison, so I know someone! And this is for Jessica, MA, the information I promised you!

Mass. LGBTQ Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, North Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108-3707

Thank you Black & Pink, David (OH)

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Black & Pink Family, I recently received your Newsletter for the first time.

It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this place. I’m a gay male of color who has just recently started feeling comfortable with who I am as a person. With the “jacket” that comes with being gay in prison it is difficult as all of you know to have true friendships. So I hid who I was fora long time. However, I am who I am and I’m happy with that now.

“I met the love of my life at my last unit.

I had no idea it was possible for me to find happiness in a place like this, but I did.”

I met the love of my life at my last unit. I had no idea it was possible for me to find happiness in a place like this but I did. I say all of that to say this, keep your heads up my LGBT family. There is happiness out there for all of us. I was a cutter, I was bullied and I hated myself. But I love myself now and there are people who love me too.

I love you. Never forget that.

You are special and wonderfully made.

Love, Chris (TX) P.S.—Pain is inevitable, misery is optional

Black & Pink News

September 2017

More Letters from the Heart My Black & Pink Family, I come to you all in love and with love, I will share the following thought’s with you, and I know all may not agree with my view or my word’s, I only that all of you not forget them and keep an open mind to them!!!

I will start with a saying that I found a while back that holds true to me and if you think about it, it may do the same for you!! It goes: “What is an education but a conditioning of the mind to a society and a way of life?? There are many kinds of education, and often education closes as many doors as it opens; For to believe implies disbelief. One accepts one form of belief but closes the mind to all that is or seems to be contradictory.”

Take a moment and think about these words, and think of all the infinite possibilities we deny ourself if those words hold true, think of the insight and truth they have if they are correct!!! I sit here today a gay, black male, who has truly discovered love and it’s meaning, when I first fell in love with a gay, Queen!!

I have yet to remember a love more potent shared with a female, and desire no other!!!

I have come to discover and realize many more thing’s since this wonderful discovery and I will share them with you now!!!

At this day and age, you’d think we could live truly open and free about who we are and love, and aspire to be, yet in reality little has changed from 1927 to 2017, except technology!! Technology has helped us to expose a lot of the atrocities that evil intent tries to hide!!! People talk of Dr. Martin Luther King, and

all that he did, yet in truth and reality, Dr. King did little, for by himself he’d have been simply another black man lost to the brutalities of hatred and racism, but because of unity and belief in a cause, black people were able to expose the hidden and covered up hatred and racism that still permeates this country today, and I say still because those things still exist!!! They never went away, they were never abolished; our mind’s were conditioned to perceive and believe that thing’s had changed, when in reality they weren’t.

The only thing changed was how thing’s were being conducted!!!

Their bigotry was exposed and they had to come up with another way to do thing’s, slavery wasn’t abolished, how it was performed was, who was put into slavery was, but not slavery, itself!!! Dr. King, along with a lot of people that believed in his ideals, exposed what was going on, and forced the Federal government to take action!! I say forced the fed’s because that’s what it was, for the federal government was well aware of what was truly happening, but as long as it was kept quiet and they got their piece of the pie, they were willing to overlook what was going on!! Simply because of exposure through technology, and the television, was the true depth and nature of slavery and its brutality was exposed!!! I’m telling you all about this because it’s what’s got to be done if we want to have any real true hope of change for ourselves, we are going to have to suffer some, and expose those that hate and despise us, to inspire and force change for us!!!

Simply seeking acceptance is not going to happen, if you’re hoping

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that it will you’re deluded!!! Love is the most powerful thing on the earth, but close right behind it is hate!!! There are millions of people who are willing and ready to accept us as we are but there are millions more who hate us and wish to crush us and our ideals about who we are and how we wish to live!!! And because of the fear of those that hate us, those that are willing to accept us are hesitant in voicing their feelings, therefore we must expose those that are against us and force the government’s hand to institute policies that will protect us and our beliefs, and our lives, for real!!!

Do you honestly believe that all of these uncalled for murder’s of black people just started??? They have been going on, even way before Rodney King, it was simply that, technology has finally caught up with the times!!! Video recorders and camera phone’s have made it more accessible to expose the true reality about what’s been going on behind steel doors and down dark, lonely roads!!

Dear Black & Pink, I have been reading some old newsletters that a fellow inmate had (who I didn’t know was in the closet, or even part of the LGBTQ community), and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them! It makes me feel like I am not alone—even though I know there are people in my cell house who know I am gay. I still feel alone.

I have one friend left on the outside who condemns me for being gay and blames my bad luck and imprisonment on it. I know a lot of people would say that they are not a friend, but I have known this person for 12 years now, and she is the

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But have you noticed that even though so much is now being exposed that we have some whose hatred is so prevalent that they care little about the risk of exposure???

That is why I say we may have to suffer some to truly stomp out the hatred and ignorance of those that oppose us!!!

If you truly believe in the lifestyle that I do, being Gay and proud of it; then live like you do, there will be those who will hate and oppose us, and we must expose them, because when we do, it makes life much better for those that come behind us, because we will force those that can to affect a change, yet remember also that we have to stay diligent in our belief’s, hope and dreams, cause they’ll simply try to change the game at first to make it seem like all is okay, we have to make them change the rule’s also, for to change only the game means they’ll find another way to play but to change the rule’s, the law’s, will truly dictate how it’s conducted and governed!!! Unity will bring about

ONLY one who still writes and cares about my wellbeing.

I have tried being bi and straight, but not only did it cost me my freedom, but my children, who I miss very much and haven’t seen since 2011. I was found guilty of a crime that I didn’t do. My ex used my sexual choice against me when I tried to get custody or at least to get visits from my children.

I guess it boils down to a county that doesn’t want its LGBTQs, and how and who you know. Which now leaves me only one friend to write to. But when I read the newsletters, especially the letters and poems, it makes me feel a connection to my

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change, exposure will bring about change; a lone voice amidst a crowd of noise makes no sound!!! Dare to be heard!!! Dare to be known!!!

Dare to be equal!!!!!

“If you truly believe in the lifestyle that I do, being Gay and proud of it; then live like you do... Dare to be heard!!! Dare to be known!!!

Dare to be equal!!!!!”

I know that my Queen also is out there and that my word’s and truth do echo within your heart soon I shall be free and we can live so!!!

When you take away the disbelief and see all the possibilities, you can really understand me and my dream!!!

Remember; “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing!!!!”

With Love, Hope, and Solidarity, Eugene B. (FL), A Gay King!!!!

LGBTQ community and the world.

I own no TV, just the day room is what I watch.

It is beyond me how someone can walk into a nightclub or anywhere and kill others because they hate them. A lot of people don’t remember, but it happened to one family 21 years ago. His mother still fights for us as well as the family, and that one man was Matthew Wayne Shepard, may he rest in heaven and God be with his family ‘til he calls them home and all the families of Orlando, FL. Love, B.B. (IN)

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September 2017

Black & Pink News

Buried at First It’s not so uncommon, a day like many others.

I was buried at first, betrayed by brothers.

It’s a reality of life, the sometimes ugly motives of another.

But life is made beautiful so much more outweighed by its Lovers And mine, OMG—an immeasurable gift from above Hi Everyone, In December 2015 I became the first transwoman to represent the transwoman on the Inmate Advisory Council where I am now housed at. I wasn’t sure what I am in for or what changes I could make.

For the most part it hasn’t been too bad. I said for the most part!

Trying to figure out who to go to for help when the girls have issues has been difficult. Especially being in a male prison. I haven’t put much faith in the advice given. So I knew I had resources from the outside.

Black & Pink, T.G.I.J.P., Prison Health News, and Hearts On A Wire have been very helpful to me for information.

So I just figured that I would listen to the girls and find what they needed. Whether it was for re-

Your presence transforms me, expands my capacity to love.

Buried at first now all but forgotten.

Instead my feet won’t touch the ground.

The beat of your heart, such a sweet pronounced sound.

Your voice, like music, carried further knowing you’ll always be around.

entry services, benefits, ID’s, info on S.R.S. or anything I could help with inside.

Some girls just needed someone to talk to. I found that I could do a lot just by showing them that somebody would listen. I was instrumental with helping the girls get mammograms, putting together paperwork for grievances for S.R.S. and female items as well as getting them to advocate for equal treatment.

I had the opportunity to meet with CA Assembly Woman Patty Lopez for about 20 minutes. We talked about many things including housing and programs and safety of the girls which now has led me to ask to be moved to a women’s facility. I am going thru the 602 process.

There are no programs for females in men’s prisons. Hopefully

Every gaze upon you and each touch is divine.

Alongside your actions of caring and to know you are mine My time with you is precious to me You’re irreplaceable in fact—this is my time to feel free.

-Michael S. (AZ)

this will change. Soon the team from T.G.I.J.P. will be coming here to meet with myself and some of the girls. We are excited about this.

With the year coming to an end I can only hope that 2017 will come with needed changes for transwomen. Especially proper pronouns and to have access to gender affirming items. But just the right to be treated equally and not harassed for being who we say we are would be big steps.

This can only happen if you believe in the power of perception.

So I challenge everyone to be better not bitter and I rise above the negative, hateful people that try to bring you down. Continue to be who you say you are. Nobody can take that from you. Every.

LOVE, LISA (CA)

Volume 8, Issue 7

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Poetry, Letters from Our B&P Family Dear Black & Pink, North, East, West, South...A total misdirection is what I call the news in the United States of Amerikkka.

A tool to rewrite His-Story in real time, while rocking the people to sleep in the process. With the election over, people in this country and around the world are still wondering what happened. Not only how did Trump get into the White House, but how did the N.E.W.S. get it so wrong?

Before the vote, hundreds of thousands of people existed inside a certain version of Amerikkka. In that Amerikkka, several things were clear: Trump was a racist and a sexist who was half goon and half idiot; he had no legitimate chance at the presidency. And the Republican Party was compromised of mostly closet white supremacists destined to be beaten into guilty submission by the unstoppable force of Obama’s Amerikkka.

But that wasn’t the real Amerikkka. That wasn’t the Amerikkka that built its wealth on stolen land and slave labor. That wasn’t the Amerikkka with the largest prison population in the world.

It was a fabricated version of this fascist country. And the fabrication was so pervasive, the narrative so carefully orchestrated, that it deceived even those who helped weave it. The Amerikkkan media with all its polling and “in depth coverage” swallowed its own hallucinogens and seemingly forgot its own roots...

How could the polls, arguably one of the most scientific and objective part of this country’s mainstream N.E.W.S., have gotten it so

wrong? It’s virtually impossible to figure it out. But part of the reason was due to the strong arm tactics used by powers that supported the Clinton ticket who trumpeted the rhetoric that Trump supporters were imbeciles at best and racists at worst. At one point in the campaign even Clinton stated: “You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call a basket of deplorables, right?

Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”

This kind of propaganda was echoed over and over by mainstream media and left wing opinion makers. But the Trump supporters didn’t agree with this account of themselves. Therefore, so they wouldn’t be considered racist, sexist or Islamophobic they often kept their pending vote to themselves.

After the election upset, The New York Times tried deflecting the mainstream media’s tremendous blunder by saying a solution to the “problem” would be to censor non-mainstream news sources, and online platforms that print their stories. That’s when they mainstreamed the coined term “fake news.” The New York Times’ article said: “Most of the fake news stories are produced by scammers looking to make a quick buck,” it said. “The vast majority of them take far-right positions. But a big part of the responsibility for this source rests with internet companies like Facebook and Google, which have made it possible for fake news to be shared nearly instantly with millions of users and have been slow to block it from their sites.” (Nov. 19, 2016).

The sad truth of the matter at hand is that sources like Facebook are the closest thing to real news that this imperialistic country has.

The internet trolls who post racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic rants are actually the true representatives of this fascist wilderness we call N. Amerikkka. Everything is else is meant to rock the 85% of the population to sleep.

Now, on the other hand readers of Black & Pink News can easily recognize this publication as different from other N.E.W.S. media. B&P isn’t funded by corporations or special interest groups. And it is available for free for inmates across this country.

“Living in this [fascist] wilderness means you must be on-point at all times when it comes to the information you allow into your mind. Instead of reading, watching, or listening to anything they throw at you—be adamant about filtering [what] the mainstream media calls N.E.W.S.” This means they are allowed to publish the real truth. Not his-story. Living in this wilderness means you must be on-point at all times when it comes to the information you allow into your mind. Instead of reading, watching, or listening to just anything they throw at you—be adamant about filtering the misdirection the mainstream media calls N.E.W.S. because as we all know by now, it’s misdirection.

Peace, Guru (CA)

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

More Letters from Our Black & Pink Fam Dear Black & Pink Family,

ualized assessment and treatment for a serious medical issue. But if you look at Arnold v. Wilson, which involves a transgender woman whose diagnosis and treatment began while incarcerated, the courts noted that hormone therapy may be initiated during incarceration upon diagnosis with GID.

Dear Black & Pink,

I first came to prison and met this super cute Italian from South Philadelphia.

He was a rough neck that was wired, explosive, unpredictable, and calm all at the same time. Sort of like a hurricane with a peaceful center. We were complete opposites, learning from each other over time.

I learned about his relationships with both sexes and I told him about my encounters. I was the closeted bi and he could care less about who

frame policy and their denial of my right to freely practice my religion.

The pen is a dangerous weapon I’m writing to send my love, rewhen you have knowledge and the spect, kisses, and hugs to you. know-how to use it, so it’s very wise My name is Rosalyn. I am a transfor my LGBTQI brothers and sisgender woman (MTF). I’m 32 years ters to educate themselves and arm old. I’ve been in prison 12 years and themselves with a pen and pad. It’s I’ve got another 12 years to do in just like having a MAK-90--it blows prison. through anything.

As a female (a trans Brothers and sisters, do female, at that), I’ve had not fear losing your famia hard time in prison, es- “Do not fear losing your family ly and friends because of pecially because I’m a and friends because of who you who you are, because if Muslim. I’ve been denied the right to freely practice are, because if they truly love you, they truly love you, they will support you, but if my religion. I’m denied a they will support you, but if they they don’t love you, they prayer rug to offer my daidon’t love you, ... guess what!

You will leave you. And guess ly prayers, I’ve been dewhat! You still have your nied a hijab (shawl) to cov- still have your LGBTQI family.”

LGBTQI family who will er my hair during prayer, love, respect, support, and and when leaving my cell I’m a strong, African-American accept you for who you are. Don’t I was out right denied the right to be seen by a transgender specialist queen and there are two things I will hide out of fear of losing family and/ based solely on the fact that I was not tolerate: 1) I will not tolerate any or friends, nor act out of fear of what not seen by a transgender special- disrespect from anyone, especially a people think, because in the end, it ist and treated for gender dysphoria man; 2) I will not tolerate, nor ac- will only destroy you psychologicalcept, the word “no” when my rights ly. Love yourself for who you truly while on the streets.

That clearly makes this a freeze- are being violated. I’m filing a 1983 are: a queen or king. frame policy, especially since it lawsuit against the state of Maryland Love, respect, hugs, and kisses, was given to me in black and white, and its officials for denying me horYour sister, which makes it unconstitutional, be- mone therapy due to a freeze-frame Roslayn L. (MD) cause it does not provide for individ- policy. I’m attacking the freeze-

Aside the lifelong lessons most of us have learned from this prison journey, some of us discover our true selves along the way. I have lived a life burdening myself with conforming to society’s standards of normal and success. However, most of my time was spent living an alternative lifestyle in the dark. I kept my secret tucked away and hidden from everyone. I remember when

knew of his preferences. He was loud, I was quiet, he really didn’t care for what other people thought and I was overly concerned of other people’s opinions. As time went by, we sort of balanced ourselves out while forming and admiration for each others imperfections. Eventually, I didn’t emphasize so much on other people’s opinions, which often fueled my insecurities, and he began caring more to where he wasn’t maneuvering so wildly.

Volume 8, Issue 7

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Our friendship grew into a bond that laid the foundation of something I had never felt before. I was upset at myself for falling so blindly into unfamiliar territory. Only later to be told that I was not alone. He explained that we were both headed in the same direction on parallel roads. I often wondered how it could be possible for two people to be so in sync with each other that nothing, not even space could keep us apart.

I also wondered how strong a person has to be to preserve the one thing that keeps their tomorrow alive.

We’re all different, so our driving force is also different. The thought of embracing the one I love again one day is what keeps me going.

With endless factors fighting against us, I’ve been told plenty of times over that I’ve got my head in the clouds. That may be so. But regardless of what others say or think, I know what I want. If I lose in the end, I’d rather lose trying. Even if it’s a one-in-a-million chance that we’ll make it together, I choose to believe in that one single digit.

I suppose my advice to anyone who’s holding onto something similar is to never let go. Protect it and be forever grateful. Some people never get to experience the same thing in a lifetime. As for me, I’ll se my prince when I close my eyes tonight.

Dear B&P sisters and brothers!!!

got my certificate. I graduate Oct. 27, 2016 and seen S.C.C on Nov. 9, 2016 in Dec. 2016. I got my answer back from S.C.C and Huntsville has got keep me in solitary confinement.

It’s been three years since I had a minor case, and it’s been a little over a year since I had a major case. I been in solitary confinement for nine years and only lost my level 1 one time. I do not make trouble or cause problems. Most of the time I stay to myself. Reading magazines, newspapers, and books, etc.

I got this correspondence project out of Canada. The last time I put in a I-60 to the unit mail room to ask them the postage rate to send a letter to Canada, it was $1.20.

Hi, I am Mr. Max. I am a bisexual male in T.D.C.J. I would like to say happy birthday to my Mom. She is 69 years old. Her birthday was 1-62017. This is my first time writing into Black & Pink I just started getting it. So far I have got the Oct. and Nov. and Dec. 2016 ones. “OH” and the Sep. 2016 one too. I have mental illness =(. In the free world I got to M.H.M.R and take medicine. In prison I still see mental health and take medicine. I been in solitary confinement, but T.D.C.J calls it segregation (Agg Seg). I been in solitary confinement, for nine years. This Nov 2017 will make it ten years. With someone that has mental illness and being in solitary confinement is not a good thing, over the years I seen what it will do. I seen people kill themselves. Now Texas is trying to do away with solitary confinement (What inmates are saying). I am in a mental health program on AH unit (the program is on 12-building). I have graduated the program and

Jose G. (NY)

Prisoner Correspondence Project (for LGBTQA’s) QPIRG Concordia, ℅ Concordia University, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8 LOVE!!!

Max W. (A.K.A ELMO) (TX)

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Hello to all my Black & Pink family, My name is Andre but everyone calls me Dre or 713.

I’m a 1st time writer and would like to thank everybody who writes and supports our cause. I’m a 42-year-old black gay male locked up in the state of Texas and I’m currently in love with the man of my dreams. I know these prison complexes don’t want to see two people happy and in love, especially here in Texas, but if you have someone who you truly love, don’t let these people destroy that—fight for what you want and who you want.

“These prison complexes don’t want to see two people happy and in love, especially here in Texas, but if you have someone who you truly love, don’t let these people destroy that— fight for what you want and who you want.”

To my pretty boy I love you with all my heart and soul and nothing will every separate us but God himself, you are my life and you the one who made me. Thank you for everything and then some! To the family much love and respect hold your heads up and remain strong.

Always your brother, Andre, Mr. 713 (TX)

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Black & Pink News

September 2017

Black & Pink Fam: Letters from the Heart Greetings.

and take notes of the duties required by staff in each. Include in notes location (citation) in rules where it is able to be found, each thing. It will take time and paper and ink. So getting others to join you is good. Plus everyone can learn together. Then you file a grievance on all the duties not fulfilled individually on each officer or staff in accordance with the grievance procedure, and turn in statements on statement forms to a supervisor if you know one you get along with. And send a statement on the failures of duties to the Ombudsmen Unit.

duties instead. As they use the rules on us, use them on them. Keep them busy with their required duties, and I greet all near and far. All whom put their work conduct, and perforidentify as either being a homosexmance in the spotlight. They will ual, bisexual, or heterosexual. I am avoid you then to hope your focus a homosexual, and classified as gay gets on another. And they will even under the LGBT classification, as I fake kick it with you and not be rude am a fem. I am a white male of 32 or disrespectful. Become the acyears young. countability reporter.

I am now upon the twelfth year of Let them know you know that being in the Georgia Department of you’re not allowed to be harassed Corrections. I am identifying by my and then it is their word versus your nickname, being Gee Gee. I been to word. Make it a “them verse them.” many facilities in GA so I am well A grievance is to the staff as a known. But to those who do not disciplinary report is to us. Only know me I say hello at last. when we may I came in lose “store call” contact with the can lose June 2016 issue “Time to wield the power of knowledge and they their livelihood of Black & Pink (job). They will News and was take back our peace of mind and put the not risk their job moved deeply by staff back in their positions: to provide for so foolishly. the its purpose and us, not deny us and harass us.

Take back prison system is content.

Thus becoming filled I am seeking control. But continue to file grievance when with cameras, membership and so you now can want to promote you’re mistreated or denied your rights!” refer to them its cause and help and prove your my brothers and When you report their violation of claims. And have others file the same sisters in the struggle our family suffers. As I read the many letters wrote rules in not fulfilling their duties or grievance and turn in a statement by y’all I felt compelled to share falsifying documents claiming they form too. Power of unity, with two some of the ways I have succeeded did their job like counting at count or three witnesses it becomes a fact. in stopping the harassment I faced time, or providing services, or access You see how staff does this against to what they are required. You cause us, we can do likewise and win. One when I first enter into prison.

The tool you need is very com- it to be now “them very them” and staff member at a time.

I encourage all to write to “Pennmon and basic knowledge. Visit your not “you verse them”. They will beprison’s Law Library and ask for the gin pointing fingers and turn on each sylvania Institutional Law Project, Rules and Regulations of the prison other to cover for themselves, thus 718 Arch Street, Suite 304 South, system your in “Index” listing. List pass the blame. As it has been long Philadelphia, PA 19106.” They prothe codes and topics it covers. You ago said, “A house divided cannot vide by written letter of request to anyone and all a copy of the “Jailneed this for personal use at all times. stand.”

When they start turning on each house Lawyers Handbook” and Then pull the rules on topics such as grievances, disciplinary reports, other and dividing, you take their the “Prisoner’s Rights Handbook,” segregation, food service, laundry time to harass you away and cause FREE of charge! It will also help service, medical service, access to them having to try to cover them- back up your grievance in court and courts, dental service, etc. Then read selves and fulfill the time consuming aid in your knowledge and study.

Volume 8, Issue 7

Time to wield the power of knowledge and take back our peace of mind and put the staff back in their positions: to provide for us, not deny us and harass us. Take back control. But continue to file grievance when you’re mistreated or denied your rights!

As Betty Boop, GA mentioned Ms. Ashley Diamond example of holding strong and pursuing legal action. But it all starts at the knowing your rights and what they are and are not to do. This is how in the 90s inmates had gained the numerous rights and changes in policy to

Hello Black & Pink, My name is Zack I’m a bisexual white male that’s 22 years old. I’m in RHU because I was head butted in the face. I’m in Pennsylvania pending transfer. I want to say the guards here discriminate against our sexual orientation and we all deserve the same respect as any other human being has on the outside of these walls. My best friend J.W is a brother of mine that I consider a little advice for him do your programs and stay around positive people I love you Little Big Bro <3.

I want to write to you about this article I read in the Issue of October/November 2016 by a gentleman named David L. from Ohio. I want to tell David that I know what you’re going through. It’s hard and I have a son myself. I don’t judge nobody by their crimes because I’m raised differently and you’ve already been judged in the courthouse by the county. But anybody that’s reading this: “NOBODY” has the RIGHT to judge anybody because we all made mistakes and those friends are not real friends if they abandoned

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our benefits. It is time we take back up the sword (pen) and fight on equal levels with the oppressors, use their tactics back on them!

I pray you all give the power of knowledge and unity place back among us and take back control of what we are able to in our confinements. I will share in my next letter how many can get their freedom back through the timely process of the habeas court. As I seen it done and going through the process now too. hope to see you all on the outside.

Special acknowledgment to Ms.

Betty Boop, in GA, and John T., in CO, I agree with you both in your letters published in the June, 2016 issue. And to Mack G., A.K.A. xx in Karma, in GA. I wish we met and I could have been there for you.

I do not have any illnesses but my Uncle and his partners do. I understand your struggles are hard, so is being locked up. So glad you endured and are now FREE and can get the help and support with the hinderances of the guard. God Bless!

you just because you’re bisexual.

And why should people care about what we like? They need to worry about themselves, that’s how I look at it. I’ve been single for awhile now and I’m still in the process of looking for someone good. I am in the penpal program and even if it’s someone out of state, I’m relocating anyways. But David nothing should stop you from making a success and Don’t LET NOBODY STAND IN YOUR WAY OF SUCCESS!!! and that goes for everybody. I know I have a lot of experience and I’m an ex-marine. You can still Do It Don’t let nothing get in your way or stop you from succeeding.

Don’t give up on yourself and don’t let nobody get you down. You have people standing by you right this second, guess who??? Black & Pink, your family, we stand by everybody’s side and we are all proud to be ourselves and we all feel good about coming out of the closet and that’s how it should be who cares what people think you didn’t come to jail with them so you’re not leaving with them and if you have friends that turn against you or

abandon you then they’re not true friends and therefore they can Kick Rocks. A True Friend wouldn’t care what you are, they’d support you. So for all you that are in the closet it’s time to come out and Be true, not only to your family but to yourself. Being scared or afraid just makes your self within wonder, but when you come out of the closet, trust me, it feels 900% better. Ac-

Gee Gee (GA)

“Don’t give up on yourself and don’t let nobody get you down. You have people standing by you right this second, guess who???

Black & Pink, your family.” cept you for you and only be yourself and don’t listen to others because they have nothing better to do than pick on somebody they wish they can be. Just know this David: we’re in This Together. Thank you for reading this message.

Love forever, Zack K. (PA)

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Dearest Black & Pink, Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the circumstances, and the unhappiness it takes to be motivated in the fight for equality with the hetero-privileged... but everybody let’s not forget that struggle of one sort or another lasts forever. Fight the good fight, but live and love in each moment and hold to gratitude so we can be happy in the midst of life’s turmoil. Consider this your reminder to take a deep breath and love yourself and all the goods things.

“Fight the good fight, but live and love in each moment and hold to gratitude so we can be happy in the midst of life’s turmoil. Consider this your reminder to take a deep breath and love yourself and all the goods things.”

Hold on to hope and your efforts—as time has passed our community has accomplished so much progress. All our many unsung heroes and heroines (whichever is preferred) who have pushed to simply be “allowed” to love as they wish and to protect love. My most soulful thanks! Everybody keep your heads up, and stand together. Even if you feel like you are alone, you aren’t.

Much love, Mitch, TX

September 2017

Black & Pink News

More Letters and Poetry from Our Black & Pink Family **trigger warning, details of sexual assault** It’s pretty clear that the young L.G.B.T folks, I’d say 34 and below, need to stop talking and acting so much and sit back and let an old timer give them a taste of reality.

Tell me you were in the system in the 70s and 80s and it will tell me a great deal about you as an L.G.B.T. person.

I am one that struggles with PTSD brought on from prison. My first sentence, I started in Camp Hill, PA. I was 15 and if you think juveniles were not placed in adult prisons, you’re wrong. Camp Hill was adult and I was there a total of sixteen months.

One day going down back stairs in education, I was assaulted. The white guy had a ground down butter knife and I was forced to masturbate him right there on the stairs and there was no one to turn to or talk to; I just kept it to myself and moved on in life.

1979 I was starting a 20-year bit in Florida. In 1982, I was in a separate medical room, I snuck out and the only other prisoner there approached me with about 12-inch scissors. He raped me and made me sit in a bath tub afterwards to erase any trace. Again, I never told anyone.

Then I have the past memories that will not go away. Each time I have a nightmare, it’s as clear as when it first happened. I can hear the young kid at the end of the tier screaming for help as he is raped or worse yet, gang-raped, and the police act like all is normal. I’ve

known of someone being raped then as he fell apart, he attempted to escape, but the bottom line was he did it to be shot—he wanted to die. I’ve known one man who over-powered and hung another.

What really got me is when AIDS came out in the early 80s, the sex movement in the FLA prison system just kept on going as if L.G.B.T. people wouldn’t get it.

It goes without saying to this day I am gay. But it did not come due to my sexual assaults or pressure. It was just me being who I always was.

I have seen the big bad prisoner be forced to be the bottom, I’ve known prisoners tricked into it, I’ve seen male prisoners bought and sold to each other. Forced for years to involve themselves into getting hurt beyond repair.

Yet what I find so sad today is the young are writing in complaint of PREA. Folks, sorry to burst your bubble but prisoner sex has always been outlawed. What PREA came about was to stop the rapes and other sexual abuse by other prisoners and staff. Three years ago, I did a little 18-month bit in FLA. One thing that was very clear is PREA has turned sexual assault, etc. issues totally around for the better.

I will live on with my PTSD from sexual assault. But thanks to PREA, you can do your time safely from sexual assault.

Don’t get me wrong, I say “right on!” to lovers in prison. Rules are rules, we know what to do. Before I close, I know it’s not easy, but strive for safe sex. (anonymous)

Volume 8, Issue 7

blackandpink.org

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As I stood and watched him sleeping As I stood and watched him sleeping.

Pale yellow sunlight Brushing his body impressionistically With dappled lemon light.

Hey Black & Pink Family and my dearest Brothers & Sisters, My name is Alex and this is my second letter. I prefer to go by my middle name here. Anyways, I’m writing because of at least a couple things. I have been incarcerated since June of 2006 for sex offenses.

When I exit the prison over the next couple of years I will be registered as an S.O. I believe that by trying to hide who I was—a “gay dude”— impacted my choices in life and isolating myself led to my current offense.

I am a 33 y/o now and will be 34 on Feb. 10th... I have been sexually involved in same-sex “secret” relationships since I was 12. I felt excited and really enjoyed the things I did. In a way I felt... alive! That went on with other boys around my age for several years after; but it got me in trouble because I did not completely progress my age-range forward. I offended against a child who is now 20 y/o today. I have regretted all of my actions and I regret all the pain that I caused this young man. It is through that which I am working on changing myself and my behaviors to prevent things like that occurring again.

Being in prison, I wouldn’t ac-

His feminine Cupid’s bow upper lip Drawn back in waiting As rhythmic breathing Escaped like sighs.

And the glint Of one eye

Like a half-moon Crescent of desire Watched me unconsciously.

As I stood and watched him sleeping.

cept myself and couldn’t live with who I am... I intentionally would gay bash “myself” because I was angry and pissed off for feeling and thinking what I do. In April of 2008 I called my mother and told her that I needed to talk to her and my younger brother. I tried getting my brother to come to a visit with my mother, but he never came.

Because he didn’t show I told him over the phone that year. Sigh—I came out as gay to my mother and I didn’t get a reaction from her. She told me that she “already knew and it would be a matter of time” when I came to it on my own. When I told my brother on the phone his response was “Are you sure?” It was as if gay was like a choice.

My parents have been divorced now for 21 years. I sent my father a “Coming-Out Card” that my closest friend suggested I do— Coming-Out cards to family and friends—at the time. The response I got back in a letter from my father read that he was “Disappointed”.

That left me feeling hurt. Overall...

I think he may have come to accept that over time. In the end I am a better person today.

To you, Brandon (IL), I can relate to what you may have been feeling all those years—locked-

up and imprisoned on the inside, afraid of what others will say and/ or do. This is my shout-out to you lil’ bro—The road is going to be tough out on our journeys in life as gay men. There may be many people out there who may not like us, but the few we can count on are those who will always love us and accept us for “Who We Are”! My mom told me that she will always love me no matter what happens.

That, my brother, is unconditional love! It sounds like to me that your family feels the same way about you. And Brandon... I want to say thank you for inspiring me to put myself out there again. BTW if you read the October 2016 issue I was printed in it with my first name about Agapé. I hope this lifts your spirit in knowing that “You are not alone...” (Yea, I just went Michael Jackson out there on you all!)

-Crystal M. (GA)

With Agapé and ever-endearing heart, Alex C. (MA) P.S. I dedicate Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” to each and every one of us. “I am beautiful in every single way, yes words can’t bring me down. Ohh... so don’t you bring me down, mmm... Today—”

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September 2017

Black & Pink News

Buscando Contribuciones

Call for Submissions

¡Hola hermosa familia hispano-parlante de Black & Pink!

Seeking erotic short stories, poems, and art by Black & Pink incarcerated and free-world family members for a new zine. To be mailed, art cannot include full nudity. Please send submissions (and shout out to the authors from the first issue mailed in January!) addressed to Black & Pink — HOT PINK. This is a voluntary project, and no money will be offered for submissions, but you might get the chance to share your spicy story with many other readers! The zine will be sent one or two times per year.

Estamos buscando contribuciones en español para nuestras secciones de Cartas a Nuestra Familia y Poesía del Corazón. Por favor envía tu contribución escrita en forma legible y de no más de tres páginas a: Black & Pink — ESPAÑOL Damos la bienvenida a cualquier escrito de tu creación, pero dado el espacio y la variedad, no todas las contribuciones pueden ser aceptadas. Al enviar tu contribución, das permiso a Black & Pink para publicar tus escritos en forma impresa y en internet.

To subscribe to upcoming issues of HOT PINK, write to our address, Black & Pink — HOT PINK.

Black & Pink Mailing Information Write to us at: Black & Pink — [see table below] 614 Columbia Rd. Dorchester, MA 02125 Please note that you can send multiple requests/ topics in one envelope! Due to concerns about consent and confidentiality, you cannot sign up other people for the newspaper. However, we can accept requests from multiple people in the same envelope. There’s no need to send separate requests in more than one envelope.

If you are being released and would still like to receive the Black & Pink News, please let us know where to send it!

Penpal program info: LGBTQ prisoners can list their information and a short non-sexual ad online where free-world people can see it and decide to write. There will be forms in upcoming issues.

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