Jeanniegrrl has alerted me to the case of a Quebec, Canada trans woman who is a prisoner and in possible danger due to her gender identity/expression.
"Tania Veilleux, 43, is legally a woman under Quebec law but is being held in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines federal facility because she's a male under Correctional Service of Canada rules.Ste-Anne-des-Plaines Institution
Veilleux, formerly Sylvain, is awaiting surgery to change gender, but until that happens, she is treated as a man. Nevertheless, she wants to be sent to a woman's jail.
Her safety may be at risk, said transgendered lawyer Micheline Montreuil: "I'm sure she will be harassed," and perhaps even raped by other inmates" (CBCNews).
244 Montée Gagnon
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5 comments:
I cannot muster up much sympathy for this woman. She is a rapist. Not only that, she raped a teenage girl. There is a special place in hell for her, and it is not because she is transsexual. I have no problem with that. But, she is still a rapist, and it sickens me that advocay groups are wasting time on her when it could be put to better use helping trans people who are NOT sexual predators.
Being a survivor of rape, I was 16, I have to agree and disagree with anonymous but at the same time - it was a very long time ago as crime goes and how can we judge that maybe she wasn't a total mess in her head from the conflict of who she was versus who she was being? Is it not possible that she was very confused, angry, sick in her soul at the time? Perhaps she has rehabilitated and even if she hasn't - let her do her time but don't discriminate against her during that time. I'm afraid of the people who say she doesn't deserve any help at all, male prisoners who rape female victims have advocates and women who kill their children have advocates, why shouldn't Tania have the same rights as other prisoners who have committed similar or even worse crimes? Her gender should not play a role in her treatment, period.
Anon, I debated this beforehand, here is my take. What she did prior to transition is despicable, it is rape, and she should be given the full punishment due for the crime. That being said, prisoners do have rights, and this prisoner has the right to serve their time in a female prison, leaving her with men puts her in danger.
I have a really difficult time feeling bad for her. What about the young woman whom she thought nothing of sexually assaulting for years? I think that placing her in a women's prison is NOT safe for the other women as she has been sentenced for the very crime that the other women are worried about. However, that doesn't mean that she should be placed in with men either. Is there really no alternative?
You feel nothing for her, because she is a rapist. So a rapist getting raped is ok...? Hmmm. So let's torture brutally those who tortured Arabs in US prisons. Let's kill killers. Let pluck eyes out of those who plucked eyes out. Let's go back to convervative, hideous, primitive, unhuman practices. No thanks.
There is a system of Justice. And that system DID NOT condemn this transwoman to some years of RAPE, but to some years of JAIL. So why should she suffer so much more than others who have commited rape or even worse crimes?
Even the scum of the earth have rights, and they ARE human.
I think she should go to a woman's prison and be punished equally severely as any other rapist. Not more, just because she is transexual.
Lydia
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