Black & Pink News: Volume 13, Issue 3 - August 2022

black and pink news

by Christopher G. (NY)

Family,

How do you summarize some of the most powerful years of your life?

I think the “goodbye” I’ve been working on since February escapes me because of that question.

So let me not summarize but be as honest as I can be. Through my time at Black & Pink National, I’ve found the most complete and most self loving, affirming and happy version of myself.

I met friends that have changed me to my core and I’ve realized parts of my potential that I only dreamed of.

Serving you all, our members, has been a gift - battling this system toe to toe daily - I healed so much of my own pain from those walls as well.

I leave Black & Pink with the knowledge that we’ve done work and built change that will last a lifetime. I say that knowing - you haven’t seen the best from me yet. (Please glue your edges down properly.)

Lydon House, Opportunity Campus, Sex Worker Liberation Project and more are the manifestation of my hunger and relentless effort to push this work past RESILIENCE.

I’ve been able to invest millions of dollars into not only the

country but Omaha, Nebraska SPECIFICALLY.

Thank you to the Black& Pink National staff, Board of Directors, our Inside Family, our Lydon House members, chapters, our funders and Jason Lydon, our founder who believed in me and trusted me in transformative ways.

To Tena - May you shake every table and break every chain sis. I’m rooting for you from the depths of my soul.

I love you all. Dominique

In This Issue

p5 - A Letter From Dominique

p7 to 8 - Welcoming Black & Pink’s Interim Executive Director

p8 - Intro to Black & Pink Staff Union

p10 to 12 - The Fight For Queer Rights Continues

p13 to 16 - Pride in Our Poetry

p17 to 30 - A State-bv-State Guide to Changing Your Name When You Have a Criminal Record

p31 to 32 -America’s Dark History Of Criminalizing Queerness

p33 to 35 - What Black Queer Liberation Means This Juneteenth

p36 to 37 - We Can’t Stop Transphobia Without Fighting For Abolition

p38 to 40 - The end of Roe is ‘horrific’ for incarcerated people seeking abortion care

p41 to 55 - Letters and Poetry From Our Inside Family

p56 to 59 - Coloring Pages and Puzzles Cover Image by Kah Yangni with poetry by Vita E., courtesy of Forward Together

Back cover art by Micah Bazant, courtesy of JustSeeds

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 antioppression values and/or based on our own editing guidelines.

Statement of Purpose

Black & Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other. Our 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 20,000 people!

On June 1st, Dominique Morgan stepped down from Black & Pink National after serving as Executive Director since January 2018.

Over the last nearly five years, she has raised our organization’s profile to new heights with novel programming and shifting the national narrative. Some of Black & Pink National’s feats during Dominique’s tenure include the 2020 opening of Lydon House to model a housing-first approach to interrupt criminalization, establishing the Kuwasi Balagoon Awards for people living with HIV/AIDS, distributing pandemic response aid to members on the inside, securing funding for the Sex Worker Liberation Project, freeing hundreds of people in Omaha and Atlanta through the bail program, launching the new Protected and Served community survey with Lambda Legal, creating plans for the youthcentered Opportunity Campus, and much more. Dominique will be shifting her efforts to serving as Executive Director of The Okra Project.

We want to send all of our well wishes to Dominique as we bid her farewell from her four-and-ahalf year tenure as Black & Pink National’s Executive Director. Dominique has radically shifted the work of our organization, bringing further awareness and power to our programming and communities. Without Dominique, Black & Pink National would certainly not be who we are today, and we are grateful for everything she has poured into our organization and our members.

Dominique’s recognition on a national and international stage has given so many of our incarcerated members hope, hope that they too can thrive in life post-incarceration, and this hope lives on as Dominique continues to build pathways for other women like her. We cannot wait to see everything she will go on to build and accomplish in service of creating a more just and liberated world.

Thank you, Dominique, for all that you have given to Black & Pink

National over these past years and for all the ways you have cared for our members. Thank you for the love and labor you have poured into our organization and for your fierce commitment to our people. We are so grateful for your service and leadership.

Tena Hahn-Rodriguez will serve as Interim Executive Director beginning immediately for day-today management needs.

“I step into this work humbly, ready to learn from our staff, Board, and members,” Tena said.

Tena (she/her) joined Black & Pink National in April as the Deputy Director of Youth Services and is a community organizer, educator, and entrepreneur. Prior to Black & Pink National, Tena served as a founding member of REVEL, a cornerstone of the Omaha LGBTQIA2S+ inclusivespace scene. With Heartland Pride, she created space for Omaha to invite in national talent. Most recently, Tena’s work with Inclusive Communities led to more accessible educational

programming. Always looking to expand her skill set, Tena recently completed the American Express Converge Academy and is in the current cohort of the Nonprofit Executive Institute. Tena brings a wealth of social justice experience to Black & Pink National and is excited to bring her passion for trans and queer youth of color to expand services for systemimpacted youth on a national level.

The Board of Directors has been supporting Tena and team over the past several months to prepare for this hand off, will

engage in a formal search process for the next long-term Executive Director, and will continue to partner closely throughout the transition.

“I am grateful to collaborate with such passionate and experienced leaders, staff, and other Board members to strengthen our unique organization in this next part of our journey, as Black & Pink National and Chapters continue our vital abolitionist mission. I’ll miss Dominique and am glad she’ll be making an impact in other spaces, and Tena has already demonstrated fantastic

skills and astute understanding of our organization’s needs. I can’t wait to see and support the strides we’ll make together in solidarity with our currently and formerly incarcerated members,” said Tanya Nguyen, Board Chair. We are excited for the future of our organization and thankful to all our supporters who share our goal of a world without prisons, where LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS can thrive.

Black & Pink National Staff Forms Union

On February 9th, Black & Pink National staff announced the formation of the Black & Pink Union under the auspices of the Denver NewsGuild (TNG-CWA L37074); and on February 10th, Black & Pink National’s Executive Director, Dominique Morgan, voluntarily recognized the Black & Pink Union (TNG-CWA L37074) based on the neutral card check method for a defined bargaining unit. Black & Pink National looks forward to entering this new phase of our organization and supporting workers’ rights to selforganize.

The mission of the Black & Pink

Union is to “safeguard social and economic justice in our workplace using the values of our organization.” Black & Pink National recently adopted new organizational values, which the Black & Pink Union cited in their statement: “We believe that People Matter and hope to build and maintain solidarity with all people organizing for collective liberation. We believe in Collective Care and know that together we are infinitely powerful. We believe that Liberation for All means liberation from all systems of power and control, and we strive to resist replicating those systems

within our own organization and movements. We believe in Innovative Leadership, and recognize the leadership within all of us.”

Black & Pink National is excited that we are living through a societal moment with largescale support for worker power and solidarity, and has been encouraged by the many workers who have come together across non-profit organizations and forprofit corporations to unionize around workers’ rights.

ASHLEY DIAMOND

Ashley Diamond broke new ground when she brought a case to the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2016, demanding that conditions for trans people in prisons improved. Diamond, who has been inside since 2012, was denied medical care and continuation of her hormone therapy. As a Black trans woman, she was targeted by other prisoners and sexually assaulted and told by guards that they could not protect her. Ashley reached a settlement with GDC which allowed transgender people in Georgia prisons to have access to hormones for the first time and also promised to train officials in sexual assault prevention and the needs of transgender people in prisons. Though things have not changed in practice, Ashley continues to fight to better her conditions and those of people around her.

image by Robin Henson, courtesy of Free Ashley Diamond

WENDY CARLOS WILLIAMS

A pioneer of modern music, Wendy Carlos Williams can be credited with bringing the synthesizer to the mainstream. Wendy was one of the very first to use the now wildly popular Moog synthesizer in her music.

Wendy’s first record,

“Switched-On Bach” was released in 1968 and features the instrument almost exclusively. Wendy used the spacey (and at the time, brand new) instrument to create her own take on pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. The record would go on to win three Grammy awards.

In addition to this success, Wendy would work in film, crafting scores for films as famous as A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Tron.

BASH BACK

In existence from 2007 to 2011, Back Back! was a nonhierarchical, autonomous network based loosely on agreed-upon points of unity, like fighting for queer liberation rather than heteronormative assimilation, and respecting a diversity of tactics (including an individual’s autonomy to participate in actions deemed illegal by the government).

- courtesy of Ella Fassler in Slate

image by Vernon Smith, courtesy of wendycarlos.com

image by Tony Webster

JOAN JETT BLAKK

In January 1992, drag queen Joan Jett Blakk announced her candidacy for president under the slogan “Lick Bush in ‘92!” She ran as a part of the Queer Nation Party, having helped found the Chicago branch of the activist organization. In doing so, she became the first ever drag queen to run for president.

ego of performer, artist, and activist Terence Smith, who began doing drag in 1974. For Smith, who said his drag was inspired by Grace Jones, David Bowie, and Divine, the power in drag was “stomping on that line between male and female and erasing it.” In a look he later described as part Coco Chanel, part Frederick’s of Hollywood, Smith as Joan would soon take Chicago by storm.

Blakk didn’t expect with any seriousness to win either campaign, but instead ran to draw attention to LGBTQ+ rights that were being ignored by the government at the time.

- Excerpted from a piece by Elyssa Goodman in Them

GLADYS BENTLEY

Gladys Bentley (stage name, Bobbie Minton) was a Harlem Renaissance blues singer and early drag king. She was one of the most well-known and financially successful black women in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. She was a pioneer in pushing the envelope of gender, sexuality, class, and race with parody and exaggeration, personally and professionally.

-Excerpted from a piece by Tisa M. Anders in Black Past

Joan Jett Blakk is the drag alter

Rebirth #2

In a month I could be married to Aster, Wren, Avery or Evelyn. It’s not up to me, And it’s too early to tell anyone.

I’ve been entrusted with knowledge about the planning of a great transition, But the decisions to be made belong solely to my beloved.

It will change our relationship, It will change their life. It affects the goals we set together

And the worries I have when I lay down at night.

I am honored with the knowledge of what’s to come while not actually knowing at all.

My duty is to provide stability for their chrysalis, though I feel the ground I thought was solid shaking beneath me.

I will continue to love Aster, Wren, Avery or Evelyn. It’s up to me, And I’ll keep choosing them.

- Cassey L (NE)

The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.

I am taken with the hot animal of my skin, grateful to swing my limbs

and have them move as I intend, though my knee, though my shoulder, though something is torn or tearing. Today, a dozen squid, dead

on the harbor beach: one mostly buried, one with skin empty as a shell and hollow

feeling, and, though the tentacles look soft, I do not touch them. I imagine they were startled to find themselves in the sun.

I imagine the tide simply went out without them. I imagine they cannot feel the black flies charting the raised hills of their eyes. I write my name in

the sand: Donika Kelly. I watch eighteen seagulls

skim the sandbar and lift low in the sky. I pick up a pebble that looks like a green egg.

To the ditch lily I say I am in love. To the Jeep parked haphazardly on the narrow street I am in love. To the roses, white

petals rimmed brown, to the yellow lined pavement, to the house trimmed in gold I am

in love. I shout with the rough calculus

of walking. Just let me find my way back, let me move like a tide come in.

-Donika Kelly

Copyright © 2017 by Donika Kelly. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 20, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.

Twenty-One Love Poems [(The Floating Poem, Unnumbered)]

Whatever happens with us, your body will haunt mine—tender, delicate your lovemaking, like the halfcurled frond of the fiddlehead fern in forests just washed by sun. Your traveled, generous thighs between which my whole face has come and come— the innocence and wisdom of the place my tongue has found there— the live, insatiate dance of your nipples in my mouth— your touch on me, firm, protective, searching me out, your strong tongue and slender fingers reaching where I had been waiting years for you in my rose-wet cave—whatever happens, this is.

-Adrienne Rich

Floating Poem, Unnumbered” from “Twenty-One Love Poems,” from The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y.S.)

In a strange house, a strange bed in a strange town, a very strange me is waiting for you. Now it is very early in the morning.

The silence is loud. The baby is walking about with his foaming bottle, making strange sounds and deciding, after all, to be my friend. You arrive tonight. How dull time is! How empty—and yet, since I am sitting here, lying here, walking up and down here, waiting, I see that time’s cruel ability to make one wait is time’s reality.

I see your hair which I call red. I lie here in this bed.

Someone teased me once, a friend of ours— saying that I saw your hair red because I was not thinking of the hair on your head.

Someone also told me, a long time ago: my father said to me, It is a terrible thing, son, to fall into the hands of the living God. Now, I know what he was saying. I could not have seen red before finding myself in this strange, this waiting bed. Nor had my naked eye suggested that colour was created by the light falling, now, on me, in this strange bed, waiting

where no one has ever rested!

The streets, I observe, are wintry. It feels like snow. Starlings circle in the sky, conspiring, together, and alone, unspeakable journeys into and out of the light.

I know

I will see you tonight. And snow may fall enough to freeze our tongues and scald our eyes. We may never be found again!

Just as the birds above our heads circling are singing, knowing that, in what lies before them, the always unknown passage, wind, water, air, the failing light the failing night the blinding sun they must get the journey done. Listen.

They have wings and voices are making choices are using what they have. They are aware that, on long journeys, each bears the other, whirring, stirring

love occurring in the middle of the terrifying air.

- James Baldwin

James Baldwin, “Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y.S.)” from Jimmy’s Blues. Copyright © 2014 by The James Baldwin Estate. Reprinted

by permission of Beacon Press.

Circe tender loving intoxicating rough harsh strict the black rose conversations end with me bleeding from the thorns of her tongue dripping alcohol on fresh wounds with hopes that it will spill over and clean old ones this pain this love this lust this drug

i’ve got to give it up.

- Ajani Your Honor

your honor since i’ve been convicted of murder and have taken time to digest just what that means after noting what it means to my family and how it affects people who read the newspapers and all

i see now that i’ve made a terrible mistake! and didn’t approach this trial in a respectful, deliberate or thoughtful manner didn’t take advantage of the best legal advice and based my actions on irrelevant matters which i can see now in a much more sober mind had nothing to do with this case i must have been legally insane thinking about:

the twenty five murders of children in atlanta since Wayne Williams’ capture the recent murder of a man in boston by the police

the recent murders of two in chicago by police

the shooting of a five-year-old little boy in suburban calif

the lynchings in alabama

the mob murder of a transit worker in brooklyn

the murders of fourteen women

in boston feeling that this is evidence of something and that there must be a lesson in all this — i thought murder was legal

- Kuwasi Balagoon

intimacy is bad actually

Crying in the rental car while my heart pounds out of my chest miles from the Grand Canyon coming down at a rundown Bedrock-themed tourist trap, I smoke cigarettes, and you are everything to me Don’t leave me here came home and put on a record and I cried face down in the dirty carpet trying to tell you I loved you

Streaking naked through the snow

hooking up in your car in my driveway

Barfing all over the ground after I kissed you for the first time You wrote me a 24 track album You gave me your dead fathers

rosary

You gave me your dead mothers

toe ring

We dropped molly & my friends mocked me for the things they heard me say during sex

We lived in a closet and the heat didn’t work most of that winter I rode my bike around the block in circles ended up in bed with three friends watching Seinfeld, puffy shirt

i feel like I’ve met you before this moment

We danced too close in the basement that had a sewage leak

You left me alone on the floor when I thought I was dying I kissed you that night before bed anyway

I see you around town and I can’t take complete breaths I asked you to fuck me and you left deep yellow and black bruises all over my body I rubbed them and reminisced for weeks we smoked cigarettes and talked about our abusive parents You let me borrow your books but never let me back into your apartment -ak

C.R.E.A.M.

after Morgan Parker, after WuTang in the morning I think about money

green horned lord of my waking forest in which I stumbled toward no salvation

prison made of emerald & pennies

in my wallet I keep anxiety & a condom

I used to sell my body but now my blood spoiled

All my favorite songs tell me to get money

I’d rob a bank but I’m a poet

I’m so broke I’m a genius

If I was white, I’d take pictures of other pictures & sell them

I come from sharecroppers who come from slaves who do not come from kings

sometimes I pay the weed man before I pay the light bill

sometimes is a synonym for often

I just want a grant or a fellowship or a rich white husband & I’ll be straight

I feel most colored when I’m looking at my bank account

I feel most colored when I scream ball so hard motherfuckas wanna find me

I spent one summer stealing from ragstock

If I went to jail I’d live rent-free but there is no way to avoid making white people richer

A prison is a plantation made of stone & steel

Being locked up for selling drugs = Being locked up for trying to eat

a bald fade cost 20 bones now a days

what’s a blacker tax than blackness?

what

cost more than being American and poor?

here is where I say reparations. here is where I say got 20 bucks I can borrow?

student loans are like slavery but not but with vacation days but not but police

I don’t know what it says about me when white institutions give me money

how much is the power ball this week?

I’mma print my own money and be my own god and live forever in a green frame

my grandmamma is great at saving money

before my grandfather passed he showed me where he hid his money & his gun

my aunt can’t hold on to a dollar, a job, her brain

I love how easy it is to be bad with money

don’t ask me about my taxes

the b in debt is a silent black boy trapped

Copyright © 2017 by Danez

Smith. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 1, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.

A State-bv-State Guide to Changing Your Name When You Have a Criminal Record

Navigating legal name change while inside can be incredibly tricky. We wanted to republish this guide to help provide each of you with up to date info.

This guide was created by Trans Lifeline Microgrants to assist transgender people with criminal records in changing their names. This document briefly overviews the restrictions in each state on changing your name with a criminal record. This guide does not constitute legal advice and this guide was not prepared by a legal professional. This is an informal guide, intended to provide general information in accessible language.

In some states, your criminal record likely will have no impact on your ability to change your name, while in other states, it can entirely prevent you from changing your name. This guide aims to inform the reader about the level of difficulty in each state. In most cases, name changes with a criminal record will be much more difficult and a lawyer is recommended. The information provided here is not comprehensive. The footnotes and references link to source material and provide further information.

In order to change your name in any state, no matter what your criminal record, a judge needs to approve your petition. The judge will decide whether to grant your petition based on whether they believe the petition to be in good faith, without intent to commit fraud, and in the best interest of health and public safety. Even if your state does not explicitly

restrict your ability to change your name based on a criminal record, if the judge knows about your record, they will likely take it into consideration. If you can afford a lawyer, one is recommended.

You will want to read the section for the state you live in, not the state you were convicted in. Not every state lists comprehensive requirements and restrictions on name changes for people with criminal records.

While we wrote this guide with transgender people in mind, the legal requirements apply equally to all people wishing to change their names for non-marriage based reasons. These restrictions described below may or may not apply if you are changing your name for marriage or divorce.

TIPS FOR DOING YOUR OWN RESEARCH

This guide is not comprehensive. We have only listed information for currently incarcerated people in a portion of the states. We include a currently incarcerated section if the state statute describes the process for currently incarcerated people, or if the information was readily available elsewhere online.

For states we have not listed instructions for currently incarcerated people, here is a general process for finding this information:

• Commitment name is the name you were convicted under. Legal name is your official legal name. Prison records default to your commitment name. The goal of researching name changes for currently incarcerated people is to determine whether and how the state’s department of corrections will update the name on records to the legal name instead of the commitment name.

• Search online for the state’s Department of Corrections Rules and Regulations Handbook. Each state has a handbook that governs all prisons and jails in the state. These handbooks may not always be readily accessible online.

• Search the handbook for any section that mentions name change, LGBT inmates, inmate ID, mail rules, or commitment name. There is not one reliable place where name change rules will be listed, so you may have to read through several sections of the handbook.

• The mail rules section will contain the most information. It will describe whether inmates who change their names can use their new name for mail.

• In some states, if you successfully change your name in the courts, your prison will ignore the change entirely.

State-by-state guide

Alabama

Currently incarcerated: If you legally change your name while

incarcerated, you must use your prior name and your new name on mail, using the format: Commitment name, AIS #, Legal name. Wardens are responsible for creating standard operating procedures that use both legal name and committed name on mail and IDs. Commitment name will not be changed and will be used first in all documents, followed by legal name. Additionally, prison employees are not obligated to address you by your legal name and may continue to address you by your commitment name.

Not currently incarcerated: Alabama requires a background check. You cannot change your name if you have ever been convicted of: a felony, a crime of moral turpitude, are suspected of avoiding a debt, or while facing criminal charges or while involved in a court case. If you have been convicted of a sex offense, you may change your name. If your petition is granted, you must appear in person to update the information with local law enforcement in each county in which the adult sex offender is required to register

Alaska

Currently incarcerated: no information found.

Not currently incarcerated: Alaska has no restrictions on changing your name based on criminal record and no background check is required.

Arizona

Currently incarcerated: You are permitted to change your name. If you have been transferred from another state, you need permission from your sentencing state. Your official records will be updated to your new legal name

and all relevant authorities will be informed. All of your records and services within the prison will be updated to your legal name. You must pay for the new photographs and inmate ID card. After you complete these processes, your new legal name will become your official name used by the Arizona Department of Corrections. There are also policies on management of LGBTQIA2S+ inmates, including a transgender/intersex committee.

Not currently incarcerated: In your petition, you must state whether you have been convicted of a felony. You must also state whether you have any pending charges relating to false statements or misrepresentation of identity, or other crimes such as theft, forgery, credit card fraud, business and commercial frauds or organized crime, fraud and terrorism. If you have a conviction involving misrepresented identity or false statements, as defined in the statute, the court will most likely deny your application. Additionally, the prosecutor of your conviction and any victims have the right to contest your name change until a year after the name change is complete. Southern Arizona Gender Alliance has a name change guide for trans people. They recommend contacting them if you have a felony record and would like to change your name.

Arkansas

Currently incarcerated: If you change your name while incarcerated, the Department of Corrections will continue to use your old name. Not currently incarcerated: There are no specific restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record. No

background check is required and the petition does not ask about criminal record.

California

Currently incarcerated: To file a name change, the process is the same as those not incarcerated, with the addition of notifying your respective department (the CDCR or sheriff’s department) that you are filing with the court. The name change process takes at least two months. If you have reason to believe that you will not be staying at the same facility for at least the next 2 months, TGI Justice’s guide recommends that you may want to wait until you get transfered, because changing facilities can delay or completely stop the process of having your petition approved. Once your name and/or gender change has been approved by the courts, your prison must start using your updated name and pronouns. Please note that legally changing your name and gender does not affect your housing classification. TGI Justice has a comprehensive guide for name and gender changes while incarcerated, including information on how to request a waiver from the courts to waive the $435 filing fee.

In 2017 the Name and Dignity Act (SB 310) was signed into law which means that incarcerated folks no longer have to seek approval from their warden at a prison or from the sheriff’s department at a jail, before filing with the courts. See below section for filing a name change with a criminal sex offense. Not currently incarcerated: If you are on parole under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, you must notify the regional

parole administrator. There are no restrictions for most felonies, except for sex offenses. If you are a registered sex offender, the judge will only approve your name change if they believe it will not harm public safety. Your petition is more likely to be approved if you have a letter of support from the police jurisdiction you are registered with. The Transgender Law Center has a template of a model support letter from a probation officer or police department. If the judge approves your name change, you must inform authorities within five business days. Inform the chief of police in your city or the county sheriff if you do not live in a city. Additionally, if you live on the campus or in facilities of University of California or California State University, you must inform the chief of police of the campus.

Colorado

Currently incarcerated: You must notify the department that has jurisdiction over you that you are filing, and you must provide the court with a copy of your criminal history record from both the Colorado bureau of investigation and the federal bureau of investigation and the criminal history report from the Colorado bureau of investigation reflects the addition of the proposed changed name as an alias. Not currently incarcerated: You will need fingerprinting and background checks through both the FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigations. Your petition will be denied if you have a felony in any state or if adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for a charge that would constitute a felony if committed by an adult. However, the code does list a

way of changing your name with a felony if there is good cause for the name change. This process is complex and would almost certainly require a lawyer.

Connecticut

Currently incarcerated: no information found. Not currently incarcerated: If you have a record involving a deadly weapon or you are on the sex offender registry, you must inform the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection about the name change. The commissioner has standing to contest your name change. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record.

Delaware

Currently incarcerated/on parole/ on probation: If you are currently under supervision of the Department of Corrections, you lose the common law right to change your name and can only change your name through the court process. Also, if you are under supervision and change your name, you must list all previous names when signing any legal documents or providing information to a police officer. If you successfully change your name, the Department of Corrections is not obligated to change your name in their files or to use your new legal name. If under supervision of the Department of Corrections, you must demonstrate that the name change is for sincerely held religious or gender identity reasons in a sworn affidavit or testimony. The department of corrections may object to your name change petition.

Not currently incarcerated/on parole/on probation: If you are not currently under supervision of the Department of Corrections, there are no limitations on your ability to change your name based on criminal record.

DC

Currently incarcerated: You may file for a name change petition while incarcerated if you were a resident immediately prior to incarceration. You must submit supporting documentation to prove residency. See below for additional steps if you have been convicted of a felony or are a registered sex offender. Not currently incarcerated: DC requires many extra steps to change your name if you have a criminal record. This will likely require a lawyer. If you have a felony record, you must notify the chief of police, Department of Corrections, court services and offender supervision agency. If your felony record is from another state, you must inform the equivalent parties in that state, plus the DC agencies. If you are on parole or probation, you must notify your parole/probation officer. If you are a registered sex offender, you must notify the registry. If you have an open family court case, child support order or civil protection order, you may need to file with Family Court Central Intake Center. The name change form asks whether you are a party in any open cases and whether any cases or legal matters would be affected by changing your name, whether you owe any parties money, whether you are a gun offender, etc. You would be required to inform all interested parties of the court date within 10 days.

Florida

Currently incarcerated: No individual incarcerated in Florida has yet been able to change their name while incarcerated. Not currently incarcerated: You will not be able to change your name if you have been convicted of a felony (unless you have since received a pardon). The name change process requires fingerprinting and background check — legal name change is possible with misdemeanor charges, but a misdemeanor may negatively influence the judge’s decision at your hearing. Florida’s name change form asks

whether your civil rights have been suspended and whether you have “ever been arrested for or charged with, pled guilty or nolo contendere to, or been found to have committed a criminal offense, regardless of adjudication, and if so, when and where.” This indicates whether you have been convicted of a felony and will determine whether you will be able to change your name.

If you are registered as a sexual predator or sex offender, this will be taken into consideration by the judge during your hearing, and may be used to deny name change

application. If the petitioner is on this registry, at the time of hearing the clerk of court will notify the Department of Law Enforcement of the name change, in a manner prescribed by that department, within 2 business days after the filing of the final judgment. “The report must contain sufficient information to identify the petitioner, including the results of the criminal history records check if applicable, the new name of the petitioner, and the file number of the judgment.”

Georgia

Currently incarcerated: no information found. Not currently incarcerated: Georgia does not require fingerprinting or a background check, and does not specifically restrict your ability to change your name based on criminal record.

Hawaii

If you are a registered sex offender, you cannot change your name unless the court determines that this would be “in the best interest of justice and that the name change won’t adversely affect public safety.” The burden of proof is on you to demonstrate this.

If you are not a registered sex offender, there are no specific restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record. There is no requirement for a hearing before granting a name change.

Idaho

If you are a registered sex offender, you can change your name but the court must inform the registry of the change. If you are not a registered sex offender, there are no specific restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record.

Illinois

Currently incarcerated: You may not change your name by any process except through the official court process. However, if you have been convicted of a felony in Illinois or any other state, and have not been pardoned, you cannot file for a name change until 10 years after the completion of your sentence. In other words, you can only change your name if incarcerated for

a misdemeanor.

Not currently incarcerated: If you are a registered sex offender, you cannot change your name. If you have a conviction for (or are on probation for) identity theft, you cannot change your name. If you have a felony, you cannot change your name until at least 10 years after the completion of the terms of your sentence including parole or probation. There is an exception if you were convicted but then pardoned. Any conviction in the state of Illinois is eligible for a pardon, no matter what the charges were or when the conviction occurred.

Indiana

Currently incarcerated: You cannot change your name. Not currently incarcerated: You will need to list all felonies on your record, including those from outside Indiana.

If you were convicted of a felony within the past 10 years, you will need to notify various authorities at least 30 days before the hearing. You will need to inform the sheriff in your county of current residence, the prosecutor in your county of residence, and the Indiana central repository for criminal history information. When you inform the central repository, include your current full name, your desired name, date of birth, address, description of your physical appearance, and fingerprints. The central repository will send a copy of your criminal record to the court for consideration. After your hearing, a copy of the results will be sent to the Indiana State Police.

If your felony conviction was not in the past 10 years, you do not need to inform any additional authorities. Just disclose the conviction in your petition.

If you do not have a felony record, there are no restrictions based on criminal record. You do not need to disclose misdemeanors on your petition.

Iowa

Those with “civil disabilities” are barred from changing their name — meaning you cannot change your name if you have been convicted of a felony. Iowa’s name change petition does not require a criminal background check, and the applicant does not have to disclose misdemeanors or other criminal history.

Kansas

There are no restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record. The petition does not ask whether you have a criminal record and no background check is required.

Kentucky

Any adult may change their name in Kentucky, regardless of criminal record. The petition does not ask about your criminal record and no background check is required.

Louisiana

Currently incarcerated: If you are currently serving time for a felony, you cannot change your name. If you are currently serving time for a non-felony, you can change your name by filing the petition in the district court of the parish where you were sentenced.

Not currently incarcerated: If you have been convicted of a felony, you cannot change your name until the completion of your sentence, including parole/ probation. You can present your name change petition to the district court of the parish of your residence, the parish of your birth, or the parish of venue for

the Vital Records Registry. If your conviction was for a violent crime, you are barred from changing your name at all.

Maine

There are no specific limitations on your ability to change your name with a criminal record. The judge may require you to undergo a background check, in which case your record would be considered. They can deny the change if they have reason to believe it is “for purposes of defrauding another person or entity or for purposes otherwise contrary to the public interest.”

You can make a written request to the Classification or Records Officer for a correction or clarification of your records. “If the requested correction or clarification concerns a significant matter and is determined by the appropriate staff to be valid, the record shall be corrected or clarified.”

Maryland

If you have ever been a registered sex offender, you must disclose this on the petition. If your name change is granted, you will need to inform the registry within 3 days.

The judge may choose to require any person to get a background check, a criminal history check, a motor vehicle record check or a credit card check. It is unclear whether the legal change will be accepted for currently incarcerated individuals.

Massachusetts

Every petitioner must file a Court Activity Record Information (CARI) and Warrant Management System Release Request Form (CJP 34) .

Regardless of criminal history, this

publication must be mailed to and published in a local newspaper according to instructions in the order of notice. However, there are additional publication requirements “if the name change is requested by anyone who is incarcerated, on probation or parole, or committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center as a sexually dangerous person.” In these cases, you must also give citation to “the Massachusetts Department of Correction or the Massachusetts Parole Board ; the office of the prosecuting official (District Attorney, Attorney General, or U.S. Attorney) and the sheriff’s office(s) in the jurisdiction where the conviction(s) or delinquency adjudications happened; [and] the Sex Offender Registry Board and the prosecuting official if you’re required to register as a sex offender.”

The policy on name changes for currently incarcerated individuals is unclear, but given the Department of Correction’s polices on trans and gender nonconforming inmates (requiring “appropriate, safe, and sensitive management” of trans/GNC inmates)72, it seems likely that the change will be officially recognized.

Michigan

Currently incarcerated: If the name change is issued by a probate court, it will be filed and entered into the appropriate computerized database. If issued by a non-probate court, the order will be forwarded to “the Administrator of the Office of Legal Affairs or designee for direction on how to proceed.”

If you have a new legal name, you “shall not be forced” to refer to yourself by your commitment

name. Employees should refer to you by your new legal name, but “an employee using the commitment name instead of the legal name...does not excuse a prisoner or parolee from obeying an order or directive given by the employee.”

Identification cards and door cards will be reissued (at your expense) and will have both your commitment name and new legal name. Furthermore, “the commitment name and/ or legal name may be used on correspondence and other documents throughout the prisoner’s incarceration and parole; however, the commitment name shall be included on all official Department forms and documents.” You are also required to include your commitment name on outgoing mail. Not currently incarcerated: “If the individual who petitions for a name change has a criminal record, the individual is presumed to be seeking a name change with a fraudulent intent. The burden of proof is on a petitioner who has a criminal record to rebut the presumption.” This means that changing your name while incarcerated or with any sort of a criminal record will be difficult and you should get the help of a lawyer if you can.

As part of the standard name change process in Michigan, you will have to submit fingerprints to the FBI and state police for pending charges and convictions. If your petition is granted, your new name will be forwarded to the state police. If you have been in prison or on parole within the past two years, this will also be forwarded to the Department of Corrections and/or the sheriff of the jail where you were convicted/held.

Minnesota

Currently incarcerated: You may only request a name change one time while you are incarcerated. Even if you are granted a legal name change, you will still be identified by your commitment name. However, the change will be filed appropriately and will be available for cross-reference when processing mail, financial transactions, etc. Incoming mail addressed to either name will be delivered to you, but outgoing mail must include your commitment name.

Furthermore, “the deputy commissioner may authorize an exception for an offender’s legal name to be recognized...for safety or security reasons. The offender must provide sufficient documentation to necessitate the exception.” It is unclear what is considered exceptional, but Policy 202.045 (Management of Transgender/Gender NonConforming/Intersex Offenders indicates general openness to recognizing gender identity and related needs.

Not currently incarcerated: If you have a felony, you can only request a name change once. You must inform your prosecuting attorney. If you were convicted in another state, or in federal jurisdiction, you must inform the attorney general. There will likely be a fee to serve these parties. The appropriate forms are here. Each party will have 30 days to file an objection. If objections are filed, you should file a motion to grant request.

You will be required to undergo a background check and fingerprinting through the FBI. If your petition is granted, the court will inform the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension within 10 days after the change is granted.

You will also be required to report this to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension within 10 days.

Mississippi

Mississippi’s legal code does not specify whether you can change your name if you have a criminal record. However, the petition form makes you certify that the “petitioner does not have any outstanding judgments, has never been convicted of a crime, and is not involved in any pending legal actions.” This may mean that you are unable to change your name if you are currently or formerly incarcerated, and the help of a lawyer will likely be necessary. Your county’s chancery court has jurisdiction over name change petitions.

Missouri

Missouri does not have any particular limitations on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record. They do not require a background check or fingerprinting, and the name change petition does not ask your criminal history. However, the petition application does ask about unsatisfied money judgments against you, and pending cases against you that request money. The granting of your name change is up to the discretion of the judge of your county circuit court. More research needs to be done on how your name change will be accepted if you are currently incarcerated. Be aware that using a “false name” (which is not defined by Missouri DOC, but presumably any name but your legal name on file) in communications is a conduct violation.

Montana

Currently incarcerated: DOC policy requires only that your inmate identification card include your “full name,” which they leave undefined, but likely means the name on your case file. However, your ID can be replaced “because of...inaccurate identification data.” Given one stated policy to protect “vulnerable inmates,” including LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, it seems likely they will recognize your legal name change. General outgoing and all incoming mail only requires your last name; outgoing legal and privileged correspondence require your full name.

Not currently incarcerated: Montana does not have any particular limitations on your ability to change your name based on criminal record. They do not require a background check or fingerprinting and the petition does not ask about your criminal history. However the court or judge have discretion to dismiss or grant your name change depending on what they deem “right and proper.” According to the petition application, you are allowed to file given that you “are not changing your name in order to avoid debt, hide a criminal record, or for any other improper reason.”

Nebraska

Currently incarcerated: Legal precedent determined that a person will not be denied a name change petition purely on the basis of being an inmate. After your legal name change, both your former legal name at the time of your commitment —referred to as your “commitment name” — and your new legal name will be shown on your ID.

For use of a new legal name with mail: If you are sending mail

within the facility where you’re incarcerated, both your committed name and your legal name will be shown, and the legal name must be signed. “Inmates may use only their legally changed name and number on the envelope of outgoing mail.”

Not currently incarcerated: Nebraska does not have any particular limitations on your ability to change your name based on criminal record. They do not require a background check or fingerprinting and the petition does not ask about your criminal record.

After your name-change order is issued, the clerk of the district court will deliver a copy of that order to the Department of Health and Human Services, and to the sex offender registration and community notification division of the Nebraska State Patrol. This will be filed regardless of your criminal record.

Nevada

If you have been convicted of a misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, or felony, you must submit fingerprints to the Filing Office with your petition. In your petition, you must list each convicted offense, the date of conviction, the state and county of conviction, and the final result. The judge will specifically take your criminal record into consideration when deciding whether to approve your petition. If your name change is approved, the clerk will forward the information to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History so that your criminal record will be updated.

New Hampshire

The petition form has check boxes

asking whether you are currently incarcerated, on probation, on parole, or required to register as a sex offender or offender against children. If so, there are additional requirements.

If you are currently incarcerated, on probation or parole, or required to register as a sex offender or an offender against children, you can only change your name if you can make a “compelling showing” for why the change is necessary. If you are incarcerated, on probation or on parole, you will need to officially serve a copy of your petition to the Department of Corrections. There will be a serving fee for this. If you are a registered sex offender or offender against children and no longer incarcerated/on parole/probation you will need to officially serve a copy of your petition to the department of safety. There will be a service fee for this. After approving or denying your petition, the court will inform the Department of Corrections or the department of safety of the decision.

If you are not required to register as a sex offender or offender against children and you are no longer in prison, on probation, or on parole, there are no particular restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record.

New Jersey

If you have pending charges in New Jersey, you are required to do the following: “Send a copy of the Verified Complaint and Order Fixing Date of Hearing by regular mail and certified mail, return receipt requested to the Prosecutor of the county where the matter is being heard. If the charges were brought by the Office of

the Attorney General, you must send another copy of the Verified Complaint and Order Fixing Date of Hearing by certified mail, return receipt requested to the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice in Trenton, New Jersey, at least 20 days before the hearing. Mail a copy to Director, Division of Criminal Justice, R. J. Hughes Justice Complex, 25 W Market Street, P. O. Box 085, Trenton, NJ, 08625-0085.”

In the petition, you must disclose all crimes you have been convicted of or currently have pending. If your petition is approved, a copy will be forwarded to the State Bureau of Investigation and the Division of State Police.

New Mexico

New Mexico does not have any particular restrictions on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record. No background check is required and the petition does not ask for your criminal record.

New York

Currently incarcerated: Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) has a detailed guide for changing your name while incarcerated in New York State prisons. If you are currently incarcerated for a violent offense, or other felony specified on page 22-23 of the SRLP guide, you must serve the Notice of Petition to the District Attorney in each county you were convicted of those counts.

After that, you must send an affidavit to the court saying you have informed the District Attorneys. More information on notifying the DA is available on page 9 of the SRLP guide.

District Attorneys have the right to file objections but they usually

do not.

If your convictions are for crimes other than the ones specified on page 22-23 of the SRLP guide, you have the full right to change your name without informing additional parties.

On your petition, you will specify your criminal record and whether or not your record includes violent felony charges (see page 29 of SRLP guide).

More research is needed to determine how your name change will be treated while incarcerated in NY prisons.

Not currently incarcerated: If you are currently on parole or probation for one of the crimes specified on page 22-23 of the SRLP guide, the above laws about currently incarcerated people apply to you.

If you are no longer on parole or probation, you can change your name through the normal process without informing additional parties. If you are currently on parole or probation but not for the crimes specified, you can change your name through the normal process without informing additional parties.

On your petition, you will specify your criminal record and whether or not your record includes violent felony charges (see page 29 of SRLP guide).

North Carolina

You will be required to get background checks both from the state and from the FBI. If you are currently registered as a sex offender, you cannot change your name. It is unclear whether offenses other than sex offenses will be taken into consideration when determining whether to approve your petition. You can also only change your name a single time.

You will also need to bring two other residents of your county, who are not related to you, who can certify your “good character”.

North Dakota

You will need to get a background check and disclose your criminal record. There are no specific restrictions on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record; however, a felony record will make it much less likely that your request will be granted. The code states “if the individual petitioning for a name change has a felony conviction under a law of this state or a law of another state or the federal government, the request is presumed to be made in bad faith, to defraud or mislead, to cause injury to an individual, or to compromise public safety. The name change may not be granted unless the individual requesting the name change proves by clear and convincing evidence that the request is not based upon an intent to defraud or mislead, is made in good faith, will not cause injury to an individual, and will not compromise public safety.” A lawyer is recommended.

If you have a criminal record (in North Dakota or any other state) and the court issues your name change order, the court will report the name change to the bureau of criminal investigation within ten days.

Ohio

If you have a criminal record involving identity fraud, sexually oriented offenses or child-victim offenses, you cannot change your name. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record.

Oklahoma

If you are currently registered as a sex offender, you cannot change your name. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record. No background check is required and the petition does not ask about your record.

Oregon

Currently incarcerated: You are not restricted from changing your name while incarcerated. However, the Department of Corrections will continue to use your prior name until your release and require that incoming and outgoing mail use your prior name. If you legally change your name, you can seek approval to list your new name as an AKA on incoming mail but your prior name will also need to be listed in your address, on the line above. You may E-File a name change petition to avoid the courtroom process. “Publication requirements can be waived and records can be sealed for confidentiality and applicant safety,” (Or. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 33.420 (West)).

OAR rules on transgender and intersex inmates do not specify any policies about name changes, indicating there are no exceptions to the above for transgender inmates. All inmates are required to have an ID card at all times. The regulations do not state that names can be changed on cards but, at the discretion of the supervising correctional staff, IDs can be replaced “at non cost to the inmate” if they are incorrect. Not currently incarcerated: You must state your criminal record in the petition. You must also state whether you are a registered sex offender and whether you “have a domestic violence, restraining

Michael L. (VA)

order, stalking order, or nocontact order” against you. There are no specific restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record but the judge might consider your record when deciding your case. You may apply for a filing fee waiver for your name change petition, if you qualify for government assistance.

Pennsylvania

Currently incarcerated: You can ask the court to waive your requirement to appear in court if you are currently incarcerated. However, you cannot change your name while incarcerated for a felony.

Not currently incarcerated: All name change petitions will be forwarded to state police, who will check if you have a criminal record. If you have been convicted of a violent crime, you cannot change your name. If you have a felony that does not include such crimes, you can only change your name if you have been pardoned, or it has been at least 2 years since the end of your sentence and you are not on parole or probation. If your name change is granted, the court will inform the Attorney General and state police. If you have only misdemeanors, you have no particular restrictions on your ability to change your name. The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project (PILA) has a detailed guide on name changes, including a flowchart detailing whether you can change your name with a criminal record. The applicant must publish notice of the hearing in two newspapers, but publication requirements can be waived and records can be sealed for the applicant’s safety. You may have your name change fees waived by petitioning the court to proceed “in forma

pauperis,” but you will still have to pay the other costs related to the name change process. The instructions and forms for petitioning to proceed in forma pauperis can be found in PILA’s name change guide, pages 18-30.

Rhode Island

There is no particular restriction on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record. A criminal background check is required. The applicant must sign their name change petition in front of a notary public.

South Carolina

Currently incarcerated: If you change your name while incarcerated, the clerk of court will inform the Department of Corrections of your name change. The Department of Corrections must change your name in their records. More research is needed to determine how you can change your name while incarcerated in SC.

Not currently incarcerated: A background check is required. Your name will also be checked on the sex offender registry and the child abuse and neglect registry. If you have a criminal record and your name change petition is granted, the court will inform the State Law Enforcement Division. If you are on the child abuse and neglect registry or the sex offender registry, the court will inform the registry of the change.

South Dakota

There are no specific restrictions on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record. The forms don’t ask your record.

Tennessee

Currently incarcerated: You cannot change your name if currently incarcerated in Tennessee.

Not currently incarcerated: Tennessee’s name change form asks whether you have been convicted of a felony. If you have been convicted of first or second degree murder or were required to register as a sex offender, you cannot change your name. If you were convicted of any other felony, your petition will be assumed to be made in bad faith. Your petition will not be granted unless you prove through clear and convincing evidence that “the petition is not based upon the intent to defraud or mislead, is made in good faith, will not cause injury to an individual and will not compromise public safety.” A lawyer is recommended. If you do not have a felony record, there are no particular restrictions on your ability to change your name based on your criminal record.

Texas

Currently incarcerated: You cannot change your name if you are currently incarcerated for a felony. If you are currently incarcerated for a misdemeanor, more research is needed to determine how you can change your name.

Not currently incarcerated: Background checks are required and the petition form will ask whether you have been convicted of any felonies or are required to register as a sex offender. If you are a registered sex offender, you must attach a completed sex offender registration update to your petition. All petitioners must list all convictions above Class C misdemeanors, listing case

number and court. If your record includes a felony, it must either be pardoned, or have been 2 years since your release from parole/ probation or two years since you received a certificate of discharge from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Utah

You cannot change your name while on the sex and kidnapper

registry or the child abuse offender registry. If you are not required to register for life, you may change your name once you are no longer on the registry. You cannot change your name if you are involved in any other court actions or proceedings, or if you are on probation or parole. Otherwise, there are no limitations on changing your name based on your criminal record.

Vermont

The probate court will check whether you are on the sex offender registry. If you are, the probate court will not approve the name change “unless it finds, after permitting the department of public safety to appear, that there is a compelling purpose for doing so.” If you are not on the sex offender registry, there are no restrictions based on criminal record.

Virginia

Currently incarcerated: You are not specifically restricted from changing your name while incarcerated, but the court will not grant the name change unless the court finds there is good cause, based on the reasons stated in your petition. A lawyer is recommended. You should apply for a name change in the circuit court of the county or city in which you are incarcerated. Not currently incarcerated: You must disclose your felony conviction record on your petition and whether you are required to register as a sex offender or an offender against minors. If you are a registered sex offender, or are currently on parole or probation, the court will not grant your petition unless the judge finds there is good cause, based on the reasons stated in your petition. A lawyer is recommended. If you have any other felony record, relevant authorities will be informed and will have the opportunity to object to your name change. Even after your name change is granted, an attorney for the commonwealth for your jurisdiction has the ability to independently declare your petition void. If this happens, you will be able to file an objection and demand a hearing.

Katie Garth, courtesy of Just Seeds

Washington State

Currently incarcerated: You must submit a copy of your application to the Department of Corrections at least five days before the entry of order granting the name change. If the court finds that changing your name would interfere with legitimate corrections interests, they will deny your petition. However, if you can demonstrate that your name change is for legitimate cultural reasons, this will overrule the corrections interests. If your name change is granted, you must submit a copy of the order to the Department of Corrections within five days.

Not currently incarcerated: If you are currently a registered sex offender, you must submit a copy of your application to your county sheriff and the state patrol, at least five days before the entry of an order granting the name change. If the court finds that granting your name change would interfere with legitimate law enforcement interests, they will deny your application. However, if you can demonstrate that the name change is for legitimate cultural reasons, this will overrule the law enforcement interests. If your application is successful, you must submit a copy of the name change order to your county sheriff and the state

by Molly King, courtesy of Just Seeds

patrol within three business days of entry of the order.

If you are not a registered sex offender, there are no particular restrictions on your ability to change your name based on criminal record.

West Virginia

Currently incarcerated: If you are currently incarcerated for a felony, you cannot change your name. If you are currently incarcerated for a misdemeanor, more research is needed to determine if you can change your name.

Not currently incarcerated: If you are currently a registered sex offender in any state, you cannot change your name in West Virginia. If you were convicted of first degree murder or felony kidnapping, you cannot change your name until 10 years after the conclusion of your sentence (including parole).

The standard petition asks you to state that you have never been convicted of a felony in any jurisdiction. People with felonies are not barred from changing their names in West Virginia. 150 Further research and/or the advice of a lawyer is needed to determine how to best change the language in the petition to reflect your criminal record.

Wisconsin

You cannot change your name if you are currently required to register as a sex offender. Otherwise, you can change your name. However, if you are currently on parole, there is legal precedent for denying your petition. This is at the judge’s discretion.

Wyoming

Wyoming does not have any restrictions on name change based on criminal record.

America’s Dark History Of Criminalizing Queerness

By Adam M. Rhodes, The Appeal, published May 25, 2022

Politicians across the country are launching a seemingly endless stream of cruel and baseless attacks on trans youth. Out of the hundreds of anti-trans bills that have been introduced in recent years, some make a familiar target of gendered bathrooms or the discussion of gender and sexuality in schools. Others target school sports or students’ pronouns, or take the extraordinary step of banning or outright criminalizing gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Earlier this month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Greg Abbott exceeded his authority when he ordered the state’s child protective services agency to investigate the parents of transgender kids. That same day, a federal judge blocked an Alabama law that made it a felony for doctors to provide certain transition-related care to trans youth. In March, Idaho lawmakers halted a bill that would have made providing gender-affirming care punishable by up to life in prison, calling it an overreach.

To be clear, these bills reject decades of research that tout the importance of genderaffirming care, often using blatant misinformation about the reality of trans health care and who needs it to make their point. And even if they never go into effect, they are designed to make it nearly impossible to live happily and healthily as a young trans person. But that’s the point, isn’t it?

Aside from their reliance on misinformation, what makes these efforts so shocking is the way they weaponize the criminal legal system to terrorize trans youth and the people who love them. They will slap loving parents with criminal convictions, strip compassionate doctors of their licenses, and continue to push trans youth to their breaking point.

Amid the outrage in response to this campaign, some have said that anti-trans laws don’t reflect who America is. But the reality— as queer and trans people know all too well—is that the U.S. legal system has long targeted and punished queer people simply for existing.

Laws banning cross-dressing in the U.S. date back to the 19th century. Blackened windows at gay bars are a relic of a time when it was a crime for gay people to dance, drink, or kiss. In the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, informal “threearticle” rules required people to wear at least three pieces of clothing that matched their biological sex—whatever that is. Sodomy laws, which made sex between consenting gay adults a crime, lasted until a 2003 Supreme Court decision (one that experts say could be next on the chopping block).

The criminal legal system also has a history of using queerness as a weapon against defendants. In the capital murder trials of Bernina Mata, Wanda Jean Allen,

and Charles Rhines, prosecutors and juries made sexual identity a primary issue, helping to secure death sentences against them.

Under this system, transgender women are commonly assumed to be sex workers in a phenomenon known as “walking while trans.” Police continue to brutalize queer people, even during the pride celebrations they so desperately want to be a part of. Study after study shows that queer people who enter the criminal legal system face particularly harsh treatment, including disproportionate sentencing and sexual assault and abuse behind bars. Trans people, for instance, are often housed in jails and prisons based on their “biological sex,” putting them at horrifying risk of abuse and assault.

As with these past efforts, the latest campaign against trans people is being driven by fear, ignorance, and a willful disregard for the facts. Transphobic legislators say they want to protect children from irreversible decisions about their gender identity and have raised undue alarm about the safety of puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries. But puberty blockers, for one, are not just relegated to trans youth. They have been used to treat early puberty in young kids, and endometriosis in adults, among other things.

The claim that surgeons are performing gender-affirming procedures on trans youth

would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous, said Daye Pope, director of civic engagement at the trans advocacy group TAKE Birmingham, calling it an “outright lie.”

“We’re trying to really help people understand that all this health care takes years of therapy, of working with health experts and doctors, before a lot of these young people even access the bare minimum of care, which is puberty blockers,” Pope said. “So the idea that this type of legislation is to protect anyone, especially these kids, is just such a

blatant falsehood.”

But when the overarching goal is to harm people based on their identity, facts typically tend to get ignored, said Kristen Browde, co-chair of the National Trans Bar Association. Just like past laws that have targeted queer people, she says their contemporary counterparts are designed to disproportionately harm the most vulnerable among us.

“The most at risk are the people who can’t afford to travel, can’t afford to reach out beyond their state’s borders,” Browde said.

“And invariably, [it will be] the poor people of color, the young, precisely the type of people that the right wing loves to pick on almost every time; and it’s disgraceful.”

The Appeal is a non-profit media organization that produces news and commentary on how policy, politics, and the legal system affect America’s most vulnerable people.

by Favianna Rodriguez, courtesy of The Center for Cultural Power

Politicians across the country are launching a seemingly endless stream of cruel and baseless attacks on trans youth. Out of the hundreds of anti-trans bills that have been introduced in recent years, some make a familiar target of gendered bathrooms or the discussion of gender and sexuality in schools. Others target school sports or students’ pronouns, or take the extraordinary step of banning or outright criminalizing genderaffirming care for trans youth. For many in the Black LGBTQ+ community, the month of June can embody a profound sense of freedom. Not only is June LGBTQ+ Pride Month—which was literally born from a riot against police harassment and

brutality—but it also encompasses Juneteenth. This federal holiday, which falls on June 19, is a celebration of the effective end of slavery in the United States. When in 1865, a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved AfricanAmericans of their freedom and the end of the Civil War.

While Pride and Juneteenth are celebrations of liberation, resilience, and progress, for Black queer people, the interwovenness of the two also illuminates the beauty and reality of their interconnected identities and the oppression they face. Black queer people fight against both racism— in and outside of the LGBTQ+ community—and homophobia,

transphobia and misogynoir—from in and outside communities of color. This is especially important as we confront increasing white supremacy, continued overpolicing, attacks on our freedoms, and attempts to erase our existence from this nation’s fabric. A Black queer perspective of the world, the fight and what it will take to be free is needed now more than ever.

This Juneteenth, we asked six Black queer people what liberation means to them and what it will take to get there. Here’s what they said.

Shar Jossell - she/her - Los Angeles, CA

When it comes to the intersections of my womanhood, transness, and Blackness, freedom is an all-encompassing concept. It means real equity and equality for Black people from all corners of the nation and across the globe. We cannot expect any formidable progress if we continue to disregard the most marginalized in our communities. Therefore, the fight for freedom cannot waiver when turbulence occurs. A key requirement for liberation is an acknowledgment of past transgressions and a willingness and hunger to unite for a brighter tomorrow for everyone.

Robin Carnilius - they/them - Chicago, IL

Being Black, queer, and trans, the intersectionality of my marginalized identities often makes me a target wherever I am. It’s a weight on my shoulders and a plague on my mind, always wondering if I’ll be the next Black person killed by police or the next POC trans woman killed. I’ve gotten called “tranny” “faggot” and “that’s a man” by different Black strangers, been fetishized and dehumanized by white queer men, falsely arrested by white officers, and the list goes on. And I say all this as one of the privileged people who grew up middle class.

For me, freedom and liberation mean living in this world without fear of harassment or death for simply existing. It’s freedom from trying to “pass” for safety, freedom to do something unapologetically Black and not have it be labeled “ghetto” or “aggressive.” It’s protections and the pursuit of happiness that only the privileged enjoy. If we could exterminate the roles of colonization, Christianity, and capitalism in our government and media, it would go a long way toward changing minds and systems and freeing us all.

Kenyon Farrow - he/himCleveland Heights, OH

It’s really hard to imagine what real freedom and liberation look like when my very existence in this country is forged out of such violence and brutality. Freedom and liberation aren’t passive or about prayer, meditation, or therapy. Those things can help us navigate and transform the harm we experience. But freedom is a process, a pathway, in which we have to transform our entire society to ensure all people are fed, housed, clothed, and experience life without unnecessary deprivation of resources. And liberation is when we all get to have meaningful work and connection to family and community and can live lives of dignity, joy, and beauty as much as possible. So I don’t think I can be free when someone else is subjected to oppression, violence, and deprivation.

Deon Haywood - she/her - New Orleans, LA

If we sit down every day and simply think about the attacks on our community, we wouldn’t make it, y’all. So we need to seek joy and do so with each other as part of our liberation. We have to celebrate that in this fight because I don’t want us to be like our foremothers and fathers were when they were so unhappy doing this fight. If we are going to sustain ourselves, and our community is going to sustain itself, then it means that we have to impart moments of joy. When you think about Black communities, that’s what we’ve always done. They didn’t create it for us; we created it before. Finally, liberation is also about fighting with vigor and the ability to dream of the world of what we want it to look like for ourselves.

Avatara Smith-Carrington - they/themTexas

Liberation or a liberatory practice looks like being a community with folks. Who I choose to be in community and struggle with and to who I choose to be accountable to. Often that looks like the species that breed give life to joy and happiness, and that’s in times like these where it feels like everything around you is crumbling. Being in those spaces is a constant reminder of what is possible, even when it seems impossible right now. That is what liberation looks like: Finding the possibility and all that is possible.

For me, liberation looks like not centering our resilience but critiquing the systems that force us to be resilient.

Preston Mitchum - he/him - Washington, DC

We Can’t Stop Transphobia Without Fighting For Abolition

By #FreeAshleyNow, reprinted courtesy of Bitch Magazine

On Feb. 23, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed Family and Protective Services to investigate all trans children and prosecute their parents as child abusers through a letter that also instructed all teachers, doctors, and caregivers to report any trans students they see. Gov. Abbott’s announcement comes on the heels of several states across the country enacting trans youth sports bans, forcing school districts to only allow youth to play on sports teams that align with their gender assigned at birth. Thousands of people rightfully recognized this as another example of institutionalized transphobia targeting kids and shared their anger across social media. Many have sprung into action, calling on us to contact our legislators and donate to LGBTQ+ organizations in impacted areas.

We’ve participated in these actions ourselves, and we’re hopeful that our collective power will strike down these transphobic laws. But as we’ve seen, as soon as one bill is defeated, another pops up in its place. Why? There’s no denying that these proposed bills are transphobic. It is also unequivocally true that transphobia, anti-Blackness, and authoritarianism are already embedded into the fabric of the legal system and most existing bills within it—and until we end it entirely, this system will continue to churn out legislation against trans self-determination. For us

as organizers of the Free Ashley Diamond campaign working to free a Black trans woman from prison, we know one thing: we cannot fully stop transphobia without fighting for abolition—a world where we eradicate prisons and policing in all forms.

Written directives such as the one in Texas or the trans sports ban in Georgia might appear just to impact trans youth, however, policing that starts at school often leads to longer-term forms of punishment such as incarceration. While there is a lack of research on trans-specific youth incarceration, studies show that LGBTQ+ youth overall are more likely to experience juvenile incarceration—in part due to how LGBTQ+ kids are forced to engage in self-defense against bullying. Once someone enters the prison-industrial complex, they are more likely to be connected to it throughout the rest of their life. Even if one is freed from a physical prison, the threat of e-carceration, probation, and monitoring and its impacts on one’s ability to move freely makes it so that recidivism rates are extraordinarily high. Limited access to education, stability, and supportive housing or jobs leads to trans people trying to gain economic security via any means necessary, even if it means breaking the law.

While this may seem alarmist, the fact is that trans sports bans and Gov. Abbott’s letter lead not only

to the harassment of queer and trans youth but also contribute to the continued criminalization of transness overall. By forcing trans youth to live in the closet, or risk losing their family and education, Gov. Abbott and transphobes are creating a world where not only is being trans looked down upon, it is thought of as morally deviant and even illegal. Furthermore, the carceral state enforces transphobia through its mere existence. It is a system that relies on gender-based violence to operate, which means that trans people, specifically trans women, often serve as its perfect target. Whether it be via gendered prisons (that only consider the genders one is assigned at birth), or the constant fear that trans people live in daily for simply presenting in a way that is outside of the norm, trans-ness is demonized within our society. Trans people are continuously othered in prison, and also cut off from support which often leads to them being more likely to become victims of sexual assaults while incarcerated.

The impact of this transphobic violence has been clear to us as we’ve organized #FreeAshleyNow, a survivor-defense campaign we created to free Ashley Diamond, a Black trans woman activist from Rome, Georgia who is currently incarcerated in Coastal State Prison in Georgia. She is also our friend. After being incarcerated in 2012, the Georgia Department of Corrections placed her in a

by Matice Moore,

men’s prison, denied her hormone therapy, and aided and abetted in her ongoing sexual assault. She eventually filed a lawsuit with the Southern Poverty Law Center against the Georgia Department of Corrections, which resulted in an April 2015 decision to provide transgender inmates with “constitutionally appropriate medical and mental health treatment.” Unfortunately, Diamond was re-incarcerated in October 2019 due to a technical parole violation. After being reincarcerated she was once again placed in a men’s facility, where she has inconsistent access to hormones, and fears for her safety. Since being reincarcerated in October 2019, Ashley has experienced more than 15 sexual assaults, and as outlined

by her lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Georgia Department of Corrections has destroyed video evidence that “would have corroborated her accounts of abuse”.

Fighting for trans youth is essential during these new waves of legislation. We should all be doing whatever we can to avoid normalizing this horrifying news. However, we fear that transphobia, and transphobic violence (specifically transmisogynistic violence towards trans women and femmes), will continue to reinvent itself in new ways unless we firmly commit to abolition in the fight for trans justice. In an abolitionist world, Diamond would have the ability to live free from fear. She

would be able to live in dignity amongst her community, and her basic needs would be met. In an abolitionist world, trans youth would have the care they deserve, and not have to hide who they are in order to access education. They would be able to participate in sports and extracurricular activities and also live with the knowledge that as they grew up they wouldn’t have to face the threat of criminalization that is Diamond’s current reality. We have to destroy transphobia by eradicating every system that upholds it, and that begins with the criminal legal system.

-editor’s note: Ashley Diamond was released from prison on August 3, 2022

courtesy of The Center for Cultural Power

The end of Roe is ‘horrific’ for incarcerated people seeking abortion care

Access to abortions in prison is even more severely limited now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.

By Char Adams, courtesy of NBC News

It was already difficult to get an abortion in prison.

From being forced to pay for transportation to far-away abortion providers to waiting for a court order to undergo the procedure, pregnant people behind bars face severely limited access to abortion. Now, the situation is even more dire with the end of the landmark Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the 1973 case that made abortion legal on a federal level, a decision celebrated by anti-abortion activists. Abortion rights advocates, however, warn that pregnant people in prisons and jails across the country will be forced to continue unwanted pregnancies, facing harsh birthing conditions in prison and sometimes poor prenatal care. Some had previously filed lawsuits to fight for their onceconstitutional right to abortion. People incarcerated in states across the country have long had to fight for their right to an abortion, according to Rachel Roth, reproductive justice specialist and scholar with the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University in Boston.

For example, in Tennessee,

Kei’Choura Cathey alleged the Maury County Sheriff’s Department effectively deprived her of an abortion by refusing her transportation and funding after her arrest in July 2015, according to court documents. According to WTVF, her only option at the time was to post bail — an exorbitant $1 million— to leave jail and undergo the procedure. Sheriff Bucky Rowland held then that he had medical staff look into the situation, and determined that the abortion was “voluntary” and not medically necessary, which meant Cathey would have to cover costs related to the procedure.

She was ultimately able to have her bail reduced, but by that point, months later, she was too far along in her pregnancy to get an abortion under state law, WTVF reported. The case was ultimately dismissed, with a judge holding Cathey waited too long to file the suit, according to court records.

It’s going to be horrific in states that ban abortion, and even difficult in states that do have abortion rights.

“The fact is, it’s going to be a big brick wall. It’s going to be horrific in states that ban

abortion, and even difficult in states that do have abortion rights,” Roth said. “It’s going to take a coordinated effort from all of the abortion funds, bail funds, and attorneys to figure out what to do for individuals who are in the process of being or are already incarcerated.”

Access to abortion varies widely by state, and, even in states that allow abortion, incarcerated people may be blocked from accessing the procedure through barriers like self-payment requirements and prison staff discretion, advocates say.

In a study published last year, a group of Johns Hopkins University researchers looked into more than two dozens prisons and jails and found that a majority of pregnancies in the prisons researched ended in live births or miscarriages — with abortion accounting for 1.3% of pregnancy outcomes. The number was higher in the jails researched, with abortion accounting for 15% of the pregnancy outcomes. Experts say few women even realize abortion is possible while incarcerated, and many who do end up fighting tooth and nail to access the procedure.

Now, with Roe out of the

picture, what little access federally incarcerated people had to the family planning procedure is gone. This, experts say, will have serious consequences for people pregnant behind bars.

“Denying incarcerated people access to abortion, and thereby conscripting them to carry pregnancies while being incarcerated, subjects them to, depending on where they are, potentially unsafe and harmful conditions,” said Carolyn Sufrin, a researcher and associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “This makes the case for why we shouldn’t be incarcerating pregnant folks in the first place, if we’re conscripting them to conditions where they have no say in their pregnancies and limited abilities to access the care that they need.”

Plenty of examples of poor birthing conditions have surfaced in recent years. Two jail administrators in Broward County, Florida, were fired in 2020 after allegedly ignoring a woman as she screamed for help in her jail cell prior to giving birth, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, citing the Broward Public Defender’s Office. The woman told the outlet that she was having contractions and labor pains hours before she gave birth, and authorities did not take her to a hospital, as required by law.

Months earlier, Florida had enacted a law to limit isolation for pregnant people while in

custody. The law was passed after another woman had her baby alone in a jail cell in 2019, the Sentinel reported. Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said then that a review determined the two administrators “grossly failed this agency and this inmate.”

Siwatu-Salama Ra, who told NBC News she gave birth at a hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in front of armed guards, said it’s “devastating” to think that more people may go through what she did now that Roe is off the table. Ra was almost seven months pregnant when she was sentenced in 2018 to two years at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility just outside of Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press. The case made national headlines as Ra, then 26 with no criminal record, was charged with felonious assault and firearm charges for brandishing her licensed, unloaded gun during an argument in Michigan, which is both a concealed-carry and “stand your ground” state.

As organizers worked to free Ra and draw attention to her case, she was preparing to give birth inside. She said she developed an infection during her first month at the facility and ended up going into premature labor. At the hospital, authorities shackled her to the bed, she said. Ra said that pregnant incarcerated people experience “some of the most inhumane horrifying practices done by the state to pregnant women” when taken from the facility to give birth.

“No woman or person deserves to give birth in shackles and chains, Ra told NBC News. “No child should be born into a world surrounded by armed police officers with heavy military like uniforms just to be separated from its mother within the next 24 hrs. This is what will happen when you take the right to abortion away from women and people who are being criminalized in this country.”

Officials at the facility did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

Advocates have fought for years to end the practice of shackling pregnant people during labor and/or postpartum recovery. At least 37 states have laws that limit shackling, which experts say makes it difficult for doctors to deliver the babies and may lead to injuries during childbirth. Despite the laws, 82.9% of hospital nurses surveyed in 2018 said the incarcerated pregnant patients they cared for were shackled “sometimes to all of the time,” according to research published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing.

Ra ended up serving about nine months of the sentence after appealing her conviction and ultimately taking a plea deal, she told NBC News. Ra has said she pulled out her gun in selfdefense when a woman tried to run her and her mother over with a car, according to the Detroit Free Press. A Michigan court ultimately overturned the

felony convictions.

She credits organizers with the Siwatu Freedom Team for her release, and although she is happy to be home with her family, Ra said she has dedicated her time to advocating for pregnant people in prison.

“Roe v. Wade, even that piece of legislation and that sense of protection at a federal level isn’t even ideal,” Ra told NBC News. “It was a very simple and necessary one. So here we are feeling like we’re taking generations, generational steps backwards, when we should be moving ahead.”

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York who sought an emergency order to have an abortion. According to the complaint, her request for the procedure was repeatedly denied and leaders at the facility ultimately said there was a 21day freeze on large payments to prison accounts, so she wouldn’t be able to pay for the procedure through her account — even though the woman did not plan to pay for the abortion through her prison account.

Authorities told her that by the time the freeze was lifted, she would be past the state’s 22week threshold for an abortion, according to the complaint. Authorities have not addressed the allegations publicly, and officials at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York did not reply to requests

for comment.

The woman was ultimately able to have an abortion, despite the freeze, with the ACLU’s legal assistance, said Alexa KolbiMolinas, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. But, moving forward, the courts may be no help without Roe in place.

“We may be able to challenge abortion bans in some states under state constitutions, but, in general, their rights are going to stand and fall with the rights of the people in the state who aren’t incarcerated,” KolbiMolinas said of the country’s incarcerated population. “If there’s no federal protection, if there’s no state constitutional protection and a state makes it illegal, that’s probably going to be the end of it.”

Kolbi-Molinas said the ACLU has won a majority of its cases on behalf of people seeking abortion, and she has seen severe restrictions including pregnant incarcerated people being required to cover salary compensation for staff members who transport them to abortion providers. These events illustrate the high stakes of incarceration for pregnant people, particularly for women of color in jails and prisons, who will be the most likely to be affected.

“We know that Black women are incarcerated at twice the rate of white women,” Sufrin said, adding that both Latino and Indigenous women are incarcerated at higher rates than white women. “It most likely

is going to disproportionately impact women of color, who are already disproportionately incarcerated. That will parallel trends across the nation, but it will do so in a distinctly punitive way for people who are incarcerated because of the restrictions of their environment and the loss of autonomy.”

Along with concerns about loss of access and birthing conditions, activists say they are worried that pregnant people behind bars will face even more criminalization for their pregnancy outcomes. People have been jailed after having miscarriages, and advocates warn that incarcerated pregnant people will be penalized for miscarriages and self-managed abortions in the future.

“People don’t often think about abortion as connected to criminal justice, when oftentimes incarcerated people are ground zero for having their rights stripped away,” said Samantha Masters, a reproductive justice organizer with the advocacy groups #FreeBlackMamasDMV and Organizing Black. “Right now we’re seeing the criminal state expand to include incarcerated mothers in an even wider net.”

Letters from our Inside Family

When you turned your back, I finally saw the real you ... Your heart was never in it, that much is true ...

I choose to live my life and you were so ashamed, And of course there’s me to blame.

I finally came out and I’m proud to be me ... I’ve chosen to live true, being exactly who I am ... You are just a bit judgmentalbut still I love who you are, my seed - my son, my heart till the very end ... And you thought that we were just friends ...

Seeing this other side of you has caused my heart to ache and left a scar ... But has scars go, this too will heal - maybe you’ll even change how you now feel, even if not - I’ll love you still - my son, my seed ... just keeping it real.

People change that much is true - although some still hide and feel forever blue, that will no longer be me - and especially not you - because we are those which keep it real giving a damn how others feel ...

When you turned your back - I saw the real you ... your heart is not in it, that remains true.

A

Father Coming Out To His Son

- Irvin J (CA)

RE: Legal Feedback

to and for Travis in Missouri and others in prisons nationwide who may be similarly situated from a CLA -CP certified paralegal/legal assistant and LGBTQ Prisoner’s Rights advocate and activist

Dear Travis and beautiful B&P Family,

Responding to a letter from our inside family member Travis to Black & Pink in the Volume 12, Issue 6 Black & Pink Newsletter, saying that down here in the prisons throughout the state of Florida, we seem to be also experiencing and encountering the same exact dilemma concerning censorship, infringement upon our right to civilly assemble, our religious preferences rights and various forms of sexual and ethnic persecutions and discrimination. Plus us Florida prisoners are not paid for our labor nor are we even granted any type of financial provision as Travis describes Missouri prisoners receiving every month.

Three known US Supreme Court decisions ban prison censorship and they are Pell v. Procunier, Procunier v. Martinez and Turner v. Safley. You may obtain their complete legal citations from your prison library. Insofar as our constitutional rights, per first amendment right to freely practice our preferred religions, this is reinforced by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (See 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb

through 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-4) as well as the Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act (see 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc). The ethnic and religious persecution and discrimination which y’all also seem to be encountering violates not only the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment but it also violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (see 42 U.S.C. § 2000d ). I’m planning to make it to be my business to submit documented legal knowledge to Black & Pink every month for all of my beautiful members of my beautiful LGBTQIA2S+ and B&P family to document; and that’s because I love all of y’all.

Let’s all be mindful not to address one another using ethnically nor sexually condescending nor derogatory slurs, as we receive more than enough of that abuse from our oppressive captors (masters)! OK?

Lady Ice Cream (FL)

I Cry Sometimes

I don’t cry sometimes because I am sad, hurt nor discouraged. I cry sometimes, because the hatred around me is making me nervous

The rage, in their eyes and souls, as if I’ve done them a disservice A stranger walking by, who would simply kill me, for no reason or purpose.

I don’t cry sometimes, because money is tight, and I think that I might go hungry.

I cry, for them people living on the streets, who have nobody, and are truly lonely.

For them children, who attend schools and try to do good but their only lessons are from the homies.

Whom have been rejected since birth to parents who hurt, given to a system that’s so fake and so phony

I don’t cry sometimes because of these bricks and these bars, that the masters have built to hold me.

I cry for these fools who be talking behind my back, like they’re my friends and don’t even know me.

Spreading lies and deceit, always gossiping in them streets. The tongues of them devils keep scolding me.

It burns like hot grease, taking the life out of me, but that’s OK because God is just molding me. I don’t cry sometimes because of this fate of mine, because God chose me, and this is my destiny.

I cry sometimes because in their states of mind, they don’t understand that God is only testing me.

He makes me stronger, stronger and stronger! Every single time they try to get the best of me. But while they’re swinging their fists, all they can do is just miss, I’m not hurt because God keeps on blessing me.

I don’t cry sometimes, when I slip and fall; struggling hard, to climb up God’s ladder.

I cry sometimes because after all that we have been through, we all should to do better. This is why, I cry ...

Mychel P (AR)

Greetings from Arizona Department of Corrections and Arizona’s only women’s prison, built on old farm land. This leased land still has farming going on next to the prison. We have dust storms regularly. Crop dusting is done by a helicopter that flies over the buildings and inmates sitting outside. Swamp coolers bring it in our cells. With that being said; this is my theory as to why so many women are being diagnosed with a plethora of cancers. Especially but not exclusive to inmates doing time on Lumley and Santa Maria Units, which have active farming behind each unit. I have been present when the crop duster flew over us every year and we could smell the pesticide! When the prison tills the ground around the rest of the prison, we get dusted every time. The dust storms have plenty of loose materials to throw at us. Do pesticides ever go away? What kinds have been used or are being used? Prison staff bring their own water. Fifteen years ago, when I hit Lumley Unit, there was a sign in visitation for the visitors stating “Don’t Drink the Water.” Since removed! Now its placed outside where visitors come in. When water is tested at the prison, its not from our cells. I believe there is a correlation to the high number of cancer victims, valley fever, active farming, dust storms, dirt and water sources. Too often when we turn on the water, it smells like sewage. We not only drink it, we shower in it.

Another issue, the prison is infested with ground squirrels. They are destroying the foundation and plants but not the farmed produce. What are they using to keep them away? Someone needs to research this with current and released inmates. The land around the prison needs to be tested, as well as the water and the infrastructure. At present, two units are closed down, due to repeated failed inspections. Santa Maria being one of these! Paint can’t cover it all up anymore! Most of the prison is over 40 years old. It’s maintained poorly, to say the least. Too many friends and fellow oppressed inmates have died or are suffering right now. If anyone knows how to help, please send this info to the appropriate person. Thank you.

A.J. (AZ)

Dear Black & Pink Family, Hello to my brothers and sisters. I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you and let you all know I love you for being you. I’m grateful to know I’m not alone in these tough times, especially being in the prison system and the only women’s prison in Michigan. I’m a bisexual female and still figuring out who I am, what I’ve been through mentally, emotionally with men. It makes me want to be a lesbian, lol. Thought I would put a little humor in here.

Thank you for reading, Much love and respect, Kelli (MI)

Letters from our Inside Family

LGBTQ Pride Month

I have been writing B&P for a while now and I have noticed each issue touches a topic and or event.

I love reading and even replying to each of our brothers and sisters stories, letters and poems. As the month of June is the month to celebrate LGBTQ pride.

As such, I would like to give a shout-out to every one of my brothers and sisters worldwide. We are unstoppable, lovable and powerful. For everything we accomplish, we are making a change. Keep up the great work everyone. Thank you ALL my B&P brothers and sisters for the strong and powerful work each one of you do. Let’s bring the colors out this month and celebrate beautifully with pride.

With pride always, Your Brother J.R. (MO)

I just wanted to extend my appreciation for all of the “sexual appropriateness” that was highlighted in the Sept/ Oct 2020 issue. I committed a sex offense at 18 years old due to a lack of education, experience and opportunity. I have since made it my purpose to educate myself and others about true consent and sexual appropriateness.

Many are surprised (as I was) to

find that there are actually nine levels of consent! They include both (or all) parties saying yes and having the ability to say no. That no one is mentally or physically impaired by way of drugs, alcohol, mental health, etc. All parties should be over 18 AND similar in age, mental capacity and maturity. One other often overlooked level of consent is that someone can begin sexual contact and then revoke their consent or say “no,” “stop,” “I’m good,” etc. at any point!

I find these facts to be so important! Especially considering the criminal liability one could face and the mental/emotion distress they could cause. I also remind myself that anyone who is worth my body would allow my true consent, all nine levels. I will also ensure I have theirs.

Y’all, celebrate your body and your sexuality but let’s remember that our choices are our own. I’ve been deep down the “suck this dick bitch” road and sometimes I enjoy the domination but we all know when we are willingly doing something and when our boundaries are crossed. I encourage you all to speak up when and if your relations are not consensual.

Stay safe and keep it consensual.

xoxo Jai (NC)

Pride, Power and Integrity by

Amber M.

Hi, BNP Family, Prison is an awful place of hate and rage and pain and prejudice and can either make you stronger or break you down and disintegrate you. We are occupants of the prison, the prison does not control our minds or emotions.

We must not let prison guards get away with abusing us or harassing us. We are a very strong and resilient community of our own breeds. LGBTQIA2S+, we are all beautiful and we are all equally human and should expect nothing less than what is considered equal to every other citizen on this earth. Nobody has the right to judge or condemn us or cause pain upon us. We can only be angry at the things we fight to change. If we do not fight to change what’s wrong then we are as guilty as those who are out to hurt us. And we cannot in turn be angry at what we do not fight to change.

We must stand together. Not just as a community but as an incarcerated whole and work together to appropriate the injustices that the prison officials get away with every single day. We must never allow anyone to break us physically or mentally. We are the ones who can sharpen our minds and win the game that the system

Letters from our Inside Family

created by using their own policies and regulations against them. Once they realize that the rules and regulations and policies they created to try and control and torment us is turned against them. Then we have won! Ladies and gentlemen and all those in between and all who are of our community. We must be strong and conduct ourselves with pride, power and integrity.

Solidarity and respect my BNP Family, Amber M. (NV)

he’s over there (another block) and I’m here. There’s no sense in saying something about it, I don’t make the rules. I’ve settled in and make the best of it.

I also wanted to write this: As a child, I was abused sexually and I fight with it every day. The person who did it was a very close friend to my entire family, so I thought. I’ll never understand why people abuse children. It makes me sick to my stomach.

impulsiveness have all taken a hold at various points in my life. However, as of this writing, I have just over four and a half years clean and sober time - no easy task in a system, (or at least a location) that offers little to no support for the addict seeking recovery.

*content warning - childhood sexual abuse*

Hello Black & Pink Family,

How is everyone doing? I’m doing great. I wanna say I loved all the stories y’all placed in this newsletter.

Update on me, I’ve been on HRT for seven months now and I’m feeling really good on them. Shout out to Mike P from CA, I know what you mean when it comes to PTSD. I have it and it could be bad for me at times. Everyone else who deals with it, know you’re not alone. You have people to talk to about it. I was/ am not afraid to see my psych when needed.

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend got moved to another block. I still can see him in the yard, but that’s about it. I hate the fact

Shout out to ChelseaNya, I’m sorry to hear what happened to you that landed you in the hole. Stay strong and never give up the fight. We have a few C/Os here who love to use the “fag” word and then once they have you in cuffs, they wanna start beating on you for no reason. Luckily, I’ve never had that problem. I avoid those kinda C/Os. Well, I’ll close for now. Everyone take it east and I send my love and blessings to my Black & Pink family.

Love, Cree (PA) Hello my Black ‘N Pink Family!

I’m relatively new to B ‘N P, a strong community from what I can see. I’m an openly gay male. One who has certainly not made the healthiest of choices, hence my current incarceration, as mental health challenges, addiction, self-loathing and

In no particular order, I am many things: white, middle-aged, male, gay, incarcerated citizen, writer, addict, poet, uncle, brother, son, friend, Democrat, proud, suicide attempt survivor and Christian. Faith is a key component I’ll focus on in this letter.

It is with sadness at times that I’ve read in these pages the challenges faced accepting faith, a God, if you will, along with the dichotomy of accepting orientation. I really liked the affirming letter in the March ‘22 issue from Ms. Whitney June D. (IL). If I may add one caveat and a challenge to all, myself included.

Let us commit to leaving the modern construct of homosexuality out of the

conversation of our modern day definition of “sin.”

After many years of prayer, reflection and listening, talking to progressive Christians, this is what I’ve gleaned: Homosexuality as we know it was not a concept 2000+ years ago. Though same-gender sexual behavior was, it was part of worship in the Pagan faith, looking to the god Baal.

Letters from our Inside Family

Thus, when people quote the infamous line, “man shall not lie with man,” I believe that to really mean “don’t worship other/ multiple gods.”” Historically (correct me if I’m wrong) but I believe the word “homosexual” doesn’t come into our lexicon until the mid 1800s.

Which leads to another point - unless one is an expert in ancient Aramaic or Greek. There is no way to truly ascertain what was truly meant, thus throwing many translations up for debate. I’m one who believes in science (and that Christianity and science are not mutually exclusive), thus I know I was born this way, which is further supported in the Bible, that we are made in “His image.”

I no longer, 56 years into my life, have a need to debate this issue. Besides, it’s difficult for me to debate those who eschew science for believing that our world is only 10,000 years old. So I don’t. I go to a nightly Bible study, attend church services and continue to affirm my faith in God. I no longer fight it. For without God in my life, I breakout in handcuffs, going right back to drugs, alcohol and promiscuity. And for me, therein would lie the real since, in which I harm others, let people down all over again.

There are a number of good books on the subject that have affirmed my spiritual journey: “Torn: Rescuing the Gospel From the Gays vs. Christians Debate”

by Justin Lee and “Unashamed:

A Coming-Out Guide for LGBTQ Christians” by Amber Cantorna. I hope this long winded diatribe might help any other Black ‘N Pink family in merging their faith and identity. Keep on writing! And be kind to one another!

Sincerely,

Rolf R. (MO + AR + CO)

Dear Family,

Hey, it’s your boy Haze. I actually have another letter I wrote from before but it’s in my property. Today is May 24, 2022, I’ve been in the hole for four days now and it’s crazy. So it’s been a few years since I wrote and lots to say but first I need to shout out Justin B. Babe, my husband, I love you, these two years been crazy but I’m glad you agreed to be my Forever. Happy late two year anniversary, my love!

So, family, May 5, 2021 I was sentenced to 18 to 40 years and the two years parole took from me. I had possession of child pornography. This is a second offense which normally carries a 25 year mandatory. I agree that my charges are severe and I take the full responsibility. However, I strongly believe 18 years is overkill. I could understand if it was a hands-on crime but it wasn’t. There are murderers who get less time, even repeat sex offenders who actually had a victim that got less time.

Pennsylvania is a very corrupt state. I don’t know what to do, I’m past deadline for PCRA. I would just like the time cut like 10 years, its more manageable. But I have no money, I can barely get a JPay to buy food, hygiene and e cigs, let alone take care of my family, my husband and our boys. Any advice? Also in my next letter, I want to share my Pride House/Pride Village concept, a new residential project which is Bad Ass :) I’m hoping to get a GoFundMe page to raise funds. Anyone interested in learning more or writing me, sending stories, love erotica or just being friends, hit me up, please. Hope to hear from y’all. To send letters, Smart Communications PA-DOC, Christian Gouse #NE5356, SCI Huntington, Box 33028, St Petersburg FL, 33733.

Much love, Haze (PA)

To the Black n Pink Family,

I am reading my first copy of this newsletter and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Not that it matters but my name is Mandy D. and I am Native American (Cherokee + Lumbee) and white. I respect and love the LGBTQ community but honestly don’t know much about it. What I will say is that I know I am a 43 year old woman. However, I am attracted to women at times and men at times. But I am not like a woman. Anybody who sees me

Letters from our Inside Family

assumes I am gay and pretty much a stud. (They say I am “all boy”). I walk like a guy and have male mannerisms and dress boyish and like “guy” things. I am not girly and “touchy feely” and “talk about my feelings” type. I am a total “dude” in relationships so I have been with more “feminine” acting men in my life. I’ll joke and say they act like a “bitch.” I naturally am just totally like a man in pretty much all that I do and am.

It has cost me pretty much every relationship I have had with a man. Because men don’t like that I work men’s jobs and carry myself like a man. I’ve tried to priss myself up and I’ve made myself look very pretty but it’s just not me and I’m not comfortable like that. I have loved a couple of men and really only two took me like I am and accepted me.

Being a 43-year-old incarcerated “stem” (is what some have told me I am) has made me do a lot of thinking. I have gotten back into my Catholic faith and reading the letters in your newsletter really has me wondering: What am I? Who am I? How Can I Be Me and Be Comfortable As Who I Am? I’m middle-aged now and I have only been comfortable, really comfortable in two male/female relationships that I’ve been in. I do know that I’m not going to try to change me for anyone every again. I am “all boy” and this is just me. And there are men I am attracted to and A LOT

of women I am attracted to.

Can you help me identify myself, finally? I know there are a lot of different LGBTQ+ labels or sex labels and I don’t know what I would even identify as???

Alone and confused, Mandy (NC)

even tho they play nice, they can turn on you, I hope to God that I get out of here soon. I’ve met the love of my life while on this yard and hope to be with him soon. Anyway, my friend and family, until next time ..

Love always, your brother xTBabyx (NV)

Dear B&P Family, It’s been a few years since I’ve wrote to you all and for that I’m deeply sorry ... I got out in 2018 and stayed out for a few years and sadly I got into trouble and came back in 2021. I’ve been through a lot since being let out, so much ... But that’s for a later time :)

I write to you now in the early morning while sitting in the hole at ____ pending a PREA investigation. This all started because I said no, no to a man who wanted to be with me, a man who I thought was my friend ... When no one else looked out for him, when no one else would speak to him, when everyone in the unit turned and laughed at him, I was there, there when he needed someone to talk to, to say its gonna be OK. Now look at me, sitting in the hole looking stupid AF ... my heart wants to turn cold like “Maleficent” but I can’t allow the evil to win. I’m scared to death at what’s going to happen, I guess I just wanted to get that out to let people know, be kind, be cool, but be careful. Because

Dear Black & Pink Family,

My name is Joseph and I am a 27, soon to be 28 year old bisexual male. I found out I was bisexual at the age of 13. A real close friend of mine and I were experimenting with each other. He was also 13. We found out that we were attracted to both girls and boys. But we were afraid to tell our parents at the time.

I’m currently incarcerated in Missouri’s Department of Corrections and have been incarcerated for almost 10 years. Just two months ago, I told my mom and my aunt about me being bisexual and being in love with a transgender person. My mom said “It is what it is.” But my aunt said in an email to me, “I’m not going to judge you, it’s not my place to judge. If that is who you choose to love, then OK. I just want you to be happy.”

Since the young age of 12 up to now, I’ve had many relationships. All of them led up to me being the one with a broken heart and hurting. The

Letters and Poetry from our Inside Family

relationship that hurt me the most was when I was with my ex fiance and on the streets back in 2012. She told me that she was pregnant with my first born son and then a week later, she miscarried. Now, I’ve moved on with my life because I’ve found the love of my life, my soulmate and my other half. She was transferred to another camp on March 8, 2022. I truly love her with all of my heart, soul, mind, body and spirit. She’s transgender and I love her for her.

Ever since I’ve come out to my family and I found my soulmate, I’ve been a better person and I am able to be the REAL ME! I’ve got about 7.5 years left to do and the love of my life gets out in September of this year. She has told me that she is my ride or die girl and that she’ll wait for me. I truly believe her.

Since I’ve been through so many relationships and heartbreaks, I thought I’d never find love again or ever find my soulmate. Who would have known that I’d find them here in prison? I know that the Gods and Goddesses knew that I’d find my soulmate here in prison. I mean, they say everything happens for a reason. I am here in (this prison) and each day that passes by and I don’t see her face, I am saddened. But I know she feels the same way.

I want to give a shout out to my

family here. Thank you Tiffany, Jazmine, Momma Crystal, Perez, Derrick, Tony, BeeBee, Patrick, Paul, Vinny, TC, Michelle and everyone else. I say thank you for being by my side and helping me out. For listening to me when I needed someone to talk to. And for helping me find my soulmate. I love you with all of my heart and soul. To the rest of the B+P family, I love you all with all of my heart and soul, too. Stay strong!

Love always and forever, Joseph R. (MO)

A poem by Joseph:

Real Me

One day, long, long ago I feel in love and I’ll never know Just what it was that made me feel

So drawn to her, what was the appeal?

As I walked on by She said “hi” Which made my heart flop And made me stop

She had the most amazing smile Which made me stare for awhile As I gazed into her beautiful eyes

They seemed to talk to me and hypnotize

I told her that she looked like a Beautiful Queen Who could be nice or mean She laughed and started to say

“Why don’t you walk my way?”

That day I feel in love with a transgender person And nothing was going to hinder Who I was meant to be And that was and is the REAL ME.

- Joseph R. (MO)

Dear Whoever Needs It,

I got beat up for being gay while I was in jail. My eye was black, my jaw swelled up. I don’t remember falling over. When I transferred to prison, the predators swooped in. They said they hate me, but harassed me when I was vulnerable - in the shower, using the toilet, changing clothes in my own cell. It was a weird connection to have with them, that they hate me then act inappropriate toward me. I tried to use that as my strength, I tried being confident in my sexuality. That made them angrier but drew them in closer and I could feel my head spinning.

Doing time as LGBT+ is hard, to put it lightly. But we are the LGBTQIA2S+ community and we are strong. My cell mate is the one who receives your paper and showed it to me one day. I read the stories, I read the poems, and it was hard for me to keep my tears in. But I did. I kept that moment to my self.

Letters and Poetry from our Inside Family

I wrote poems. They’re being published in a book. The stuff in Black & Pink relates to me in that we are all connectedour friends, our enemies - and through those connections the LGBT+ spirit thrives. I’m in love with another inmate now and I’ve made friends who give as much as they get. As is true with all communities, there are hardships. I just want anyone who needs it to hear this: You are important. You matter.

If even from a distance, even if you feel alone, there is someone supporting you. OK? Doing time as a member of the LGBT+ community is hard. I wrote this poem because I was inspired by you so I included it with the letter. If even from a distance, I’m here with you. You can do it, too.

- Jon O. (CO)

Ravel

Ravel out, my heart-strings! Create rainbows as you bend. Travel the dirt road around prison fences, in and out of my head. You are my friends’ voices that echo from brick to brick. You are whistles and cat-calls and predatory eyes from around the corners. You are our thoughts we hate, the things we know and this poem as I read it. Letters

from the world outside move along you. Flicker like we do, a shadow cast by candlelight. Break through doors and interlock me, distance and presence. You are sun rays splitting through the clouds, hailstones impacting everything, the night sky in a cell window. There are little lights too far away, but you exist between them. The scent of roses from long-lived loved ones remains on you. You push ambrosia through my flesh. You are manna Floating onto us, upwards hands, open mouths. You are colors, blackness, texture and beyond all, you are my heart-strings. I pluck you and the universe ravels from the same wheel.

- Jon O. (CO)

Invisible Wandering

Hey friend,

Shattered innocence left behind, abandoned and bleeding, entirely defeated, lost in darkness. There are no light years wasted, living damaged and broken, surrounded by sins of silence, heart suffering, spirit shattered, deep within darkness, a mind awakened cultivating the

seed of defiance, polarization in personalities try to destroy self reliance, monsters bred in prisons bond with those of violence. With all these years I’ve spend in prisons, I believe I’ve come to know what a ghost must feel, forced to be a spectator in a world where I’ve long been forgotten, neither here or there as life goes on around me. Some have forgotten they were ever a part of the world. We long to be part of that world again. To be seen, to be heard, to be relevant. Every once in a while, for however brief it may be, someone like you sees me. Not for what you’re told to, to see a ghost, but for what lies beneath. For those who haven’t forgotten and do not want to forget, who still cherish and hang onto the humanity, to their sense of belonging, to family, to friendships, to love. It means the world to me. So yes, behind these four walls, I’ve definitely come to feel what a ghost must feel but I am not a ghost and this how I know, because you see me. But then I sit here and wonder if you truly see me? Or do you just see the me you once knew? The boy with a heart of gold that had a kind word and smile for everyone. Do you see that me? Because that’s just a figment of what I used to be. Living in a place so dark and alone, that heart of gold becomes so cold and that smile turns into a twisted look of reprobation. As I sit here, surrounded by these four cold

Letters and Poetry from our Inside Family

gray walls, I am no longer the boy you remember. I am now a cold bitter man who feels so alone and so desperate to finally come home. Only to die in this desolation. And become that ghost with lost reservation.

-Russell R. (MO)

On The Rise

We come from the bottom, Ever since they got us we been going through these problems. 400 years behind and there no promise

We will never be looked as equals, so lets be honest It’s messed up how they put us in chains, Kidnapped our language and changed our names, And when we speak Ebonics they call it a shame, Then leave us with a couple options we slang, now we Captives again. How much can our skin take, We went from slaves to inmates, Carrying the weight of all 50 states, Working y’all farms, Black nannies carrying white babies in their arms, Black men losing their life in y’all wars, But you never show appreciation here at home, You treat us so damn wrong, You act like you hate my race, The police just beat us in the streets like an 808 bass

America when will you defend my case?

You never will because your freedom is fake! When you steady being forced to climb, Especially when you been down doing so much time, Getting up don’t even cross your mind,

You got pawn shop, gun shop, liquor store sign, Swat team, crack fiend, unemployed line, And what we do to survive is defined as a life of crime, You can’t ball so you forced to grind,

If you fall then you crossed the line,

And I been putting in work from 9 to 5 and 5 to 9, Since phone calls cost a dime, What it made is, one of the relevant, highly intelligent, Brothers who been dealing with this same drug selling shit, If I’m a hustler then what’s more American

We all fathered on the same sub-heritage

- Travis H. (MO)

In this world I see

When it’s clear that equality

Doesn’t apply to you and me

We as in people send soldiers

Across oceans to lands far away While suffering continues in America every day

Oh how hypocritical, with intentions untrue

When our “MESSAGE” is to practice what we “PREACH” And we should do what we must do

And how can we solve problems

While our economy is going broke

Obviously we can’t

So to try is a big joke

We need to fix our problems first

So our problems will pass Then we can enter the future with “PEACE”

Finally at last

I close my eyes now to black out all of my sorrows

With hopes to awaken to a better tomorrow

Like wise with open eyes

So it takes one in order for one to show one

So all can come out and through some big outcomes

So without the “MESS”

Which is our “MESSAGE”

There’s no “TEST”

World Out of Control With Open Eyes

I open my eyes to witness this chaos and madness

I’m overwhelmed by the worlds and its unjust sadness

I try to reckon with contradictions

Which is our “TESTIMONY”

And without the “MESS”

There’s no “TEST”

To express from our stress

We as in people are the solution

To overcome worldly chaos, pollution

In a new world resolution ...

Letters and Poetry from our Inside Family

- Sly B. (CA)

used to be, we and you. Now, it’s all-for-none, and we’re left, a party of one.

wars are won. We now seek peace that is void of blood.

NO Unity

What? has it come to; used to be, we and you. Now it’s all-for-none, and we’re left, a party of one.

Twas called the chain gang x life, prisoners for rights or causin’ strife.

Now I get a tray with no fruit, say somethin but the point is moot.

Gettin’ jumped on by the police; What used to cause a riot, now is quiet.

Long as they got that Z, it’s no longer me and you.

What? has it come to; used to be, we and you. Now, it’s all-for-none, and we’re left, a party of one.

The system’s all messed up, no one writin’ it up. Get replies sayin’ grievance denied, why? I’m the only one who cried.

Can’t understand what they’re watchin’, seein’ protests and people marchin; But here we get our tray, and now walk this way; Somethin’s deadly wrong, the past is not today.

What? has it come to;

Would someone please join in, nat’l sit-down day was nothing. People slaved all day, and said okay let’s go to eat, that special tray

Please, please see the oppression, of us in blue in depression. Don’t be quiet nor even riot, write it up, start a 1983 diet.

What? has it come to; used to be, we and you. Now, it’s all-for-none, and we’re left, a party of one.

For all who’ve lost a friend, write, write, write and never end.

I’m not a poetry writer but sitting in confinement causes me to ponder some things. These thoughts are my perspective. To those who do stand in the paint for rights, bless you.

Much love, Just Blaze (FL)

Peace Birthed Through the Barrel of a Gun

Peace was born through the barrel of a gun, but the time for arms is said and done.

We’ve claimed the land, the

I look to a day with the clearest view.

A day we’re free of the “boys in blue.”

When protect and serve doesn’t conjure shameand our governments officials can SAY HER NAME!

See, those barrels meant to secure and sustain, have become no more than a political game. Yelling, “it’s my right,” ”amendment two will stand.” While even our cops can’t steady their hand.

An instrument of death will never bring us peace. They’re so often used in anger and they only breed grief. A much stronger symbol that one could bare, try a knee to the ground and a fist in the air.

As the peace we know was born of struggle, so too must rebirth spare the humble.

By violence? No, but revolution! Civil unrest is our only solution.

See, if you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies, and you take a stand. You open your fists and you reach out your hands. You make it your purpose to be

the bigger man.

Peace, birthed through the barrel of a gun?

One day, perhaps, we’ll see the sun.

To at last proclaim that peace has won.

When George can breath and Ahmaud can run.

- Jai (NC) BLOOM

Where do you come from

In the wilderness

Of life’s tethered dreams

Why do you search for

Those distant things

Lost deep at sea

How do you take flight

When it was carved in stone

To clip your wings

And what are the reasons

You hold onto

What your heart believes

Your CROWN unfaltered

You rise again

Though scattered and bruised

Even planted in exile

Your soul enchanted

Somehow you bloom

- Bad Bunny (TX) I

Tried Live

How did I arrive in this place, What made me want to live like this

Was there a separation inside of me

Another type of animal atop the food chain

What made me want to live Like this, I must be going insane.

How did I arrive in this place, How will I survive this new thing Without good grace in this new world

Still talking about your race

How can I be strong when I feel weak

If I wont smile and I don’t cry am I still alive?

I know that God made me strong, So I’m not standing alone, I’ve got an angel on my side And I mean right by my side

- Tina Marie H. (CA)

Me

I am unapologetically trans Until the day I cannot stand No matter what people will say I won’t lose hope; my strength will stay.

When I see me and I look back I will not accept any attack Sticks and stones, worldly weapons Will never leave me feeling threatened

I am who I am and that’s what I am

I am unapologetically trans

- SodaPop (CA)

The Crack

There once was a crack it was in a beautiful walkway A walkway with every color every color in a rainbow

This crack was lead to believe its worth was less that its beauty was flawed And this crack plotted its repayment

As in any community, word got around

As the titles play soft tunes and colors began to dance. When the voices reached the little crack

It noticed its edges smoothen Its zig zag lines mellowed into a straighter course. And the crack Softly weeped in happiness

Because it realized that no matter

Our personal or internal beliefs of self

There are those who see our beauty

For just the way we are

727-Penni (CA)

Strive For Our Pride

No time out, stop the time inside

Conspiracies to end beautiful lives of Pride

Waves of hate and hurt, us they deride

Blood in its wake, us they want to divide

Living our identities we keep on, we strive They call us a crime, our nonconforming lives

He she lesbian gay bi trans them

Each real peoples

Try to extinguish us on a whim

See lines in our faces, depth in eyes reveals pain

Struggle just us, for equality to gain

Our family no longer living with shames

While opposers try to douse our bright flames

When a light goes out, no bulbs Always remember with pride, say their names ...

- Viola (CA)

- Z-Man (TX)

Treat others how you want to be treated is the right way.

The Head

What sits on the “top” is the head of ourself

Not to be (unused) or put on the shelf.

It contains our thoughts, some good and some bad.

If we get weak results, our thoughts end up sad!

What counts is our focus, our desire to stay real; “Struggles and reality” ; you know how this feels!

Competition to show who looks and has the best, Cap this/cap that: prison mentality never rest!

Exist on the outside, with the ability to see in, A true move to possess [A checkmate] you win!

The head is our (dome) a king/ queen, rest within, protect it at will and always defend! A mindset that’s balanced NOT with the normal trend, “a chessmaster indeed” !

This message I send

American and Gay

This is supposed to be the home of the brave and the land of the free.

The land of the free is debatable as far as I can see. Why are some people judged and ridiculed for what they are? Wanting to be treated as a person shouldn’t have to be wished upon a star.

Don’t get me wrong, times have changed and have come a long way.

But the way things are is not the way things should stay. Nobody should be made to feel different or that they are less than.

We need more love and acceptance and less hate than there has ever been.

No youth should be made to feel that there is no way out. Taking their own life should never enter their minds or come about. Being bullied for being different is something nobody should have to tolerate.

Hate is something that is taught, people are not born with that mental state.

Like every other person, gay people have feelings and a heart beat.

To all the holy people that say it’s an abomination, it’s wrong, please have a seat. Not to judge and love thy neighbor in The Bible it does say.

What if something you did or said was responsible for the end of a life?

Some people have been damaged over and over with a cut of a knife.

Something as simple as being kind to someone could get them through another day. Maybe one day, people will feel free and safe to live as American and gay.

- Robert T. (AR)

“White supremacy does not thrive in spite of the menacing infrastructure of US criminalization and militarism—it thrives because of it.”

― Mariame Kaba, We Do This

‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

“The process through which imprisonment developed into the primary mode of state-inflicted punishment was very much related to the rise of capitalism and to the appearance of a new set of ideological conditions.”

― Angela Davis

Black & Pink Mailing Information

Write to us at: Black & Pink — [see table below]

6223 Maple St. #4600

Omaha, NE 68104

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!

Mail info: We are several months behind on our mail. There will be a delay, but please keep writing!

Penpal program info: LGBTQ+ people who are incarcerated can list their information and a short non-sexual ad online where people can see it and write. There will be forms in upcoming issues

Email us: members@blackandpink.org

If you would like to request: Address the envelope to:

Newspaper Subscriptions, Address Change, or Volunteering

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