Trans architecture and the prison as archive: “don’t be a queen and you won’t be arrested”

Abstract

Most incarceration settings around the world are governed by strong cisnormative policies, architectures, and social expectations that segregate according to a person's legal gender (i.e. male or female). This paper draws on the lived experiences of 24 formerly incarcerated trans women in Australia and the U.S. to elucidate the way in which the prison functions according to Lucas Crawford's theory of trans architecture, alongside Jacques Derrida's notion of archive fever. The paper displays how the cisnormative archive of the justice system and its architectural constructs impact trans women in men's incarceration settings, including how trans women entering the incarceration setting are able to embody gender in a way that is not reified by the insistences of those normative structures. In light of this, this paper advances a theoretical understanding of the prison as an archive and as an architectural construct, providing a new means of understanding how incarcerated trans persons may use and perform gender to survive carceral violence.

A trans agent of social change in incarceration: A psychobiographical study of Natasha Keating

“…While some of the actual victories may appear small, such as the battle for the pink running shoes, they came to represent gender affirmation (Matsuno & Israel, 2018 ) and identity for Natasha. Considering that the carceral setting embodying societal conceptualizations of trans also expects a predictable iteration of trans woman and yet at the same time punishes trans women for not being men (Sanders et al, 2022 ), Natasha's demand for the pink running shoes is a fight for her trans subjectivity, further demonstrating resilience in this situated and temporal carceral context.…”

“…The authors of this paper are concerned about the effects of discriminatory and inhumane trans incarceration policies and practices and are committed to documenting the lived experiences of trans women who have been or who are incarcerated in order to promote social change by supporting and upholding the human rights and health of incarcerated trans persons. While we acknowledge the impact of incarceration on both trans men and trans women, this paper forms part of a larger body of scholarship focusing specifically on the experiences of incarcerated trans women in Australia, as they are disproportionately affected by discrimination, violence, and other forms of victimization (Swan et al, 2022 ), placing trans women at higher risk of arrest and incarceration (Brömdal et al, 2022 ; Brömdal, Clark, et al, 2019 ; Brömdal, Mullens, et al, 2019 ; Halliwell et al, 2022 , 2023 ; Hughto et al, 2022 ; Phillips et al, 2020 ; Sanders et al, 2022 ). Our scholarship spans disciplines of clinical and health psychology, gender and trans studies, sociology, literary and historical narrative, education, public health, and critical policy analysis.…”

Victimization Within and Beyond the Prison Walls: A Latent Profile Analysis of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adults

“…These findings corroborate prior research with TGD populations which found that TGD people who are racial/ethnic minorities and living with HIV were at-risk for mistreatment while incarcerated compared to White non-Hispanic and HIV-negative TGD individuals, respectively (Grant et al, 2011; Reisner, Bailey et al, 2014a). Moreover participants in qualitative research with formerly incarcerated transgender women (Sanders et al, 2022) and currently incarcerated LGBTQ people (Lydon et al, 2015) reported that living with HIV was the basis for much of their mistreatment. Interestingly, however, prior research with TGD samples found that transgender women reported the highest prevalence of victimization relative to transgender men and non-binary individuals (Grant et al, 2011; Lydon et al, 2015).…”

Barriers and facilitators to publicly-funded gender-affirming surgery: The perspectives amongst a cohort of Australian clinicians

“…When assessing barriers to gender-a rming healthcare, consideration of structural stigma is essential as it is found to decrease access (1). An intersectional framework must be considered for trans and non-binary people with multifaceted identities, such as ethnicity, sexuality, or disability, which may further stigmatize and render individuals vulnerable to additional discrimination (6, [20][21][22][23]. Moreover, structural stigma leverages a history of the psychiatric discipline pathologizing trans and non-binary peoples' experiences, a distal stress, which results in expected and perceived discrimination, a proximal stress (24).…”