The trans-woman who was sent to a men’s prison for theft has described her stay in jail as ‘hell on earth’, saying she was raped more than 2,000 times.
Mary, {not her real name} has spoken out about the devastating conditions she found herself in after she was jailed in the 1990s for stealing a car.
As soon as she arrived at Boggo Road Prison in Brisbane, Australia, the abuse started, she told reporters.
‘You are basically set upon with conversations about being protected in return for sex,’ Mary told the paper.
‘It was rape and yes I was flogged and bashed to the point where I knew I had to do it in order to survive, but survival was basically for other prisoners’ pleasure.’
She tried to escape three times because being there was so horrific, she said. The day she arrived she was told to strip naked for a body check, and things got worse from there as gossip traveled to other prisoners that she was transgender even before she got to her cell.
She was not allowed to continue with her hormone treatment so started to grow facial hair again after just a week behind bars, and also lost her long hair when another prisoner cut it off.
Even after leaving prison she found it difficult to get her life back, an experience she said was also endured by a fellow transgender inmate who killed herself rather than go back after breaching parole.
‘We are human beings and most of us were born this way and we want to just live our lives but are ridiculed by society because we have the guts to be who we are,’ she said.
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