Transgender Woman In Male Prison ‘Nightmare’ On Hunger Strike

A transgender woman has gone on hunger strike inside an all-male prison and says she is prepared to die over the government’s refusal to accept her chosen gender. Marie Dean, 50, is being held at HMP Preston, Lancashire, where she is protesting over what she claims is a “nightmare” refusal of the Ministry of Justice to recognise she is a woman. In a letter, dated 17 January and sent from inside the jail to friends, Dean describes feeling dehumanised and, making reference to Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who died in the Maze prison in 1981, said she would rather die than be denied her chosen gender. This follows the suicides of at least three trans women in all-male prisons during the past year.

Read more: Mark Townsend, Guardian, http://bit.ly/2nicMfA