Ken (Ky) Peterson grew up in a small South Georgia farming town. His down-to-earth nature comes from the love of his Grandma Molly and the support of his Mom. Ky loves to stay busy. Even as a child, Ky worked hard to help his family, and in his free time, he volunteered at a local assisted living home, and the American Red Cross.

When Ky turned 17, hard times hit the family, and he was forced to drop out of school, and get a job to help support his 3 younger siblings. His life was forever changed in 2011 when he fell victim to, not only a violent attacker but also the “American Justice System”.

Ky is the personification of nearly every civil rights injustice we have seen in the media in recent years; transgender rights, police brutality, rape culture, criminalizing victims, courtroom misogyny, and systematic racism. Ky’s case draws into sharp relief the ways that racial and gender discrimination make acute the routine lapses in due process, medical negligence, and dehumanization that characterize the U.S criminal justice system and the Prison Industrial Complex.

Ky Peterson is a trans Advocate who served 9 years in prison for self-defense. During his incarceration, he fought for trans prisoner’s rights to medical care. Ky is vibrant, intelligent, and uncommonly kind with a genuinely loving nature, and a passion for promoting Human Rights and Transgender Equality.

His story is entrenched in institutionalized discrimination, systemic failures, and the denial of basic human rights. Ky’s experiences with the criminal justice system epitomize the complex intersection of contemporary race and gender politics within the prison industrial complex.

In 2017,  Ky co-founded Freedom Overground with his partners, Pinky Shear, & Mel White. Today, Ky shares his story of courage and perseverance with TGNCI communities across the country.  Ky is available to speak on Trans Incarceration Issues, Self Defense & Rape Culture, & Prison Conditions in the South.