The Issues

Why We Serve

There are many challenges facing the TGNC/LGBQIA+ community. Nearly all of these issues stem from family abandonment and discrimination in the areas of housing and employment. The inability to obtain employment often results in chronic homelessness. Georgia homeless shelters and halfway houses do not accept anyone who identifies as transgender. This forces people to seek out sources of survival in the underground economy (sex work, drugs, theft, etc).

Due to the lack of re-entry and post-incarceration programs that accept transgender parolees, many people return to working in the underground economy which was likely the source of their original incarceration. As a result, the TGNC/LGBQIA+ community has a 57% recidivism rate in the state of Georgia. By creating programs to assist the incarcerated TGNC/LGBQIA+ community, we ensure they receive safe housing, resources, counseling, and medical care during and after incarceration. 

The Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights published a report documenting the legal needs of TGNC survey respondents.

As these numbers show discrimination against TGNC people is widespread. One of the most alarming statistics was 16% of survey respondents reported experiencing discrimination in jail or prison. This was not 16% of the respondents who reported going to jail or prison but 16% of the entire survey pool and did NOT include those who are CURRENTLY incarcerated. That percentage is twice the number of people in the general population who are incarcerated at some point in their lives.

16% of Trans and Gender Non-conforming people have served time in jail or prison*. Of those who have been incarcerated, an overwhelming

92% Of  Georgia TGNC prisoners experienced assault prior to or during incarceration.

32% Of TGNC prisoners have experienced sexual violence.

Experiences Of TGNC People in Prison

  • TGNC prisoners are intentionally referred to by the wrong pronoun or name. The majority of these references are made by sheriff’s deputies, prison guards, and correctional officers.

  • Jails and prisons limit the ability of prisoners to dress or groom in a way that is comfortable for them. Many TGNC women housed in men’s facilities are denied access to bras and are forced to keep their hair at a stereotypically male length.

  • Institutions will deny TGNC prisoners opportunities to attend drug treatment, educational, or other programs because these opportunities are offered only in a gender-segregated setting.

  • In facilities that provide some level of care, TGNC prisoners can face issues ranging from the proper issuance of hormones to the ability to monitor drug interactions and typical hormone side effects.

  • Abdicating their responsibility to create confinement conditions in which individual prisoners are safe from violence, facilities will confine TGNC prisoners to solitary.

  • Retaliation is a common occurrence for many TGNC prisoners so incidents of harassment and discrimination go dramatically under-reported among TGNC prisoners.

  • 52% of TGNC men and 43% of TGNC women have attempted suicide at least once.

    * The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention & the Williams Institute

  • This includes rape, coercion, & unnecessary strip searches, and forced nudity. It can be perpetrated by a lone fellow prisoner; deputies, an officer, or a prisoner assisted by an officer.

  • Verbal harassment is the most common form of sexual violence that TGNC prisoners are subjected to. The harassment can include comments that exhibit this mixture of ridicule and objectification or sexual propositions.