Gabriel Roman

November 21, 2017

Homophobia in the Prison System

Living in a progressive city such as Los Angeles, we the Angelenos are often sheltered

and negate the fact that homophobia is still existent. One such place where homophobia exists is

a location that is not discussed often is federal and state prisons., Often, members of the

LGBTQI community suffer abuse and mistreatment within these prison institutions. The

mistreatment of this community leads one to question why this institutional oppression is not

discussed more often. To bring attention to this institutional oppression of the LGBTQI

community to you my fellow Angelenos, I will question the morality of prison employees or by

people who help at prisons and I will also dive into exploring the handling of situations when

homophobia is reported.

As a reader you may be questioning why I included people who help at prisons, when I

said that I would question morality. Well I felt that it was necessary to include that after reading

an article written by Chris Tompkins of The Good Men Project. Chris Tompkins was reflecting

on his visit of a Los Angeles Juvenile Hall. The interesting portion of this article comes when

Tompkins explains what one of the young Juvenile Hall kids told him about a priest who had

discovered a child was transgender. Tompkins quoted the priest as saying You need an

exorcism. May God be with you (Tompkins). Readers, keep in mind that this is from a juvenile

system in Los Angeles. If this is an occurrence for children in the prison system, it is open to the

imagination the discrimination that is faced when it comes to facing the prison for adults.

Children who leave the prison after spending various years locked up will think that this

behavior is often and regular. Later in his piece Tompkins described the struggles that his

deceased friend went through when he was in the prison system. Tompkins writes My friend

said his life was never the same. He experienced significant abuse and trauma, including being
beaten up and raped from the other kids, as well as the guards (Tompkins). Ultimately, the

friend Tompkins described died of a heroin overdose which many attach as a final cry for help

due to abuse of his sexuality. Guards traumatizing juveniles due to their sexuality is disgusting,

and goes to show that members of the prison system do not care about the well-being and

sexuality of their prisoners. Often, repercussions are not taken against these guards but that is not

a surprise due to the wide amount of mishandling reports of homophobia.

It is frightening that it is common knowledge that rape is evident and known to b a huge

problem within prisons. Up until recently, members of the LGBTQI community had been

vulnerable due to the fact that they were the most targeted when it came to prison rape. Sadhbh

Walshe of The Guardian writes It's difficult to assess how typical Rodney's prison experience

is, but numerous studies conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, based on anonymous

inmate surveys, have shown that gay and transgender inmates are among the most targeted

groups for sexual victimization (Walshe). Although Walshe goes on to discuss that Just

Detention International, a prison justice system is starting to investigate the issue, it leaves one

question unanswered. Why are the rapes and injustices towards members of the LGBTQI

community left to be? There answer is that the prison institutions do not care for the well-being

of the LGBTQI prisoners.

If you the Angelenos are not upset by the fact that this oppression exists within our

juvenile behavior centers here in Los Angeles then I dont know what else to tell you. We have

been amazing as a city in regards to being progressive and helping minorities. We have done our

best to eliminate oppression and homophobia, but now we need to begin our new mission.

Bringing justice to the queer community within prisons.

 Works Cited

Tompkins, Chris. Our Beliefs Matter - A Deeper Look at Institutionalized Homophobia -

. The Good Men Project, Good Men Project, 27 Jan. 2017,

goodmenproject.com/featured-content/our-beliefs-matter-a-deeper-look-at-

institutionalized-homophobia-wcz/. Accessed November 20, 2017.

Walshe, Sadhbh. The Grim Truth of Being Gay in Prison. The Guardian, Guardian News

and Media, 7 Mar. 2012,

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/07/grim-truth-gay-in-prison.

Accessed November 20, 2017