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This is a guest blog post by Reiyn Keohane, ACLU of Florida client. Reiyn is a transgender woman currently being denied hormone therapy and other treatment for gender dysphoria in a Florida prison. We have filed a lawsuit on her behalf to restore her medically necessary treatment. She wrote the below letter to let the world know about her experiences as a transgender woman being denied care in a Florida prison. In the years I have been incarcerated, I have been made to endure more cruelty by the State of Florida than I ever imagined the government could commit. I am a transgender woman—but to the classification officers there is no such thing. If they say you’re male, you go to men’s prison, where you will be forced to “act like a man” under threat of being locked up in solitary, beaten, and humiliated. I have suffered through it all. I have been forced to strip with men, and been slapped and hit for telling the officers in charge of the search that the rules say I must be searched separately. I have been handcuffed, thrown to the ground, and held down so officers could shave my head. I have been called a punk, a sissy, and a faggot; I have been beaten while handcuffed for asking to see mental health professionals.

The 2016 election is over, but the rhetoric and acts of hate targeted at specific groups following Election Day has left many of us feeling at risk. In the ten days following Election Day, the Southern Poverty Law Center tallied more than 900 hate incidents across the country – many targeting Black people, immigrants, Muslims, and Jewish people. We want to make sure that you know your rights and have access to the resources you need. Please check out these resources below to get information from the ACLU about what to do if your rights are violated.