Esmeralda: A Transgender Detainee Speaks Out from Breakthrough on Vimeo.

Today, Rodell Vereen, 50, was sentenced to three years in prison for pleading guilty to buggery with 21-year-old Sugar for the second time in two years. He was also ordered to stay away from the horse’s stable and to get mental help when he’s paroled.

“I’m sorry about what I’ve done. I didn’t mean to do it. It’s my fault. I’m sorry for what I’ve done to myself,” Vereen said during the hearing at the Horry County courthouse.

Sugar’s owner has had enough.

“I’ve been through hell for the last year and it’s caused a lot of hardship,” Barbara Kenley told the Myrtle Beach Sun News. “There’s a lot of ridicule and jokes going around about this thing. And a person can only take so much.”

Why is this case important? Personally I do not believe that cross-species consent is possible however as my friend Erin stated so well, “it’s not like the government is a huge champion for the animals. so this has nothing to do with protecting non-human animals from rape, and more to do with protecting heteronormativity.” My friend David looked into the laws in South Carolina and found this link to South Carolina’s current laws on sodomy/buggery. It is a scary thing when a man feels that he has to plead guilty to something like buggery. Behind this conviction lie the fundamentals of heteronormative ideas of sexuality and also a possible attempt of equating cross-species sexual acts with same-sex human sexuality. On top of all this is the question of support for Rodell Vereen. What is going on with him that he feels the need to sexually assault a horse? How do we as a culture respond to this without utilizing the prison industrial complex? Who is going to support this man while he is locked up? The prison system is a violent place, imagine what it will be like for the man convicted of having sex with a horse. What does compassion look like here? Certainly supporting Rodell Vereen is not exactly a popular thing to do but as queer folks struggling against the pervasiveness of the prison industrial complex we must see how our liberation is wrapped up with Rodell Vereen’s.

As Boston police continue to increase their presence in the fens (a long-time popular public sex space) the question of public sex is coming up over and over again. The mainstream gay press in Boston (Baywindows) has done an embarrassing job of covering the issue and speaking out in support of cruising and public sex. The more the major “gay and lesbian rights” groups push for legitimation through marriage and other hetero-patriarchal structures the more we lose our capacity to stand in solidarity with all those who queer sex, sexuality, relationships, gender, and so on. It’s exciting to see folks in the UK doing some cool grassroots organizing around keeping their spaces safer for queers. The above article may seem somewhat watered down but I think the message is clear to police, leave us alone and allow us to go about our sexualities as we please! To the queers who are looking to maintain a legitimate image, remember what solidarity is about. Sexual repression is part of the violence of our culture, we must remember as sexual outcasts to keep pushing our own boundaries of inclusion.

According to PLN’s complaint, TDCJ has inappropriately censored books sent to Texas state prisoners. One of the censored books was Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System, by Silja J.A. Talvi. Ms. Talvi is an accomplished journalist and award-winning author. Her book on incarcerated women was described by one reviewer as a “comprehensive and passionately argued indictment of the inhumane treatment of female prisoners … the sort of shocking expose too seldom seen in these media days of so much celebrity fluff.” Two other Texas prisoners also were not allowed to receive Women Behind Bars after placing book orders with PLN.

PLN contends that the censorship of Women Behind Bars, which was upheld by senior prison officials, was improper. Further, the TDCJ did not notify PLN of the censorship decision which would have provided PLN an opportunity to respond and contest that decision.

TDCJ staff also censored another book ordered from PLN, The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits from Crime, by Joel Dyer, on the basis that the book mentions “rape.” In fact, as PLN explains in its federal complaint, Perpetual Prisoner Machine “quotes from a 1968 Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office investigation into sexual assault in prison, and describes crimes committed against prisoners.” Again, the TDCJ did not notify PLN of this censorship.

“It is a sad commentary when government officials censor books sent to prisoners – particularly books that deal with prisoners’ rights and conditions in our nation’s prisons,” stated PLN editor Paul Wright. “Apparently, the TDCJ prefers that prisoners remain uninformed about issues that directly affect them. We believe this is a poor rationale for censorship.”

“For decades, Texas prisoners have had the right to read most books while they are incarcerated,” said Scott Medlock, Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project’s Prisoners’ Rights Program. “If there is anything everyone should be able to agree on, it’s that encouraging prisoners to read is a good thing.”

PLN is seeking compensatory, punitive and nominal damages plus declaratory and injunctive relief for violation of its rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as attorney fees and costs.

The case is Prison Legal News v. Livingston, U.S. District Court (S.D. Texas, Corpus Christi Division), Case No. 2:09-cv-00296. PLN is ably represented by Scott Medlock with the Texas Civil Rights Project and by HRDC general counsel Daniel E. Manville in Ferndale, Michigan.

Prison Legal News (PLN), founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human rights in U.S. detention facilities. PLN publishes a monthly magazine that includes reports, reviews and analysis of court rulings and news related to prisoners’ rights and criminal justice issues. PLN has almost 7,000 subscribers nationwide and operates a website (www.prisonlegalnews.org) that includes a comprehensive database of prison and jail-related articles, news reports, court rulings, verdicts, settlements and related documents. PLN is a project of the Human Rights Defense Center.

As part of her PhD, she is working on a project called Transforming Bodies of Knowledge: legal institutions, queer and trans activism and social movement politics in Canada.

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