 Our next panelist is Sasha Taylor of Black and Pink. Good evening everybody, I'm Sasha Taylor. I am a transsexual, just y'all know. Not that that matters, but the only reason I say that is because a lot of times we get really looked over a lot of times in prison and we don't get the recognition that we deserve proper treatment or medical treatment or any kind of good treatment in prison. I did six years in a federal prison and I met my partner there, so just to throw that in there, I'm very happy about that. And my experience in prison wasn't that bad, honest to say, only because I applied myself a different way as far as what I saw other prisoners being treated. Other people that were likely in prison saw them get treated a lot worse, but it also had to do with the way they acted in prison. I tried to carry myself with respect and dignity to where people wouldn't bother me in any certain way. And I managed to do some college while I was there and get my art going, because I'm an artist, and also learn how to play guitar and sing in the advanced. So I try to do the best of a bad situation. Right now, while I was there, I now work with an organization called Black and Pink and they're an abolitionist group which works to abolish prisons and tear down the fences. What exactly they are is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and free-world allies who support each other and the work that they do is toward the abolitionists of prison industrial conflicts and it's rooted in the experience of currently and formerly incarcerated people. They're outraged by the specific violence of their conflicts against the LGBTQ people and respond through advocacy, education, and direct service and organizing. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary with a big celebration of over 600 people in Boston, Massachusetts. That's where they're based at. They're on Facebook and they're online at Black and Pink.org. So if you're more than welcome to look them up, they have at least 2,000. When I left prison, there was 1,500 in the organization. Now there's over 2,800 people that are in the organization. They provide a newsletter for all inmates and formerly incarcerated people that are outside of the world and families to keep them connected with people in prison. Our gay community here in San Antonio is the younger generation. I'm 40 years old and people in my age group are a little apprehensive of helping groups like this or organizations like this. I look around the audience and I just want to say that I do not see one person that I recognize except for my partner and that really makes me feel ashamed of my gay community because they should be here speaking their mind and they should be standing up for what we believe in. It's one thing to fight for a transsexual to go to the bathroom that they feel is safe for them but it's another thing to fight for people to exactly have that family member here, period, because they're stuck in prison where they have no choices. You've got to follow their procedures and their rules and they have no voice in the matter. I do want to give a highlight on the event of me being in prison when I got transferred to Loretto, Pennsylvania. I originally was in Beaumont Federal Prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania. I single-handedly got the psychology department. I gave them books about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer individuals and what we go through. So I provided books for them and they put them in their library. They also took every single person who works there and they would do a rotation. And what they did is they took them to a course. It's not sensitivity training, as they call it. It was the actual course that they took on how to better... English language is so ugly. Better deal with people like me or their homosexual or transgender and that's what they did. They took a class. So I just want to let you know what I did there. As I was stating earlier, just to reiterate something that I did, while there in federal prison, some of the important things to do is if you have any family members that are in prison, just constantly keep in contact with them and don't ignore any help that they need. And they start to provide email service and everything else, limited. Don't ignore any requests that they have. I know it's real hard to be in there. I don't know how many people in here have been in TTCJ or federal prison or county jail. I've only been in two of those situations. County jail is not fun. Jail is not fun, period. And county jail is not exactly... federal county jail is not exactly a thorough place at all. Federal prison was a whole lot easier for me to get through only because I pushed boundaries. I pushed the issues on a lot of things. I had to fight to get medical help while I was there and getting about a stack this high of paperwork from University Hospital having to weed through that and they gave me a pectic problem about going through all my paperwork and everything until I found out this is what I needed just to get my hormone pills while I was there. It'll make it very easy. And then in turn, I ended up getting two people fired. Two people who were pretending to be doctors. I got them both fired from their job and the doctor took my side, the actual doctor. One of the five doctors that are coming from Beaumont University Health System over there came over there and defended me and got them both removed from their job. So it doesn't hurt to speak out but then sometimes that can hurt you. And it did hurt me. It got me moved off the prison and got me moved all the way to Loretto. So getting visits all the way in Pennsylvania as opposed to getting visits from San Antonio to Beaumont was a whole lot harder for my family. I think I got one visit in the whole six years that I was there in prison and that was from my mom and dad. So I strongly urged people who were asking for help were behind bars to really, really listen to what they say. And I try my best to provide black and pink information to prisons because they need that. It's a great resource for everybody all over the nation. They have chapters in California, Iowa, Ohio, Arizona, Texas. This is the only one I'm representing that one and I'm pushing the issues on that. A lot of it has to do with letters coming from individuals who were in bars and behind their prison gates and they don't have any family to correspond with. So being a pen pal. They have a pen pal program that's really, really great. The art program is really good. The book program, everything that they provide is to help them better their time behind bars. I've been in the hole before and it's not beautiful. I've seen people get murdered in prison right in front of me. I've seen it happen. It's not a nice thing to see and it really affects you for the rest of your life. You know, I don't think about it every day but it does affect you when certain instances come to view. My thing that I do out here in the community is I try to be a beacon of hope for a lot of people who are going to be in that position. I had spent time to pack up my house before I went to prison. When I got there, I never cried the whole time I was there until I came home. I cried when I came home because everything was different. You know, I'm taking a bus all the way from Pennsylvania to San Antonio. I never slept the whole three days. I literally stayed awake looking out the window because I got a free trip across America on their bill. So I was very excited to do this and come home. So when I came home, I thought, you know what, I want my transgender individuals, my lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, all these individuals should really, really make a mark and make a point to show that we can do something to make it better for other people. And we're considered the little people and a lot of times we're considered not the norm. So we have to fight to be that norm and our community is very small here in San Antonio. It really, really is. And so what I try to do is, like I said, become that vegan hope and be that person who they can come to and ask for questions and say, like, I've got a family in the world like ours. What do I do? What are my resources here in San Antonio? Well, here's where you can go. This is what you can do. And sit down and talk. And it is a great thing to do. We need to have that, this type of things happening here in San Antonio more often where people can really come together and fight for everybody who needs that help. We don't have the family to fight for them. And so, like I said, I also own my own business. So being a business owner for almost a year now, it doesn't say that just because you're transgender, just because you've been behind bars, just because you've done all this, I think a lot more practical on issues because I did it. And if I can do it, other people can do it too. Just because you're here, no one place is where you're going to know somewhere else because I can provide those avenues for you to make that happen. It doesn't matter what you're doing, as long as you are doing the right thing and sometimes you're doing the right thing, you still get shot down. I've watched instances where a person who's trying to do the right thing gets shot down by an operation officer and then operation officer two weeks later, quit and went to another job. So this person who's really trying to do something good and they couldn't do it, you can do that.