Meagan Taylor, a 22-year-old transgender woman of color, has been sitting in an isolated Iowa jail since last Monday simply because she was profiled for her identity. Taylor was visiting Des Moines with a friend from Illinois, where she lives. She works in a beauty salon and goes to cosmetology school. But when she noticed hotel staff at the Drury Inn “acting really funny,” her suspicions proved correct. They reported her and her friend, who is also transgender, to the police, describing “two males dressed as females” and expressing concern about “possible prostitution activity.” When police arrived at her room, they found her in possession of spironolactone hydrochloride, an antiandrogen hormone treatment commonly used as a diuretic, in an unmarked bottle and charged her with possession of prescription drugs without a prescription. After she presented a fake name and argued that she was being treated unfairly, she was also charged with “malicious prosecution,” an aggravated misdemeanor. No evidence of prostitution activity was found, but the officer did find that she had an outstanding probation violation from Illinois—she was convicted of credit card fraud at the age of 17—and though she served her time, she still owes $500 in fines. Her bond was set at $2,000, she knew no one local who could co-sign for her release, and she doesn’t have a lawyer.
More from the Des Moines Register:
Transgender people, and especially those of color, are often profiled and accused of doing illegal sex work when they aren’t, says Harper Jean Tobin, policy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C. And as President Barack Obama noted this week, unnecessary imprisonment for minor violations, including parole ones, have helped drive the U.S. incarceration rate to the world’s highest. “It seemed like they were trying to find something to charge me with,” Taylor said in a jail interview Thursday. “I lied about my name (but) I was not doing any illegal activity. The lady called police because I was transgender and was with a transgender friend.”
A fundraiser was launched to pay Taylor's bail and outstanding fines. Back to ThinkProgress:
The Welcome Ministry, led by transgender Lutheran pastor Megan Roher, has been crowdfunding money to support Taylor. At this point, the campaign has raised $4,619, which has successfully covered the cost of Taylor’s bond as well as her fees back in Illinois. Additional funding will help protect her from a possible bond in Illinois as well as to ensure she can change her name legally and obtain an ID that accurately reflects her name and gender. Any additional money raised will be donated to support LGBTQ homeless individuals in San Francisco and “projects to uplift the voices of transgender individuals living in poverty.” Transgender Americans are nearly four times more likely to be living in severe poverty—even more so if they are people of color.
I'm going to kick in a few bucks, and you should, too. The donation page is here—just be sure to put "FREE MEAGAN" in the memo line.
