Tennessee is not known for being a hot bed of progressive ideals.
Though it does tend to be very hot hot hot temperature wise, hotter than ever because of that “climate change” but we digress. However the recent nazi rally in Nashville and book bannings throughout the state are apparently not enough to comfort state fascists.
As we go to press, the state senate of Tennessee is trying to push through a bill to ban all rainbow/Pride flags from public or private schools (though nazi/confederate flags could be ok). In a rare equal-opportunity act, the bill may also ban Black Lives Matter symbols.
The bill is hitting some snags in the state senate but the newly personified embryos of Alabama have taken up the fight against this bill. They are organizing (though possibly without any organs) to support queer youth and free speech in Tennessee. Under the banner of Earnest Embryos Effusively Eagerly Knowing! (EEEEK!) they will travel in a refrigerated van driven by Safer Way to Tennessee where they will invade the Tennessee Senate and demand the bill be dished and ditched.
“You are Marxist Anarchist cells!” screamed the Republican house speaker at EEEEK!, “And you’re trying to support perversion!”
“We’re not only cells!” replied the EEEEK spokes ember Yo, and they started chanting “We raise hell! We’re not cells! We support queers! Now and when we’re really here!”
“We’ve come to tell San Francisco and the people of Yerba Buena that we’re not gonna stop,” said Maisa Morrar of Palestinian Feminist Collective. “We’re gonna show up in your art exhibits, at the Academy of Sciences, at the Golden Gate Bridge, at the Bay Bridge, at the Federal Building — we’re gonna be there. This genocide is one too many lives lost.”
This quote is from a peaceful action at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) Love Letter to SOMA festival on Feb 15th where artists champoy, Courtney Desiree Morris, Jeffrey Cheung, Leila Weefur, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Paz G, Sholeh Asgary and Tracy draped and decorated their own installations with spray-painted pro-Palestinian slogans and tarps calling for a ceasefire. The eight artists were participants in “Bay Area Now 9,” the ninth iteration of YBCA’s signature triennial exhibition highlighting artists working throughout the Bay Area’s nine counties. Protestors passed out “Love Letter to Gaza” flyers with a list of demands for YBCA leadership including that the museum join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and stop censoring artists’ language, work and programming that focuses on Palestinian liberation. YBCA had refused to allow “Free Palestine” on the building marquee outside of the exhibit.
All that week protestors had disrupted museums in New York, London and Berlin in solidarity with Palestine. 800 people flooded New York’s Museum of Modern Art with pro-Palestinian chants and flyers, causing security to shut down the galleries within 15 minutes. Other protests occurred at the Brooklyn Museum and Jewish Museum in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin.
The Bay Area artists launched an email campaign after the protest and 2200 people sent emails to YBCA within a week. YBCA responded by closing the museum and removing the artists’ installations.
As of March 3rd the museum is still closed. I tried to call the office to support the artists but the voicemail was full. A boycott of the museum has been launched. Letters of support were sent by YBCA workers and staff in solidarity with Palestine and the “Bay Area Now 9” exhibit artists. You can sign letters of support at bit.ly/artists4gaza.
We are usually all in for commitment (unless it’s a commitment ceremony) but this is the season of Uncommitted.
With incredible organizing by Listen to Michigan, Uncommitted took 13% of the vote in the Michigan democratic primary, and for the first time, democrats actually noticed that their constituents hate what they’re doing. Suddenly, congressional leaders Patty Murray and Adam Smith from Washington – which votes on March 12, congresswoman and VP Kamala Harris issued calls to Biden to vigorously pursue a ceasefire, and Biden decided to airdrop 38,000 meals on Gaza (to feed an estimated half a million starving people).
The Uncommitted Washington campaign is rapidly picking up steam. The largest labor union, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 3000, representing around 50,000 workers, has endorsed, along with The Stranger, Seattle’s leading alternative newspaper.
If you can vote and your state has an uncommitted option, make that your bubble (even if you have to choke on saying you’re a democrat to do it).
Terry Ballentine Bisson was an author, editor, political activist and friend to many. He was a Hugo and Nebula award winning writer of seven novels, numerous short works of fiction, and over a dozen children’s books. He was the author of On a Move: The Story of Mumia Abu Jamal, Fire on the Mountain, and The Left Left Behind. He also wrote the long-running “This Month in History” series for Locus Magazine. His progressive politics landed him in jail for refusing to give testimony to a Grand Jury investigating the radical underground. He operated Jacobin Books, a “revolutionary” mail-order book service, from 1985 to 1990. According to his publisher, PM Press, he “was as much an activist’s activist as he was a literary powerhouse.”
Terry was born February 12, 1942 in Kentucky. He attended Grinnell College in Iowa and the University of Louisville. After a brief time in Louisville, he moved to NY City, where he lived on and off for some thirty years, with sojourns in the hippie communes of the Southwest and South from 1969–1975. He worked as an auto mechanic and as a magazine and book editor and taught in several writing programs including at the New School in New York. He was part of the New Left, associated with the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. He moved to the Bay Area in 2002 with his third wife, Judy Jensen. He had six kids.
In San Francisco, Terry edited the ‘‘Outspoken Authors’’ series for PM Press, and hosted the SF in SF reading series for many years.
His close friend, Lisa Roth, writes:
“Terry was a life-long anti-racist, anti-imperialist, grand jury resister and brilliant author and editor. Also the inventor of the gravel-stuffed pita bread sandwich for handing out at anti-KKK marches.
Fire on the Mountain is his wonderful alternate history picturing the world as it would have been if John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry had been successful.
He might be most famous for his short story “They’re Made Out of Meat,” which has been widely circulated online, translated into dozens of languages, and made into radio plays and videos.
You can read a long bio and many of his stories on his website, terrybisson.com.
Terry’s RSVP to the FBI, written in response to being subpoenaed to a grand jury brings together the best of his politics, sharp wit and glorious writing and fuck-you attitude.”
RSVP to the FBI
(On being subpoenaed to give information to a Federal Grand Jury investigating revolutionary movements inside the USA)
Thank you for handing me this invitation to talk to you But I am otherwise engaged.
Thank you for offering me this opportunity to have a heart to heart with the murderers of Martin Luther King and Fred Hampton, not to mention Crazy Horse Michael Stewart and Eleanor Bumpurs and the nameless millions who do have and will have names But I am otherwise engaged.
Thank you for inviting me to sit down with the brothers of the somocistas (as you describe yourselves) their long knives eager for the blood of teachers the blood of nuns the blood of Sandino which is right now running bright like a river in the veins of young Nicaragua But l am otherwise engaged.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to spit on the graves of Sacco and Vanzetti to dishonor the memory of the Rosenbergs or of my ex father in law who spent 10 years not being an actor rather than 10 minutes being a collaborator But l am otherwise engaged.
Thank you for inviting me to run with the hounds howling through the ruined cities try ing to hunt down the FALN, the BLA the ten or the hundred most wanted most ready and willing and able to resist with arms and heart and ideology your world wide crimes But l am otherwise engaged.
And seriously, thanks for giving me this chance to stand fast with the Puerto Ricans who have gone to jail silent since 1936 rather than drink from your bootprints · To stand fast with the New Afrikans who like Nat Turner “never said a mumbling word” To stand fast with the Palestinians steadfast in Israeli prisons the Irish deep and defiant in Long Kesh. the Africans on Robben Island scorning your offers with songs To stand fast with the children of Lumumba
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2024, 7:00 PM PST
The Outspoken and the Incendiary: A Literary Celebration of the Life and Work of Terry Bisson
City Lights and PM Press celebrate the life and work of Terry Bisson at The Lost Church, 988 Columbus Ave, San Francisco Tickets $15, Registration required at http://www.terrybisson.com/tomorrowing/city-lights/
Sekou Odinga died on January 12th. He was a u.s. political prisoner for 33 years until his release from prison in 2014. Sekou Odinga was a revolutionary. He dedicated his life to fighting for a better and more just world. He was a vital member of several Black Liberation organizations over the years: Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army
Sekou Odinga joined the Organization of Afro-America Unity in 1965 but left after Malcolm X was murdered and founded the Bronx chapter of the Black Panther Party. When speaking about why he joined the Party, he said, “What attracted me more than anything else was the stand against police brutality.” He was arrested in 1969 along with 20 other Panthers accused of planning coordinated attacks on two police stations and one education office in NYC. The Panther 21 were all acquitted in 1971 after a huge grassroots campaign. As police and FBI repression increased exponentially in the early 1970’s Odinga went underground and joined the Black Liberation Army.
He was arrested again in 1981 and was convicted of helping in the escape of Assata Shakur in 1979 and of conspiracy and racketeering related to the robbery of a Brinks truck in 1981. He never pled guilty to any of the charges but in answering a question on Democracy Now in 2016 about Assata’s escape, he said he was “proud to be associated with the liberation of Assata Shakur.” He spent the next 33 years in prison: a prisoner of war and political prisoner of the u.s. empire. After his release in 2014, Sekou Odinga remained a fighter for justice and freedom for all political prisoners. He will be missed.
Michael Eugene Kensinger died January 14, 2022. Mike loved traveling and lived in many places before settling in San Francisco. He became an activist in the AIDS movement and took part in many demonstrations including the famous demonstration at Burroughs Welcome in Burlingame CA, January 1988 when demonstrators climbed on the roof of the building waving the gay flag and banners reading ‘Burroughs Unwelcome’ and ‘Stop Aids Profiteering.’ Mike was one of 19 people arrested for that action.
Mike created blocks for the Names AIDS Quilt Project to honor friends, crafted imaginative political displays in his Valencia St. storefront window, collected soaps for donation to the homeless, and built a community of neighbors who would watch out for each other. He was also a long time reader of UltraViolet. He leaves behind family and a large community that misses him.
Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, planned his last action carefully. He walked up to the israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and filmed his final statement:
“I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
Then he set up his phone to capture himself calmly dousing himself with liquid and lighting himself on fire.
A cop ran toward him, pointing a gun and shouting, “Get on the ground.” Another officer responded differently.
“I don’t need guns. I need a fire extinguisher,” he told his fellow officer.
At an online vigil organized by the military resisters’ organization, About Face, other veterans repeated that as a refrain, a fitting metaphor for what so many are feeling about the genocide in Gaza and the many wars being waged by u.s. and u.s. supported military forces around the world.
We don’t need guns. We need fire extinguishers.
I have struggled with how to honor Aaron’s commitment and passion, without encouraging anyone to follow his example. Veterans, conscientious objectors and other active military members, have expressed the same conflict.
“We desperately need you alive in the struggle,” said Ramon Mejia of About Face in an interview on NPR in the wake of Bushnell’s suicide.
In Portland, Oregon, dozens of vets burned fatigues and uniforms, like the ones Aaron wore when he immolated himself.
Levi Pierpont, a friend of Aaron’s from the air force who left the military as a conscientious objector in 2023, writes in the Guardian:
Aaron did not die in vain. He has already inspired so many to stand up for truth and justice. It breaks my heart that his life ended this way. I could never do what he did, and I don’t believe anyone should do what he did. But we’ll never get Aaron back. All we can do is hear the message he died to shine a spotlight on: the horrors of the genocide in Gaza, and the complicity we share as military members and taxpayers of a government deeply invested in violence…. If you’re a service member, I want you to know that you have options. You do not have to be complicit in genocide.
Self-immolation as protest is more common than many of us realize. After David Buckel, a gay rights lawyer turned urban gardener, burned himself to death in Prospect Park in Brooklyn in 2018, a New York Times article listed dozens of incidents I never heard of. Nearly everyone has heard of the Vietnamese monks who used that method of calling the world to action during the American War against their country, but hardly anyone seems to remember Mohammed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old street merchant who kicked off the Arab Spring by burning himself to death in Tunisia in 2010.
Masha Gessen reports that when the soviet union crushed the Prague Spring uprising in 1968, a 59-year-old Polish war veteran, Ryszard Siwiec, self-immolated, and later that year, a 20-year-old Czech student, Jan Palach, did the same.
Since Aaron’s death, media have scrambled to get a picture of the man who in many ways personifies a despair that nearly everyone who has been watching and grieving the assault on Gaza these last months shares. He grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in a tight-knit, authoritarian and likely abusive christian community. The air force was his way out, but that, of course, was another authoritarian and abusive environment.
While stationed in San Antonio, he prepared for transition to civilian life by studying for a bachelor’s in software engineering, and got involved in the local Left. At an event organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (according to the NY Times), he met people from a mutual aid group called San Antonio Collective Care, and became active in doing street feeds and other solidarity with them. According to friends quoted in the media, he identified as an anarchist and anti-imperialist. One friend told the NY Post that a few days before his death, they had talked on the phone about “their shared identities as anarchists and what kinds of risks and sacrifices were needed to be effective.”
He left a handwritten will, leaving all his savings to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
His “extreme act of protest” has certainly generated a lot of attention, and perhaps even a tiny bit of movement, though activists have pointed out that much of the media has focused on his traumatic childhood and speculations about his mental health, barely mentioning the death toll and displacement in Gaza. Staffers for Ceasefire, a group of dissident staffers in the white house, used his death to criticize biden for ignoring their demands and the many voices of constituents calling for an end to the violence.
“President Biden has the unique power to mitigate the harms being done – not through useless backchannel conversations, but through established processes of international law and strong diplomacy. He can choose to change our current trajectory of unnecessary destruction,” they said in a statement.
In some corners of the internet, Aaron is hailed as a martyr and hero, with posters of his final words getting thousands of shares on social media. But for most people, his death has led us to ask, “What can I do, that I’m not already doing, to live every day more fully for justice.”
As we write on March 3, the official number of Palestinians killed in Gaza is over 30,000, and twice as many have been seriously wounded. The U.S. funded and supported Israeli war machine has announced there will be another onslaught on 1.5 million Palestinians now living in Rafah, having been forced there by the bombing in Northern Gaza. At least 500,000 Gazans are starving right now and on February 29, the Israeli military killed over 100 people who were lining up to get food from an aid truck.
This, despite the International Court of Justice ruling in January, in a case brought by South Africa, that …”Israel must take action to prevent genocide,” and that “The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to the Palestinian people as a group protected by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, desist from the commission of any and all acts within the scope of Article II of the Convention, in particular: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to the members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.” Only the UN security council has authority to enforce rulings of the court, but u.s. pressure and u.s. vetoes have prevented any resolution.
People all over the world have been trying to stop the genocide. The Yemen based Houthi’s have attacked shipping in the Red Sea, and the u.s. used this as an excuse to bomb Yemen. Everywhere, activists are blocking bridges, highways, buildings, and airports. In Australia protesters blocked the Ganges, a boat from the Israel-related shipping company Zim, whose boats have also been blocked at u.s. ports over the past decade.
With the exception of the Houthis, about whom UV has no information other than what we read in the media, all of these actions have involved identified queer and trans people, including actions in what is increasingly becoming known as the “Queers for Palestine” movement. Palestinian queer and trans people have been increasingly visible in creating and speaking for this movement.
We call on queer and feminist activists and groups around the world to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance to displacement, land theft, and ethnic cleansing and their struggle for the liberation of their lands and futures from Zionist settler-colonialism. This call cannot be answered only by sharing statements and signing letters but by an active engagement with decolonial and liberatory struggles in Palestine and around the globe…
Shut down main streets. Organize a sit-in in your local central station. Interrupt the flow of commerce.
Complacency is a choice.
In New York on October 23, Gays4Gaza Ceasefire and Queers for Palestine Liberation marched through Manhattan streets, with heavy police presence following behind them. Queer Muslims 4 Palestine and Queers for a Liberated Palestine were two of the several New York City-based groups that organized a jummah prayer for LGBTQIA+ Muslims at the Stonewall National Monument on Dec. 15, 2023. On Jan. 23, ACT UP NY announced their solidarity with Palestinians and endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement, saying, “ACT UP has always been a rainbow coalition fighting in the struggles for queer and trans liberation. We recognize that Israel’s efforts to pinkwash genocide weaponize queerness to indiscriminately brutalize Palestinians of all genders and sexualities. ACT UP NY is proud to be a diverse group of non-partisan individuals united in anger to end HIV/AIDS, with many of our members being part of the LGBTQ community. This is why we join Queers For Liberation to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”
In Los Angeles, a coalition of groups identifying as No Pride in Genocide, and No Pride in Apartheid demonstrated against congressperson Jimmy Gomez, who is on the LGBTQ+ equality caucus but has not signed on to the call for a ceasefire. Queer and trans people have participated in many actions in Seattle, the Port of Tacoma, and Portland.
In London dyke activists “hacked” 100 pro-israel transit ads. Queer and trans people were also among the hundreds of people who blocked roads around the UK parliament on January 6.
In the SF Bay Area Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) formed in 2000 to support the second Intifada. One of our first actions was the “settling” of Berkeley’s Starbucks, “a café without people for people without a café.” In 2005 israel launched the “Brand Israel” campaign which depicted israel as a gay paradise. QUIT! launched a worldwide campaign to boycott World Pride event in occupied Jerusalem first planned for 2005, and then unsuccessfully held in 2006. QUIT! demanded for over a decade that Frameline, the Bay Area’s LGBTQ film festival, stop working with the Israeli consulate, including disrupting a showing of Yossi and Jagger, a film glorifying gay soldiers during the Israeli military occupation of Lebanon. In 2015, QUIT! organized filmmakers to boycott Frameline, and held a separate film festival called Outside the Frame. The following year, Frameline unofficially stopped accepting sponsorship from the consulate, and this year confirmed to the press that it had no relationship with the consulate.
QUIT! has also been part of the block the boat coalition and supported the inclusion of Palestinians in ethnic studies. We are part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and have done various guerrilla theater campaigns, as well as participating in actual campaigns against Pillsbury and HP.
For years we have periodically held Queers of the Plaza (QOTP) actions at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro. When QUIT! and Gay Shame held the first QOTP action after the Israeli bombardment of Gaza on November 18, almost 200 people came, and we blocked the intersection at 18th and Castro. The following month 300 people joined a QOTP action, which blocked traffic in the Castro before marching down Market St. to join a mass rally.
In addition to QUIT!, and Gay Shame, there is now East Bay Queers for a Liberated Palestine, several queer/trans affinity groups, and Mama Ganoush, a Palestinian performance artist and activist, who has organized shows and events. East Bay Queers for a Liberated Palestine held an autonomous event on Feb.3 by Lake Merritt in Oakland. Queer and trans activists have been visible in pretty much every solidarity event in the Bay Area, including being among the 78 activists arrested blocking the Bay Bridge in November.
The big LGBTQ+ non-profits and political orgs have stayed away from condemning, or mentioning, the Israeli genocide in Gaza. In October the human rights campaign (HRC) issued a statement sympathizing with Israelis and Palestinians, and still has gone no further. On February 3, hundreds of people organized by “queer Palestinians, other queer SWANA people, and their allies,” protested outside an HRC gala at the Hilton in New York, also pointing out that weapons manufacturer Northrup Grumman is listed as an HRC platinum partner. On February 14, Washington DC based No Pride in Genocide, a “recently launched coalition of queer and trans Palestinians, Arab and SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) people, Jews and allies,” organized a march from Dupont Circle to the HRC headquarters. Their website includes a downloadable “toolkit.”
On February 8, SF Pride issued a statement that called for a “Ceasefire and Release of all Hostages,” and named the genocide in Gaza.
The gay zionists
In October, the pinkwashing organization A Wider Bridge, posted a petition calling on LGBTQ people to condemn Hamas. California organizations supporting this call include Equality California and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. California “gay” state senator scott wiener, who is now one of the most powerful politicians in California. has spoken at zionist rallies, including rallies in January opposing a San Francisco ceasefire resolution. SF “gay” supervisors rafael mandelman and matt dorsey also opposed the resolution, which ultimately passed. In January, when a queer/trans coalition organized a protest outside a gentrification fundraiser that featured weiner and mandelman, the group sponsoring the event called it off, rather than face the protest.
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is the leading zionist organization in the Bay Area, and has organized rallies against ceasefire resolutions in SF and other cities. JCRC led the fight to remove Palestine liberation from the California model ethnic studies curriculum, and against an “Arab language pathway” in SF Public Schools. They have fought BDS campaigns in the Bay Area, and are quick to call any criticism of israel, including from Jewish organizations, antisemitic. JCRC showcases its support to and from various gay politicians.
What’s Next for Queers for Palestine
It is almost six months since the Gaza genocide started. Palestinians in the West Bank live under increasingly severe martial law and the constant threat of arrest and indefinite detention.
We are now entering the season where commemorations of the Stonewall rebellion are planned. At the end of June, SF will hold one of the biggest tourist events in the city. We will have to decide whether and how we will relate to these very public showcases. It was at the 2004 Pride parade that a zionist PR organization handed out 10,000 free CDs of young dancing Israelis to publicize the 2005 Jerusalem World Pride. Will there be national disruptions under slogans such as “no pride in genocide?” Will mainstream non-profits organize Palestine support contingents to march several blocks after Wiener and Mandelman? Will radicals continue to try to ignore corporate pride?
-A Victory -The California Model -Shorts from Inside -No Help for HIV+ -Al Salam Alaikum. Peace be upon You
A Victory
Dear LAGAI (staff and readers). A few months ago I wrote an article about living with Alzheimer’s (terminal) here in Warkworth Prison [Canada] and all the struggles being in prison living with this disease. The story was about myself, sadly.
I was saddened when I was given a card that you sent telling me that the UltraViolet newspaper with that story was returned to your office and that I could no longer receive my paper because of changed rules [in the prison] after 8 years of getting the newspaper from you.
So I took the power of voice I learned all these years from the LAGAI paper and decided to find a Human Rights lawyer and I filed a sexual discrimination suit against the prison. (Thanks to you, I won!)
After several meetings with upper Management, my lawyer and myself, it was decided (after they read several past copies I had saved because of certain stories) that the UltraViolet newspaper was approved again and placed on the Master Mailing List permanently.
So could you please send the last 3 issues I’ve missed so much and thank you for giving me the courage to fight for my rights to be gay here in Canada. Jaime McCallum, Warkworth Federal Prison, Ontario Canada
By Augie Carrion #C47698, San Diego S.P./A3-237, 480 Alta Rd. San Diego CA92170
The California Model
Back in July of 2023 I read an article about how the Correctional Officers and California Peace Officer Association Union were debating over the “California Model” of prison reform by gov. Newsome. Most officers claimed, at this meeting, that they didn’t know what the California Model was and that they didn’t have a voice in the matter and were upset over this approach and changes. Of course all the Correctional Officers will not support anything for us prisoners who have suffered decades of abuse. And so at this meeting, officers spoke up and said they deal with a lot of post-traumatic stress and depressions that are job related leading to divorce, addiction and even suicide.
I find this funny and a line of bullshit! This is where they play the ‘victims’ because this is how they come together in an attempt to stop any and all positive programming or prison reform that does benefit us prisoners and will make prisons safer with positive peaceful living conditions. The C/O’s don’t want this. They want job security and violence and want the keys to control prisons and our living conditions. They want to keep the corruption and continued inhumane conditions pressing up on us making our time harder.
Now most of us prisoners are on the Visionary Path United, to change the prison system and laws to get us all home or get a parole date for a second chance at freedom. These C/O’s know it is us prisoners who have psychological disorders related to the stress of living in prison and how they continue to push us around like a pawn on a chessboard. Some officers were concerned about not having their equipment and their status because that goes out the door if they participate in the California Model. It’s now going to be incentives and pro-social relationships, not force and control: No hand cuffs, no mace, no batons, vests, walkie talkies, green uniforms. Well, it’s part of this prison reform transformation and it will work for both the incarcerated and C/O’s who will support it and truly understand it’s about treating us prisoners with respect. Stop putting labels on us, we are paying our debts to society so treat us with dignity and stop trying to dehumanize us and divide us.
But you won’t crush our fighting spirits to change the game in prison with this California Model. It’s time for C/O’s to stop playing the victim and be part of the solution, not the problem. Angel M Garza #B1 7852, Cor-SATF/E-1-146, PO Box 5242, Corcoran CA 93212
Shorts from Inside
Hey there my friends and family. Sorry that I lost contact with you all there for a while but things have been rough with me here lately. It’s just part of doing time and losing track of yourself and the things around you. I tend to visit that dark place a lot beings I’m now in here with 2 lifewithouts and no chance in going home. You tell yourself that it’s going to be alright and pick yourself up and keep moving. I usually have the people from other prisons put their arms around me and tell me that it’s going to be alright, but here recently they [the prison] stopped inmate to inmate mail. Now I can’t stay in contact with no one else that is locked up and to be honest it hurts me real bad because that’s the only contacts I’ve had throughout my 15 years in prison. But like always I pick myself up and dust myself off. Writing you gives me some kind of comfort so thanks for that. MP, West Liberty KY [write to us anytime!]
I’m writing this letter of dutiful notification regarding the recurring unconstitutional prison censorship being again perpetrated in all correctional institutions in Florida once again targeting UltraViolet. They just recently rejected one incoming edition based upon one column in which Black Panther Mutulu Shakur was honorably mentioned. BT, Clermont FL [We have been seeing a lot of UVs returned from several Florida prisons with letters from the administration citing different reasons. We have tried to appeal some of these with no success. It is an on-going problem that we wish we could fix]
I’m a Transgender 29 years old, serving an 18 year sentence in federal prison. I have been thru three institutions from 2020-2014 and because of the craziness of the transfer process, I haven’t been able to notify LAGAI about my address changes. But somehow your amazing staff have found me and sent me my UltraViolet every time! I wish I could shake all your hands because you really show me, make me feel appreciated and that one of the LGBTQ+ organizations actually care!. I enjoy reading all the content. Happy new year to all and let’s keep on making every day count. PMC, Talladega AL
I’m one of those individuals who spent my entire life hiding my sexual orientation. It wasn’t until I came to prison, that I came out as gay or bi, causing me to face the fear of those not wanting to socialize with me. It will never cease to amaze me that individuals have no understanding that it hurts that others will get up from a table just because you sat down. I look forward to newspapers like this and interacting with others who know what I mean. RB, London OH
Please stop sending me your Pro-Terrorism, Anti-Jew, baby-killer supporting newsletter. KG, New Castle IN [we surely will]
Perhaps I should tell you how much I adore your little newspaper. I know the two causes you are most concerned with are: 1. the rights of ALL LGBTQ+ people and 2. the abolition of carceral institutions. Nevertheless, in the pages of UltraViolet you take a broad based/holistic approach to all the myriad of social ills facing our world. From genocide, war, poverty and economic exploitation to the modern day slavery of the prison system, the hegemony of our heterosexist society and its unjust cisnormativity. Both LGBTQ+ rights and the cause of prison abolition absolutely must be part of a much larger movement that fights for everyone’s rights [and] strives to create a new social order dedicated to universal legal, social, economic and political freedom for ALL. Honestly I think it’s fantastic how you folks at LAGAI think globally but act locally. Hence you comprehend, better than most, that oppression is oppression is oppression. This is why I must tell you that your work in publishing UltraViolet is a great inspiration to me. Yours in solidarity. Al Rea South Suffield CT
Just writing to update my address after an unnecessary move by the BOP [Bureau of Prisons]. But wanted to thank you all for all you do. UltraViolet is a little bit of sunshine and hope in what is a normally grey and bleary existence. Stay strong and safe Fam. SP, Lompoc CA
Due to the facility I am currently at, with nosy red neck inmates and C/Os,I feel the need to cancel my subscription to UltraViolet. I will renew in August upon my release from the crap nest. Anonymous [we are sorry to lose you]
I’m a 40 year old Transgender being held hostage in the land of these hater-ass Red Necks. I’m very interested in reading up on what Demonstrations you have planned for the innocents trapped in the Gaza Strip and I love your book and movie reviews and hearing from the others that are being held hostage in our current police state by corrupt government politicians. GT, Carlisle IN
This is Mrs Roze Session, a Transgender at Florida State Prison. Some papers they let it, some they reject. They’ve also denied me books like Hoyle’s Card Games because it has Poker games in it. Yet our Tablets have Poker games on them also. These people contradict themselves. They rejected Prison Express News, the Federal Prison Handbook. You believe that? Reason given? “Otherwise presents a threat to the security order or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of the person.” My god, these people are insane. DLN, Raiford FL
I pray that I get your next newsletter because I love the stories you all write. They make me laugh, they educate me and they instill a sense of pride in me. Keep hope alive, y’all and fight on just a little while longer and in due time, everything, I mean everything, will be alright. Good vibes always win. In other news, I do believe that the fact that you published my earlier comments at least made someone look into my lost property issues and address them. Even if they did not fix them but they acted as if they might. I am thankful for minor victories shining light on injustices. Even a loss can create major changes … As convicts, especially LGBTQ convicts, we must remember to always stand up for each other when we see injustices directed at our brothers and sisters. The day will come when we are all faced with something we know is not right. The temptation will be to pass by. By your actions and love for one another, “speak out”, don’t let evil people continue to abuse the LGBTQ community. LM, Cameron MO
Let me commend the publishers or whatever of LAGAI/UV. What a top-notch effort. Excellent reporting. Need I say more? I was very impressed with the obituaries just to name one category. The coverage of the life of Ruchell Magee in particular. The fearless excellent writing which stands in the gap between oppression and unrighteousness, giving people hope for a better tomorrow and the strength to deal with today. Great work! JJ PA
I say this is genocide and this needs to stop. I am sorry I can’t talk – I had a stroke. But I am against what they are doing [in Palestine]. I am crying right now, I know this is genocide. Ceasefire Now! RZE, Uncasville CT
I am me! I did over 16 years in Nevada, was on parole for almost 3. I was the poster child of a successful parolee. Then I had my identity stolen, my partner left me and my family decided they couldn’t handle the fact that I enjoyed wearing panties and make-up to bed. I lost everything including my mind; not caring if I lived or died. I went deaf and almost died. I turned myself in for absconding, and spent a few weeks in the hospital. And I found my mind and got my hearing back. I have no family or true friends left. With all this said and done, I am for the first time in my life, truly happy. Just being Me!!! OB, Indian Springs NV
Alone again I reach out. There is nobody here for me. I come from a very small town. I read the UltraViolet and when people add their address, I write them and try to help. I was the main legal librarian for over 2 years. People say others helped them make it when they were ready to give up! Where are those people? You brave people know who you are when those that hurt you, have no clue who they are! They don’t have a life of their own so they gotta get into others and torment to fill the void. That void is where love should be, not hate. Turn emptiness into love and start to live. There is too much pain in the world, don’t add more to it. Reach out and love who you find. JP, Chillicothe OH
Ms Tay from Penn. DOC. I’m proud to be receiving your newsletter, hearing from you all. It helps me to read and listen and hear from others from the community. JT, Waynesburg PA
Long time reader, first time writer. As of this moment I have 4 months to go before I go home. I’ve been on hormones for just about 2 years. I’m going out there with no realistic support group, health care, housing etc. And sitting here thinking of all the LGBTQIA+ and trans hatred, it seems sad that the government/political bigots are saying it’s OK to hurt or kill any one of us and even go so far as to push us as a whole back in the closet and lose no sleep over it. TLK, Chillicothe OH
I sent a detailed letter on 8/29. It concerned the Colorado DOC’s continued blatant, direct, terrible, illegal disgusting practice of slavery/involuntary servitude, “forced prison labor and punishment” issues. The CO DOC is still violating the Colorado Constitution/laws regarding this. All with complete knowledge of doing so illegally. See CO Constitution, Article II, section 26. It is a new law as of Nov. 2018. It makes all CO DOC policies/procedures dealing with prisons, work, punishment etc. illegal. I just need help ‘fighting’ the CO DOC. As a Death by Incarceration/life without parole (DBI/LWOP) inmate, I appreciate any help and responses. Thank you. Lots of love, in solidarity, Charles A Garrison #108271 AVCF/#13, 12750 Hwy 96, Ordway CO 81034
Palestinian flag from Othman Al-Muttalaby #68218, SF County Jail #3-J, 1 Moreland Dr. San Bruno CA 94066
No Help for HIV+ Inmates
While I was held in a county jail in 2019, I requested my HIV medication through a medical request. I was then taken to the nurse’s station and was seen by the head of medical, a nurse practitioner (NP). I told her that I’ve been without my medications and that I needed to restart them. She responded that she didn’t want to start treatment and for a year she didn’t provide any treatment whatsoever. She never conducted any blood testing, I was never referred to a infectious disease specialist/my doctor nor was I seen in a chronic care appointment despite numerous requests and [filed] grievances.
Once I filed a lawsuit they began treating me. I have made it through the motion to dismiss and summary judgement stage and I have no idea what I am doing. They are now taking advantage of my stupidity in discovery.
O have written what seems like hundreds of letters to advocacy groups trying to get help but because I am in Oklahoma, no one will help me. Please help me get justice and set a clear precedent for the treatment of HIV+ inmates. The officials at this jail have caused me to suffer and to deteriorate and could have killed me. Please help. You can see the case on West Law at 2021WL 2372235. Bryan Davenport #664874, JCCC/5 south 64A, 216 N Murray St. Helena OK 73741
Al Salam Alaikum. Peace be upon You
This is Ali again. I’m writing you specifically as being a GAY ARAB in the US while GAZA is bleeding. Since October 2023, my life has changed forever as an Iraqi man born and raised in Baghdad. I’d been very uncertain to write you about GAZA genocide until I got your newsletter which became my world to me. My heart is bleeding with sorrows, pain, and I’m tortured to see how the US has been funding the terrorist Israelis to kill the Arab resistance like killing animals. Why did I come to the US? I regretted my whole life since October.
I’m in so much pain because of what I found out about the real issues between the Palestine folks and the thieves of Palestinian homeland. I’m crying most nights for the kids under the rebels. My real shock is when I read about the conflict online to find out how GAZA had been “an open Prison”. That is what transformed me to a Gay Iraqi or Iraqi Queer living in the US to be on a life mission to be an activist to support and help the Palestinian people including Queers of the Arabs and USA and others. I possess an enormous passion to do just that when I read very carefully your newsletter. Everything makes sense to me; why I’m still alive and not to die in a coward way – suicide. Because your newsletter gave me hope to join your group to protest as you did in the Castro and everywhere else.
Another shocking founding for me recently. I read an article in a different paper about how Israel is haven for the LGBTQ+ people in the world. Hold on for a sec. How is that even possible for US Queer people? I’ll feel shame if Queers believe in such propaganda. Supposedly a lot of gay people traveled to Israel to feel the haven as they described it in the paper. What’s going on here? How can the Queers in San Francisco that stand with the Palestinian folk solve such a HORRIBLE picture that the Israeli gays had painted? I just need a real enlightenment with this issue because mentally it affects me on a daily basis.
I’d like to educate me while in jail. In the meantime, if my defense works (Inshallah), upon my release I’ll be at your doorstep, but if I got time to serve I must use that time to study to be an activist for Human Rights. I just need the mentor thing to help me along the way. Anyhow, my lovely people, now you have helped me breath and most importantly gave me hope. Othman Al-Muttalaby #68218, SF County Jail #3-J, 1 Moreland Dr. San Bruno CA 94066 [excerpted from a longer article]
UltraViolet 