Protests to be held after trans woman Zoe Watts placed in male prison
Activists have planned a protest to signal to Zoe Watts that she is not alone. (YouTube)
An activist group has planned a peaceful “noise demo” outside a court to protest against the alleged mistreatment of a transgender prisoner.
Protestors are expected to gather at Lincoln Crown Court on Monday (13 January) to urge the government to move trans prisoner Zoe Watts to a female prison.
Watts, a former Lincolnshire police worker, was arrested in December over the alleged possession of a firearm without a certificate and manufacturing a firearm.
According to the post from activist group Justice4ZoeWatts, she has been placed in the men’s wing of HMP Peterborough, where she has been allegedly kept in her cell almost constantly over concerns for her safety.
“She’s kept in her cell 23Ā½ hours a day because the screws say she’s not safe around male prisoners, but they won’t move her,” a post from the activist group claims. “To make their job easier, they are deciding whether to move her to the male mental-health unit or in with the male sex offenders.”
Watts has a gender-recognition certificate, meaning she is legally recognised as female in the UK. She reportedly has a female birth certificate too. No reports from Lincolnshire police detail Watts as being on the sex offenders register.
Justice4ZoeWatts planned the protest on the day Watts was expected to appear in court.
“The first step is showing HMP Peterborough that she’s not alone on the outside,” the statement continues. “They need to know we’re watching, and even when transphobic state violence happens behind locked doors, we’re willing to fight back.”
The case echoes of that of Sarah Jane Baker, who was held in a men’s ward following a public order allegation of which she was found not guilty. During that time, she was denied hormones and administered testosterone, which activists claimed “amounts to a medical detransition“.
PinkNews has contacted HMP Peterborough for comment.
How did this story make you feel?
