Queen of the Pen is a fantastical documentary that plans to shed light on the state sanctioned violence of housing trans women in male facilities and how these transphobic practices disregard their safety and put their lives at risk. This is important to me because I am not the only woman who has had to endure these torturous conditions. There are three transwomen Morion, I met in prison: Shakey, Kelly, Darrel Adams who were locked up, served their time and have since been released. This documentary will chronicle the experiences and hardships in prison as well as follow their present day journey of rebuilding their lives while reclaiming the womanhood that was taken from them while incarcerated.

       About 1 out of 6 (21%) of trans women have been incarcerated at some point in their lives. This is a far higher number than the general population. Trans people are an overrepresented and under studied population. Similar to the women in this documentary a large majority of transwomen face adverse experiences before turning 18: disowned from family, homelessness, sex work and arrest. These issues arise while simultaneously figuring out your gender presentation, finding gender affirming surgeries and navigating society as your authentic self. 

     This film is important because the stories of trans bodies are often ignored. In the prison system our stories are non-existent. It has become commonplace for trans women to be placed in male prisons without any protections and that is not acceptable. The ultimate goal is to humanize and showcase them as people with inherent value and contributors to the things that make life worth living.  These women are full, nurturing, and beautiful humans before, during and after prison. Despite being misgendered and treated like men, we want to show the resilience and the wealth of wisdom of my sisters. I would like to highlight the joy of their spirit and redefine how we see trans women who were previously incarcerated.