Jeremy Grace Pinson

• /

JEREMY V. PINSON (GRACE)

16267-064

USP TUCSON
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 24550
TUCSON, AZ  85734

prisonlivesmatter22@gmail.com

It is with full recognition of the irony involved that I write beginning with the words of a Republican Member of Congress:
“History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be.”- Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)  (Washington Post Op-Ed, May 6, 2021)
On April 2, 2007 I was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for threatening the father of Congresswoman Cheney – that would be Vice President Richard B. Cheney – and I find it ironic that there is no one I agree with more, in the words she published, than the daughter of my “victim”.
I was 20 years old as I sat in that federal courtroom and my mind had a hard time catching up with the numbers my federal judge was throwing at me, the numbers of months of imprisonment being imposed to run stacked on top of one another. I was numb inside. The Vice President never knew me, never knew what I said, but clearly I had earned the ire of an angry federal judge. I looked at my mother and in her face I could see a tragedy unfolding. Her face was the embodiment of loss, sadness and regret. As the Judge sent me to prison for the number of years I had up until then lived I only wanted her to know that I promised to come home and hug her once again. I never realized I would not see her for another decade, and today it has been almost 20 years since I last hugged my mother.
Today I am a 35-year old woman living in a system that seems to hate transgender persons. Time has lined my face and the number of gray hairs increases by the day. Although I have fought my sentence, my right to exist took center stage in my focus during the last presidential race when America elected a man who would pardon Alice Johnson, sign into law the most progressive criminal justice reform in a decade – the “First Step Act of 2018” – and then pivot to what the American Bar Association would call “A Federal Attack on LGBTQ2 Rights by Targeting Incarcerated Transgender Women (www.americanbar.org<http://www.americanbar.org>, Jan. 06, 2019) during the same presidency.
One can easily imagine my reluctance to speak about anything involving the White House. But when a federal prisoner asked a federal judge in Texas to help ban transgender prisoners from female federal institutions, I countered with my own motion to intervene so trans inmates would not stand undefended in court. President Trump, with the cooperation of that prisoner, would reverse the progressive policies of President Obama, by quickly settling her claims with the restrictive changes the administration wanted anyways. (See Lauren McGaughy: After Texas Suit, Trump Administration Reverses Prison Policies Protecting Transgender Inmates, Dallas News (May 15, 2018)). It reminded me instantly of the Dylan Thomas quote:
“RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT”
When I sued my own country in court seeking gender-affirming surgery I believed in my claim: recognize me and stop hurting me. In Court the Trump Administration lawyers denied my right to exist, outside of it it came down upon my neck transferring me to a maximum security prison in Arizona and away from the prison where I safely served my time in Rochester, Minnesota in peace. In Arizona, the male prisoners repeatedly attacked me, even breaking bones in my face. And the prison staff encouraged their hate.
If Einstein was correct that repetition was a sign of insanity, my pursuit of my rights was the essence of my own brand of crazy. When Republicans fought to ban transgender people from the military, to restrict where we can go to the bathroom, and to pass laws interfering with the medical care transgender children receive and the sports in which transgender children can play, I asked myself with disgust – how can these people target our children to score cheap political points?
Enough is enough.
If Martin Luther King Jr. was correct and the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice, I want to help bend it.
If Steve Jobs’ iconic commercial slogan was correct, that those crazy enough to believe they can change the world are usually the ones who do, I must accept that I am crazy.
Crazy to believe I have the right to exist.
Crazy to believe I am human, and deserving of the love and acceptance of my species.
Crazy to believe that from the bowels of our nations penal system I can demand the right to exist, to be free, to live my life unbound by the hateful agenda of partisans who would ruin the lives of our children to gain attention, earn an income built on hate, and rise in political office. Anyone who would endanger the lives and wellbeing of children for these reasons lacks the basic decency to deserve election or reelection.
Liz is right, history IS watching. I do not intend to let it see me do nothing. They can take my freedom, my happiness, even my life. But by God they will not take my right to exist, they will not silence my voice, they will not deny the next generation the progress of mine. Frankly, as far as I am concerned they can do so over my dead body but not my silence. Never that.
President Biden and Merrick Garland hopefully will grant my wishes on this issue by remembering that History is Watching. Our children are watching. On this point, the daughter of my victim and I agree. When the Biden DOJ continues its review of my lawsuits about transgender rights – I pray they will do what it right and follow Liz Cheney’s example when it comes to the rule of law and standing up against the use of hate to undermine our legal system by supplying legitimacy to what are truly policy positions denying the rights of individuals like me.
Jeremy Grace Pinson