Update: Hello everyone. The petition continues to climb steadily in signatures. We are almost up to 2500! I suspect the signatures will continue to rise. and we will indeed get justice for Jean. We need to ensure that no more gender-diverse patients have to die because of careless, self-serving doctors in MA.

Please share this petition with one other person today! And ask them to do the same.

On my end of things; I am barely hanging on, but I’m hanging. I was recently sexual harassed. That patient then, a few days laters, started yelling a barrage of transphobic things at me, even encouraging me to kill myself and then threatening to do it themselves.

This is what gender-diverse patients experience in short-term acute forensic wards, as DMH knows, and yet this is what I must endure for simply reporting Jeans death. And all this in a state that claims it protects queer people. 

For some reason this incident reminded me of a letter I wrote months ago to Gov Healey, MA Lamakers, Boston City-Council Members and Mayor Wu. I showed it to a friend of mine who suggested I respost it. It does feel right to do for me so here it is:

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Gov Healey, MA Lawmakers, Boston-city council members, Mayor Wu et al.,

My name is And Steiner. My pronouns are it/its. Among many things, I am a transgender human rights activist facing life-threatening abuse and retaliation right here right now in MA's DMH's hospital system.

I have been working closely with Boston city-councilor Tania Anderson for almost two years and worked MA House Rep John Moran for over 5 months to try to stem the tide of these abuses.

I believe, finally, that their advocacy combined with the advocacy of many others has started to shift the nearly murderous trajectory DMH has been on regarding my care.

DMH's decision may already have contributed to the death of Jean Busch, another transgender patient who dared to stand up for her rights. Must it include more before you will publicly act?

Have you read a petition I started that outlines a small portion of the abuses I have suffered, raises allegations (by DMH employees) that DMH may bare some responsibility for Jean's death and allegations (by DMH employees) that abuse against transgender patients in DMH hospitals is systemic?

Has anyone called these staff members to substantiate or unsubstantiated these claims? Are these staff member currently experiencing retaliation? Is anyone protecting them?

Have you read this petition, and my hundreds of emails over the course of 2 years, explaining what is happening to me and other patients in these hospitals, and remained silent? At a certain point silence says far more about where one stands on LGBT+ issues than any words or promises.

At what point does it become unconscionable for the very people that MA and Boston voters have elected to protect them to not, at the very least, go on record saying "These are very concerning allegations. We are determined to investigate and act accordingly."?

If I sound confident it's because I am, not so much in myself (I feel quite terrified actually in addressing both my "caretakers" and the most powerful people in Boston and MA in this manner.) but in the #justiceforjean movement , it's validity and the alignment of MA voters with it's goals (which have implications far beyond the transgender community.)

A neuroscientist (PhD) with a special expertise in forensics, both criminology and criminalistics (Amy De Beau with Mantanuska Forensic Science) recently wrote a letter saying that if my treatment described in the petition and this MindFreedom International article, https://mindfreedom.org/front-page/and-steiner/ , is accurate (and it is), it may meet some of the criteria outlined by the UN to be defined as torture and human trafficking.

While I have no understanding of the legal accuracy of these interpretations, they certainly ring true to me personally and I suspect many others may feel similarly.

If indeed these abuses are happening is this acceptable? Should these types of allegations go investigated?

As you decide on whether or not to act I, a transgender human rights activist, under no criminal investigation, am sitting in prison-like conditions in a dangerous, acute, short-term forensic ward, under the care of those accused, terrified and waiting for the next inevitable assault and possible suicide attempt.

I don't know how many other transgender patients may be experiencing the same thing, nor how they might react but i can assure you that I am unlikely to survive much more treatment like this.

Sincerely,

-And Steiner (it/its)
matransgenderrights@proton.me