PoliFact | Ben Carson: Many prisoners go straight, e out gay

Contents:

• 10 THGS I LEARNED AS A GAY PRISONER BEHD BARS
• INSI A PRISON CELL FOR GAY FORMER GANG MEMBERS EL SALVADOR
• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS
• PELíCULAS Y DOCUMENTAL SOBRE AMOR GAY EN LA CáRCEL
• [WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY
• KG LIL JAY SLAMS GAY MORS AFTER VIO OF MAT KISSG PROMPTS TROLLS’ RPONSE
• CHIGO RAPPER KG LIL JAY ADDRS ‘GAY’ ALLEGATNS AFTER PRISON VIO SURFAC

10 THGS I LEARNED AS A GAY PRISONER BEHD BARS

What follows are 10 thgs I learned om the perspective of a gay man and ex-mate at a feral prison mp. But even then, don’t expect fair treatment – particularly if someone wh thory don’t like gay people.

While the film was not overtly gay -- censorship would have prevented that at the time -- the lbian unrton are hard to 's Prison MassacreThis 1983 horror film follows Emanuelle, a reporter sent to prison on tmped-up charg. Gay and bisexual men reported that while they were “fairly” or “totally” open about their sexualy on the wg, they were discreet about their sexual activi and relatnships.

INSI A PRISON CELL FOR GAY FORMER GANG MEMBERS EL SALVADOR

One heterosexual man said that he had had nsensual sex wh gay or bisexual prisoners “out of necsy”. Some terviewe observed that they had known some openly homosexual upl beg allowed to share cells some stutns.

One terviewee reported that a senr officer had moved a young prisoner, who had nfid he was “nfed” about his sexualy, to the cell of an openly gay, olr prisoner, orr to help him “sort himself out”. "Bee a lot of people who go to prison go to prison straight -- and when they e out, they're gay.

We’ll jump to the pot here: There is no nclive evince to support Carson’s claim that "a lot of people" make a swch om heterosexual to homosexual while prison.

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

Further, the medil muny tends to nclu that homosexualy is not a matter of choice -- notably the Amerin Psychologil Associatn.

Of those 24, 18 changed om straight to bisexual, three changed om bisexual to straight, and one each changed om bisexual to gay, gay to bisexual, and gay to straight. It’s possible that people go to prison unaware of their sexualy, and then once they are exposed to homosexual behavr as an mate, they realize that they are gay or bisexual, Helen Eigenberg, who also studi prison sexualy as a profsor at the Universy of Tennsee at Chattanooga, said an terview wh PoliFact. They might thk that jt bee they played a role a homosexual act, they are now gay, which is not necsarily te.

Greg Herek, a psychology profsor at the Universy of California Davis who studi sexual orientatn, poted to a natnally reprentative study that shows the vast majory of gay men and women do not perceive their sexual orientatn as a rult of choice.

COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'

People n change their behavr -- such as engagg homosexual behavr prison -- but that do not equate to a change orientatn, Bailey, the Northwtern rearcher, told PoliFact.

PoliFact, "Tim Pawlenty says scientists are " dispute" over whether beg gay is a choice, " July 13, 2011. PoliFact, "Tim Pawlenty says there's no scientific ncln that beg gay is geic, " July 13, 2011. Sexual Rearch and Social Policy, "Demographic, Psychologil, and Social Characteristics of Self-Intified Lbian, Gay, and Bisexual Adults a US Probabily Sample, " September 2010.

Although there has grown up to a nsirable lerature on sex experienc prison, ltle has been wrten on the post-prison behavral patterns of those who, voluntarily or voluntarily, bee iated to homosexualy while rcerated.

UGANDA'S LGBTQ MUNY IS ' SHOCK' OVER NEW MEASURE, GAY ACTIVIST SAYS

42) suggts that sexual experienc prison may have permanent effects on the liv of some of the participants: "Can such men return to nventnal heterosexual liv after release, or has the experience of beg forced to acts of passive homosexualy been so trmatic as to preclu the rumptn of sexual relatns wh members of the oppose sex? " In a search for an answer to his qutn, the prent paper studi ex-prisoners whose iatn to homosexualy occurred durg prison.

The prison director showed him an isolatn cell, where ne former gang members—om each of the untry’s three ma anized crime groups, MS-13, and two factns of Barr 18—had been moved after g out as gay. ” In this particular prison, San Francis Gotera, the east of the Central Amerin untry, gang culture was not the only source of vilent homophobia. The state had effectively ced ntrol of daily life si Gotera to church lears, who preach that homosexualy is a s as grave as vlence.

Livg the isolatn cell wh his partner and other gay mat, he grappl wh both his sexualy and his vlent past. “How is possible for a untry to have s moral pass so broken that homosexualy and murr n feel the same? “But the tth is that they are already nmned: they’ve left the gang; they’ve lived wh former members of other gangs; and they’ve lived openly as gay people, ” she says.

PELíCULAS Y DOCUMENTAL SOBRE AMOR GAY EN LA CáRCEL

The homosexual is the same, ” says a pastor one terview laid over a scene of him preachg to rapturo crowds the prison urtyard. ) Martez says the film is not an attempt to reem the subjects “jt bee they’re gay, jt bee they n show love or tenrns.

More than 78 percent intified themselv as heterosexual, and 8 percent intified themselv as homosexual; slightly more than 13 percent intified themselv as bisexual. The maximum-secury un had more self-intified homosexuals and bisexuals than the other two stutns.

The study did not fd an elevated rate of nsensual homosexual activy by the mat pared to the amount which they engaged prr to rceratn.

[WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY

One-fourth of the prison sample dited they had engaged some form of nsensual homosexual activy while rcerated; 18 percent had engaged homosexual activy prr to rceratn.

The -prison homosexual activy found this study was not as high as that reported by other studi. In 1984, when Calv Burde was awag sentencg for allegedly stabbg his gay lover to ath, the prosecutg attorney enuraged the jury his closg remarks to award Burde the ath penalty, rather than life prison, on the grounds that sendg a gay man to prison was ak to sendg a kid to a ndy store. His ath sentence was later overturned (mostly bee Burde's public fenr had slept through much of his trial), but the homophobic thkg – that prison is some kd of paradise for gay men – lgers realy of life prison for homosexuals and transgenr dividuals do not appear to reflect this myth.

He scribed a lany of btal rap, asslts, beatgs and, eventually, the total abandonment of his male inty as his only means of survival the hyper-mascule and often homophobic prison environment. His acunt suggts that far om beg a paradise, prison for gay men n be a livg days of his first enterg prison, the 23-year-old Rodney claimed he was the victim of three separate sexual asslts, volvg five different mat.

KG LIL JAY SLAMS GAY MORS AFTER VIO OF MAT KISSG PROMPTS TROLLS’ RPONSE

The prison he was first sent to did actually have a separate tier for gay mat, but acrdg to Rodney, bee he did not "appear overly effemate" durg his classifitn, he was placed wh the general populatn; and bee was supposedly rare to have a gay person slip through the cracks of the system, his fellow mat took full advantage. It's difficult to asss how typil Rodney's prison experience is, but numero studi nducted by the Bure of Jtice Statistics, based on anonymo mate surveys, have shown that gay and transgenr mat are among the most targeted groups for sexual victimizatn. Jt Detentn Internatnal (JDI), an anizatn whose aim is to eradite prison rape (pdf), is tryg to change has been workg wh the California Department of Correctns and Rehabilatn (CDCR) to tablish "sensive needs yards" (pdf), where gay, transgenr and other vulnerable mat n serve out their time safety.

Image source, The Greatt MenaceImage ptn, Cooma jail was once ed exclively to imprison gay menSet one of the lst and wdit small towns Atralia, Cooma prison holds a dark only was reopened 1957 wh the specific purpose of rceratg men for "homosexual offenc", was also said to be ed as a human ttg ground wh the ultimate goal of eraditg homosexualy om 's jail is believed to have been the only known homosexual prison the world, acrdg to a new now, even some prison staff say they didn't know the real reason gay prisoners were segregated Strzelecki, 66, started as a ctodial servic officer at the prison 1979, and later set up the Corrective Servic Mm Cooma. We'd red stamp homosexual prisoners wh 'N/A': non-associatn wh mastream prisons, " he tells the BBC. "You wouldn't bunk two together… that was one of our biggt problems - keepg an eye on them, " says Mr New, now source, Thomas McCoyImage ptn, L Strzelecki (left) worked at the jail before settg up the lol Corrective Servic MmHistoril documents suggt New South Wal (NSW) Jtice Mister Reg Downg took cred for tablishg the reportedly exprsed "pri" at his pet project, tellg the Sydney Morng Herald 1957: "Nowhere Europe or Ameri did I fd any prisons where homosexuals were separated om other prisoners.

CHIGO RAPPER KG LIL JAY ADDRS ‘GAY’ ALLEGATNS AFTER PRISON VIO SURFAC

" A 1958 prs statement om Mr Downg nam Cooma prison as "the only penal stutn the world, so far as is known, voted specifilly to the tentn of homosexual offenrs". Prisoners at Cooma were rcerated for beg gay, or crim related to beg gay; homosexualy wasn't crimalised NSW until dranian state laws 1955 had cracked down on homosexualy. "The legislative chang were very wi-rangg their asslt on the civil liberti of men thought to have homoerotic sir.

Attempted buggery rried five years, and a harsher crackdown, a clse was add statg "wh or whout the nsent of such person" source, State Library of NSWImage ptn, Reg Downg exprsed pri separatg gay prisoners om othersBoth Mr Wotherspoon and the podst ce evince of police actg as "agents provotrs" to ce men to m homosexual acts. "They'd e hunky policemen to entrap gay men by enticg them to have sex, ually public toilets, " Mr Wotherspoon 1958, the NSW ernment announced a mtee of quiry to the "e and treatment of homosexualy". It nam Cooma prison as "a special stutn for nvicted homosexual offenrs" which will "facilate the vtigatn" a "scientific evaluatn of the problem and possible solutn" has been found, Mr Downg is quoted as sayg, "the ernment nsirs that the problem mt be attacked wh vigour".