stella41b
Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
Status: offline
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Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for the messages of support and postings with regard to my recent visit to the United States. I have returned to the UK and am writing this a couple of hours after landing at Gatwick Airport.
I flew into Atlanta GA on December 13 planning to spend Christmas with Halley and her family - our family - and to gather information from the area around Ocean Springs and Biloxi in Mississippi, we planned to visit New Orleans. I was intending to take a connecting flight to Gulfport/Biloxi.
I am a playwright and stage director, I am a transgendered female, I am undergoing gender reassignment in the care of London's Charing Cross Hospital. These are facts. My British passport, a biometric passport, bears the name of Stella Baker. It bears the letter 'F', indicating that I am female. For two years since my downfall in Polish theatre - through coming out publicly as a transsexual female in support of gays and lesbians I have worked to overcome my issues, find myself, to get through the gender reassignment program and to rebuild my life as a happy, normal, functioning female member of society.
I have developed my own theory of modern theatre, having studied for years the theories of 'poor theatre' put forward by Jerzy Grotowski. My theory is based on the reduction of the method of acting by Konstantin Stanislavski to it's seven most basic, fundamental principles which I am able to teach anyone with the space of a few hours through a drama workshop which I have spent several years developing.
As a volunteer working with the homeless, crack addicts, alcoholics and other people from the lowest levels of society I have been working with drama workshops to help these people overcome their issues and to reenter society as productive members of society. Last year I worked with ten people, four of which were crack addicts, and five alcoholics. Three of the crack addicts are now rehoused and in full time employment, without drug issues. Four out of the five alcoholics have also rebuilt their lives and have overcome the reasons why they abused alcohol. I have done similar workshops with victims of child abuse, sufferers of depression, and victims of domestic violence with similar results. My theories hold water, there have been successes, and my theory is that anyone who is given the opportunity to make changes to their lives will do so.
Therefore I have found a way of fighting poverty through my work in theatre. I want to work with these theories and people who have lost their former lives through Hurricane Katrina to help them find the confidence and the passion and the will to take matters into their own lives and seek and find the changes they need. I even have a vision of a new wave of American culture starting in the South - through my own efforts to make theatre popular culture, but it doesn't have to be theatre, it can be music, it can be art, for poor people have just as many talents as anyone else. This is my new life, a life with my family and working to help other people, a life I have been working to rebuild and which I am now ready to adopt.
All I wanted to do was to spend Christmas with Halley and our new family and to gather enough information to return to London to start a visa application to reenter the US. I flew into the United States on a return flight holding a valid UK passport having funds and my medication with me. I supplied the address where I was staying and I was able to show that I would not become a public charge to the US government during my stay in the US. These are the facts.
I have spent 48 hours in the United States - physically, but not legally, as I was not allowed to cross the border and enter the United States. I have two completely different impressions of America based on my experiences, both of which contrast with each other radically, even oppose each other. My first is at the hands of US Department of Border and Homeland Security with whom I spent time at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. My second impression came from the Atlanta City Detention Center where I was held overnight.
Was my being a TS female a problem for the inmates of the prison? No, it wasn't. I was received at the same time as an armed robber.. and sitting among the prisoners they made me feel very welcome, they were polite and respectful, and understanding. It would have been nice to experience more of this welcome from the American people, but sadly it was not to be. I was taken by the respect people have for each other, the 'Yes Sir' and "Yes Ma'am' used as a common form of address between people, how you can sit among people, black, white, male, female, straight, gay, and nobody's really bothered. I was in the male section, and when I explained who I was and why I was there to the prison staff they changed their attitude and became much more friendly and understanding.
My being a TS female was a major issue with the immigration officials, right from the start. I was questioned intensively, I answered all questions openly and honestly, I showed my documents, I gave information, I let them search me, search my luggage. I was accused of trying to enter the US illegally on a fake passport, despite showing five other forms of ID with the same identity. I was mocked, laughed at, called a liar.. accused of fraud and threatened with immediate deportation. At one point I had six officials surrounding me demanding to know whether I had a penis or not. I was told 'In the US you're male, get over it' and 'You ain't got no rights here'.
For much of the 48 hours I wasn't allowed access to my medication, access to drinking water, or allowed to use a bathroom. I was searched and patted down by male officials, and one official joked that he would treat me gently and try not to squeeze my genitals too much. I was deprived of sleep, it was a stressful situation, I was constantly being humiliated and degraded (as a submissive I might have enjoyed this but men in uniform just ain't my scene being honest and I'm not that much into humiliation or degradation anyway), being spoken to aggressively, and all the 'nice' things which happen to you in such situations.
The officer announced that he was refusing entry to the States because he had spoken to my Significant Other (Halley) and she had said that I had come to the States to work and to 'sell plays'. I managed to contact my SO by phone, she had not spoken to any official as she was waiting for me at Gulfport/Biloxi airport, the official had asked her my plans and she had told him that I was spending Christmas with them in Mississippi. I have a two paged statement which wasn't what I had said and this two paged statement is from a pile of other papers which the US Border and Homeland Security have as justification for refusing my entry into the US - 17 paragraphs of lies and half-baked assumptions which clearly implies that I was born male and been issued with two UK passports.
I was shackled in handcuffs when taken from the airport to the prison, and at the prison where I was identified as 'male' I faced further interrogation until 3am as to my gender and whether I have a penis or not. They kept trying to put me in cells with other male prisoners but I kept refusing to enter and asking for the British Consulate. I was laughed at. I was taken from the prison at 7am to another cell at the Atlanta Police Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Atlanta, where I was handcuffed, refused access to drinking water and refused medication.
I was then put into a cell with a Pakistani male, and then transported with him and two other women for deportation back to the airport. I was given a small paper cup of water to drink, and when I asked to use the bathroom they took me to a cell and locked me in the cell. I was taken out of the cell and told to wait in the main office as they were deporting someone to Mexico and they needed the cell. I asked for them to review the decision and was told that they could change it to a deportation order and I would never be allowed back into the US.
There were others detained to be sent back. The officials gave the others food and water to drink but not me. They wanted to lead me back to the flight in handcuffs but couldn't find a pair which fitted and so led me back without handcuffs. The British Airways crew were wonderful, they gave me water and food immediately and allowed me to use the bathroom.
I was given back my passport at Gatwick Airport this morning. On the title page on the inside cover scrawled in black biro is written 'REFUSED 217.4(a) ATL 12/13/07 A88490719' - my passport is therefore defaced.
The British Consulate didn't want to get involved whilst I was in Atlanta but have told me to take the matter up with the US Embassy in London and the Foreign Office.
This isn't the end of the matter as far as I'm concerned - it's just the beginning. I have worked to rebuild this life and it's a life I really want to live, I feel I have the right to be who I am in reality, to live the way that I want, and to live my life with the people I want to have in my life - I don't see how this makes me any different to anyone else.
But for some people I will always be 'different', maybe unacceptable, and they made such a big issue over me being who I am and throwing my gender issues in my face. This is unacceptable.
Now I can either let go, end up having no life and for the foreseeable future being on benefits in the UK with everything that I've worked to build up and develop denied me - or I can fight.
I've chosen to fight this, and I'm fighting it all the way. I'm taking the matter up with the US Embassy and the Foreign Office, I'm also talking with journalists in the United States and working with them. This effectively ends any career break I might have enjoyed.
Christmas is ruined. Not just Halley my SO is heartbroken, and ehr family, but worst of all is her 5 year old girl who had set her heart on spending Christmas with me. I'm now trying to think oif some way I can try and mend the heart of a five year old girl who doesn't understand such things as Visa Waiver Program and entry requirements to the US.
I survived similar treatment in a hostel for the homeless last year, and I took on the hostel and won. I am not ashamed to be a TS female, this is who I am, and if you challenge me I have to defend myself and my rights. The fact that this time it's the US Government doesn't make any difference - my being a TS doesn't justify my being abused, bullied, or being treated unfairly by anyone, even if it's at the hands of an American citizen in a uniform. I'm not going to back down because I can't, nor am I giving in either.
Seeing as it's such an issue for them, I'm going to respond and take up this issue with them - for too long the US Government has been showing a disregard for the rights of people and for international law. It's not just people like me - and I am also taking up this fight in the hope of changing things so other people such as me (and I'm not just talking about transsexuals here, but other 'minorities' such as gays, lesbians, etc) - but also the rights of the American people - particularly those who 'don't fit in'.
Sticking people into FEMA trailers, putting them on welfare and trying to forget about them isn't really helping to rebuild communities and a society devastated by Katrina. I do not perform miracles, I cannot wave magic wands and I don't see myself as having 'the solution' BUT... if I can help some people through what I do in theatre and if what I do is a tiny step among many to rebuild this part of society then this is to me a worthwhile way of living.
I am an artist and writer, this is what I do, this is what I have to offer the world, my words and my ideas. These are the things I have sacrificed so much for in my life, these are the things I am fully prepared to die for (and you can take this literally, and I really do mean this) and I just want this new life with my family doing what I am able to do and what I enjoy doing and working for the benefit of others.
This changes nothing in my plans or in my eyes.. I am trying to see if I can get back and do the theatre workshops for the CRISIS Open Christmas in London running workshops and doing theatre over Christmas for the homeless and vulnerable.. I am also working on an application for a US visa and intend to return to the United States to do what I intend to do, which means that no matter what, there will be theatre in the States and some time next year as planned I intend to bring my plays and people together working towards making theatre popular culture.
This is my response, my comeback, and though I may have been defeated, I will never be conquered or destroyed.
Failure is nothing more than one step further towards success. Success this time for me is being there to give a five year old girl the presents I had taken for her with me from London. This is what motivates me.
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CM's Resident Lyricist
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http://stella.baker.tripod.com/
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