We got our first proper visit with Cedar this week! They are doing well considering the circumstances, and asked us to send big love to everyone on the outside, and a huge heap of gratitude to the folks offering support. They explained that the day of the arrest was quite scary and that it was hard to be deprived of any information about what was happening to them or to their friends. They were interrogated for 90 minutes that day about their gender expression and their body, forced to be accountable to the violent assignment of gender upon which prison (and all of society for that matter) are predicated. They explained that every day since then has gotten progressively less scary, and that they are now mostly occupied with organizing a legal defence and overcoming the boredom of a tiny jail cell. They are being kept in segregation on the female side of the prison, though that will likely be changing soon. Segregation is in some ways a safer way to engage with a prison, but it’s also incredibly lonely, which means that anything we can do to break that isolation becomes particularly important.
Please take the time to write to Cedar at the address provided on this website. If you want to help keep their canteen fund full (money that they can use to buy overpriced goods from the mini-store in jail) and help will all of the other associated costs with Cedar being abducted and dragged through the legal system, please donate to the legal support fundraiser.