Deon Haywood's blog

This Day, We Use Our Energy for Revolution

Deon Haywood — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:03:32 +0000

This is an excerpt from my speech during the Solidarity Rally for Trayvon Martin, on Sunday, July 14th at Washington Square in New Orleans.

Am I crying because yet again the Criminal Justice system, or the U.S. system of so-called justice, disappointed me again? I felt like a jilted lover because yet again, I looked for you to do something different, and you didn't. And you hurt me again.

This morning when I thought about it, I just had this overwhelming feeling of, please please please, let people feel and move – and be reactionary, because that's the first urge we get – but please can we move to revolution.

When I was in my early 20s, I used to go to meetings for the All People's African Revolutionary Party. And I didn't think it fit me as a Black queer woman, but it fit me in terms of what I felt needed to be done for my community. Remember I'm one of those people, always trying to decide what side I need to take.

I want a revolution. I want and I'm calling for a revolution, not in a very violent way. And I want to make sure people understand that. Sometimes when you say revolution, in this country, we fear that in some way that means violence. What it means is to have a plan.

You don't have to join Women with A Vision. We get it all the time "y'all don't talk enough about men". But sometimes you don't want to stand with me, because we do talk about queer people and women and their issues and criminalization.

What I'm asking for, is join somebody! I am almost pleading, and holding back the level of emotion I'm feeling. Do something!

I've been talking to people all day. I don't want to hear one more person, in front of me – y'all can do it with each other, whoever you are, but not with me – tell me, "Well, young Black men kill each other all the time, so George Zimmerman couldn't respect Trayvon." Two separate issues!

I have no desire to change the minds of people like George Zimmerman. I will NOT waste my energy on that. Because I'll be dead and gone and my grandchildren will be still trying. But what we all can do is lend our energy to [fighting] those systems and the ideology that makes us think a certain way.

That we work within our communities so young Black men value themselves. How can you value what other people do not?! So if you hear somebody say that to you, challenge them. You tell them that what they are dealing with is oppression, and poverty, and lack of education, and lack of love for self, and internalized racism. You tell them that.

I am not a begging woman, but I am almost pleading, pleading for every one person who is not here, I do not want this moment to go away, like every historical moment goes away, until another one happens, and we're talking about the last time, and remember, because it always happens!

I really want this time to be different. I want to figure out who we meet with this week, next week, once a week, once a month, and what community are we going in, what group are we going to work with, what conversations are we going to have within our community, with our families, about making things different?

I want to know next time OPPRC (Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition) is out there challenging the criminal justice system, or anybody in this city who is fighting for someone's LIFE – We talk about rights, but sometimes there's a thin line between rights and your LIFE – I want you to stand up. And I want you to be angry and frustrated enough that you can not longer sit down. That you get up in the morning, you say, "What am I gonna do today?"

And for those of you who feel like you can't. If you feel like you cannot do it, then donate to those who will. Figure out how to support them. For somebody who runs a grassroots organization, I can tell you, the reason we exist, after an act of violence, was because of so many people out here. Whether it was a small party of $100, $500, it means another day for us to fight oppression and injustice in this city. So I ask you. Don't let this moment end and feel like,"I went to the park! And I supported that event in the park!"

Tell me six months from now that you're still supporting this event. Tell me a year from now you are still supporting this moment. That you wake up! I like putting things out in the universe: That you speak. That we speak.

This day, we use our energy for revolution.

Photo by Sasha Matthews.

This excerpt is missing the beginning of Deon's speech. Please email bridgethegulfproject@gmail.com if you recorded it. These remarks have been edited slightly for clarity.

Deon Haywood is the Executive Director of Women With A Vision, Inc. a community-based grassroots organization created by black women dedicated to providing HIV/AIDS, Substance Use prevention services, Harm Reduction, Health Promotion and Advocacy to address risk behaviors and social vulnerabilities. Deon is a longtime activist in the city of New Orleans with a history of organizing low-income women of color around Reproductive Justice,and Women’s Rights. Deon is on the advisory board of BreakOUT, a project of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) focused on the criminalization of LGBTQ youth. Also board member of the Louisiana AIDS Advocacy Network (LAAN). As an expert in community outreach and organizing marginalized groups. Deon was recognized in The Body.com 2010 HIV/AIDS Community Spotlight. In 2011 Forum for Equality Awarded her the Political Activism Acclaim Award. Currently, she is spearheading the No Justice Project, a campaign which addresses the criminalization of sex workers, who are largely poor women and transgender women of color, and the excessive and inequitable punitive consequences of conviction under Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature Solicitation Laws.

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Why the War on Drugs is a War on Women

Deon Haywood — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:50:20 +0000

Editor's note: Last week Deon Haywood, the Executive Director of Women With A Vision, discussed how Louisiana's Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature statute allows law enforcement to target poor and trans women of color (read here). The law criminalizes the selling of anal and oral sex, and until recently required people convicted of the crime to register as sex offenders. In comparison, those convicted of prostitution using heterosexual intercourse only face a misdemeanor and need not register as sex-offenders. In March, a federal judge ruled that it is unconstitutional to require people to register as sex offenders under the Solicitation of Crime Against Nature law. This ruling is not retroactive, meaning hundreds of men and women in Louisiana will remain registered as sex offenders, hurting their housing, employment, and other opportunities. In today's post, Haywood discusses what it's like to live with the "sex offender" label, and why the "War on Drugs" is really a war on women.

Photo of Deon Haywood courtesy of Women With A Vision.

Living with a Crime Against Nature conviction

Women who were charged with Crime Against Nature before August 2011 had to register and follow all federal guidelines for sex offenders. Which means they have to pay $500 to put out postcards to tell the community who they are. It also makes it very difficult for them to find a job.

Women on the sex offender registry have a very difficult time getting employment. You know why? Many women are in the service industry. Those are the kinds of jobs that women hold in this city, especially poor women. They cannot get a job in the service industry, because nobody wants them around their children. And they can't be around children, says the law. You can't work at a Burger King because "we have children coming in here, families.” Well you can't clean up in a hotel -- “It’s a family hotel.” So what are women left to do?

When it comes to housing, how many people do you know who want to have somebody who's a convicted sex offender live next to them? And how many people do you think really sit down and ask these women, well why do you have that? Many of these women want to tell people. They carry their court papers everywhere they go.   So one of the things that our clients struggle with when it comes to housing is not being able to get it. Not only can they not get affordable, safe housing, but they can't even get into transitional housing. Because, why? They would have to put out the postcards. And how many transitional houses are in neighborhoods that are safe or have families? So these people don't want them there because they don't want to ruffle the feathers of neighbors. For many of the women we work with, their housing is horrible. I've visited some of them. Holes in the floor, $500, $600 rent. How do you think these women are making the money?

We have women who have moved into places and the deal they make with the landlord to stay is, "I'll have sex with you. I'll give you a blowjob if I can stay here. Please don't put my kids and I out." They're actually being forced into sex work at this point, because they don't have an alternative.

They are at risk every time for arrest, or violating their parole, or to be charged as a sex offender again. 

Or women live with men who are abusive, just so they can have a place to stay. And a lot of people won't house them. Family members won't house them, because again, nobody wants anybody to know about the "sex offender" in our family, or that you were a prostitute or a drug user.

And it’s important to know that sex work looks very different for women of color, especially Black women in this city. It is not glamorized like we see on TV. Women With A Vision partners with some amazing sex workers rights organizations that really are doing a good job, but they are not our women. They are not poor Black women, where a lot of time it’s about feeding my family.   And I tell everybody -- we all are sex workers. We all been one at some point in our lives, whether we want to realize it or not. You don't even have to think about it now. Go sit at home with that glass of wine or a cup of coffee, and you'll see it.

The War on Women

We have polices like the War on Drugs. We’ve got politicians saying they want to drug test women on public assistance, and we're not offering treatment if they test positive. We live in a state where we only have two licensed addiction counselors that cover four parishes. There are not programs in the city that do rehabilitation, to the level we would need, that really deal with the issues that women face when they're homeless, or looking for a job, or subjected to a lot of violence. So how will these women get help? The answer is incarceration.

One of the things I really, really want people to understand is, when you hear all this rhetoric on the television or anywhere in the media about the 'War on Drugs," it really is a war on women. It's a war on women. We don't have anything in this city that says, "Well, let's try treatment," because Governor Jindal just cut it all in the last two years. We really have none. A place that does harm reduction, that will work with women who are struggling with addiction, and their children, and help them rebuild their families – We don't have that.   So, many of these women are homeless.

You really have to target the jails, and the amount of money that goes into holding somebody in jail. And the fact that every time these women go to jail, the jail gets paid. We actually had women who had their criminal records expunged -- and we are so excited about that – but it's because the police officers who arrested them are in jail now for falsifying reports, or charged with rape.  

They want to drug test women, so they drug test them and they take away their benefits. What do we have left? More homelessness? More children who are homeless, more parents who can't parent? And then women are definitely put in a position where they have to use sex as a way to get out.

Our clients are also recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and as of October of last year, they started coming to our office to volunteer. And they volunteer because these women have to work for 20 or 30 hours in order to get that $138 or $200 cash payment.  

Our TANF recipients tell me, “I can't go look for a job, I can't go to school, because I have to come to Women With A Vision, and I have to spend 20 or 30 hours here with you, and when I finish here I have to go pick up my kids. If I don't get my kids and I don't follow these requirements, I don't get my food stamps. I get my foodstamps taken away. I could have the cash benefits taken away, and it’s the only cash I have.” And that's not even talking about women who are HIV positive, many of them who are unable to work.   The system itself is set up for failure. I think many of us know that.  

Stand with Us

One of the biggest things I think we all try to push is making sure the communities that we work with have information. Many of the women who come in our office, they don't vote. They feel like they are so far removed from everything in this state. Nobody cares about them. Nobody wants to hear what's going on. Nobody cares that they're being beat up.

So these are the kinds of things that I think we really have to work to change. If we don't stand together and try to come up with ways that really focus on these policies that are put in place, then its going to get even worse. If we think that crime is bad now, it’s going to get worse.

The last thing I want to say is, at Women With A Vision when we first started this process about four years ago, when we started targeting the state and the criminal justice system, everybody said that I was committing agency suicide, and that we must be crazy thinking that we're going to fight Bobby Jindal. That's the kind of stuff that has been implanted in the minds of most people, that we can't fight. But we have seen the proof of what can happen when you stand with people.  

When students come into Women With A Vision I tell them, you better be sure you want to be here. Because people come in here wanting to save these women. These women don't want you to save them; They want you to stand with them. They know what they need, they know what they want, and they can verbalize that.  

Previously: How the 'Sex Offender' Label Targets Poor and Transgender Women of Color in Louisiana

This article is adapted from my comments on the panel “Understanding the Nexus Between Gender, Mass Incarceration, and Housing” with Rosana Cruz of Voice of the Ex-Offender (VOTE), and Jacinta Gonzalez with the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, moderated by Kate Scott of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. The panel was part of the 2012 Fit for King Summit on Women and Fair Housing, hosted by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center with support from the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, Women’s Health & Justice Initiative, and the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Race, Gender and Politics in the South at Tulane University.

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How the 'Sex Offender' Label Targets Poor and Transgender Women of Color in Louisiana

Deon Haywood — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:27:32 +0000

Editor's Note: With President Obama's historic statement in support of marriage equality, the national political debate over who has the right to marry has heated up. But the right to marry is not always the most pressing issue confronting queer people, especially in queer communities of color, which continue to face criminalization and police violence. In this post, New Orleans advocate Deon Haywood (pictured) discusses how Louisiana law enforcement has unfairly targeted women of color, especially transgender women of color, using the states' Solicitation of Crime Against Nature statute. The law criminalizes the selling of anal and oral sex, and until recently required people convicted of the crime to register as sex-offenders. In comparison, those convicted of prostitution using heterosexual intercourse only face a misdemeanor and need not register as sex-offenders. Haywood's group, Women with A Vision, filed suit against the state for this discriminatory law, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a public-interest law clinic at Loyola University, and attorney Andrea J. Ritchie.

In March, a federal judge ruled that it is unconstitutional to require people to register as sex-offenders under the Solicitation of Crime Against Nature law. This ruling is not retroactive, meaning hundreds of men and women in Louisiana will remain registered as sex-offenders, hurting their housing, employment, and other opportunities.

By Deon Haywood.

At 1 o'clock in the morning one night, someone was beating at my door, at my house I was like, "Who's at my house?" So I went to the door and it was NOPD. They showed me a piece of paper saying, "Do you know this person?"

Me: "No I don't. Who is she?"

Police: "She's a dangerous person. She's a prostitute. And she's a drug user."

Me: "Wait. Wait. So, she didn't murder anybody? Did she abuse her kids?"

Police: "No! But she's dangerous, and this is the address she gave."

Me: "Well I've lived here 8 years, I lived here before Katrina. She doesn't live here."

Police: "Well this is the address she gave."

Me: "Well she does not live here. But hold on, I want to give you something."

So I gave him my card, and I said, "If you find her, will you give her this?"

And so a month later they came back. They were at my front door, my side door, and my back door. And they had guns drawn. I always feel that everything happens for a reason. I think I really needed to experience that, and not just by my clients telling me how deeply and harshly they are being targeted by NOPD and the taskforce when people are looking for them.

My name is Deon Haywood and I'm the Executive Director of Women With a Vision (WWAV), which has been around for 20 years. We have a history of organizing African-American women in the greater New Orleans area around HIV and STD education and prevention.   From our beginning the work was about really connecting women to all of the things that they need around policies, incarceration, and health issues. We are really challenging policies like the War on Drugs and how it affects African-American women, and puts them at risk for incarceration.  

After Katrina our advocacy shifted from HIV to dealing with women who were charged with Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature. I'm going to try to give you an overview of what a lot of our clients look like, and how the media, the police department, and the criminal justice system take part in their criminalization, as what happened when the police showed up at my door that one late night.

Statute 1489 (Solicitation of Crimes Against Nature) is 208-years-old at this point. It was designed to keep gay men from having sex in the French Quarter. Women were charged with this statue for many years, but it was never enforced. You would have judges who would just let them go, never really forcing them to register as a sex offender because they thought it made no sense, and it was counter-productive -- “Why would we do this? How are they going to get a job?” You know, a "Just don't come back in my court," kind of thing.

Then the Department of Justice paid the state of Louisiana millions of dollars to target, locate, and find all of their violent offenders. Here's the ripple effect: Gov. Bobby Jindal made it retroactive for sex offenders, so now they have U.S. Marshals, along with New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and undercover cops really going out in neighborhoods looking for women. 

So what does this targeting look like?    It looks like the police pounding on my door after midnight looking for a so-called "dangerous" woman.

I think it's important for you to know that my clients are mothers; they're grandmothers; they're formerly incarcerated people; they're women who have struggled with drug addiction; they're homeless women. But they're also nurses; they're social workers; they're people who have served active duty in the U.S Army, in the Air Force.   When they came home, what we had was a criminal justice system that targeted them, and made everything look pretty to those of us who are not that smart.

The state wrote back to the Department of Justice, "We’ve gathered up all of these people. And we've really got these sex offenders." But what they neglected to tell them was that they were really homeless women, or women who came back struggling with depression from being in the war.

For example, one of our clients was walking down Tulane Avenue. A car stops.

"Where you going?," the driver asks.

"I'm on my way to the VA [Veteran Affairs complex]."

"You a vet?"

"Yeah, I'm a vet."

"You a vet!? I'm a vet! Hey, what's up?! When did you serve?," he says.

"I just got back, I'm struggling with depression and everything, I'm on my way to the VA," she says.

"Here, let me give you a ride."

So our client gets in the car with this undercover cop, and then all the police jump out, guns drawn – I always have to say that, because I want you to know they always draw their guns – and they told her, "We're arresting you for Solicitation Crime Against Nature and prostitution."    We have more than one client that this has happened to.

Prostitution is a misdemeanor, so it’s thrown out. They always go with the bigger charge, the harsher "crimes against nature" charge. The police mentality is, I choose to charge you, I don't have to have a reason, and I'm a part of a system that will support whatever I say.

And when you talk about the transgender community I would almost say it's worse, simply because many of them say, "We're charged with walking while trans." Just to walk down the street the police can target me because the stereotype is all transgender women are prostitutes. And finding housing is even harder for them, because who wants "that kind of person" in their house or development? Or who wants people to know that they rented to "that kind of person."

We now have a police chief and a district attorney who came up with Project HEAT to target prostitution in the French Quarter -- as if sex work is the root of violent crime in the French Quarter. 

Coming next week: Part Two, On Living with a Crime Against Nature Conviction and Why the War on Drugs is a War on Women.

Tags:

new orleans police department

women

women of color

african american communities

police misconduct

fit for king

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transgender community