Trans, Scared, and Stuck in the Men’s Unit

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( TUESDAY, JANUARY 24 RIKERS [Trans, Scared, and Stuck in the Men’s Unit]( Under Eric Adams, an initiative to protect trans women at Rikers dissolves. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY In December 2021, as Christmas was approaching, a trio of trans women decided to bring some holiday cheer to their dorm at the Rose M. Singer Center, a jail complex on the northern edge of [Rikers Island](. They were going to have a ball. The stage was nothing special, a small beige floor in front of rows of cold metal benches in the dorm’s common area. But the room had good light. From one window where the sun crept in, the women could look out and watch the planes soaring in and out of La Guardia. On the day of the performance, Venus, a Latina with bleached-blonde hair, was clearly the star. She draped a jail blanket across her legs to serve as a skirt and knotted her white facility T-shirt into a crop top. In one hand, she shook a pink streamer. Somehow, she’d even found glitter. Her turn at the Christmas ball at Rikers was made possible by a recent, unlikely ally for incarcerated trans women in New York City: the Department of Correction’s own LGBTQ+ Affairs Unit. It was employees of that team, never more than a handful of policy experts and social workers, who had helped make the Pride posters and organize the show. [Continue reading »]( Want more on city life, real estate, and design? [Subscribe now]( for unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [The Upper West Side’s Zone of Pedestrian Death The area around 96th Street is dangerous. And it’s hardly the worst in town.]( [Floating Bedrooms in a Williamsburg Loft Matt Spangler asked architect Keith Burns for more space and light in his new place: before and after photos.]( By Wendy Goodman [A Turtle Bay Townhouse With Wall-to-Wall Windows And a 400-square-foot balcony on every floor.]( By Adriane Quinlan [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( If you enjoyed reading Curbed’s daily newsletter, forward it to a friend. Or [sign up for our Design Hunting newsletter]( for a visual diary from design editor Wendy Goodman. [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](param=curbed) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023, All rights reserved