Supporters of trans activist Sarah Jane Baker – who is currently imprisoned in HMP Isle of Wight – descended on Newport on Saturday (21st October) in protest of her incarceration.
Baker was assigned male at birth and convicted of kidnap and torture in 1988, aged 19. She was also convicted of attempted murder while in prison in 1989 before being released in 2019.
She was recently recalled to prison after being charged with ‘commissioning an offence’ in a speech at London Trans Pride on 8th July this year where she said:
“I was gonna come here and be really fluffy and be really nice and say yeah be really lovely and queer and gay… Nah, if you see a TERF [Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist], punch them in the f***ing face.”
Baker quickly said that she regretted the comments, and was found not guilty at City of London Magistrates Court on 31st August 2023. However, because she was on probation, she was nonetheless recalled to prison and is now in HMP Isle of Wight.
On Saturday, a group of supporters travelled down from London to protest the situation outside the prison in Newport.
A spokesperson for the Free Sarah Jane Baker campaign has said:
“The doctor there has stopped Sarah’s hormones, which we think is outrageous. It is against medical guidelines and transphobic. Sarah is getting severe side effects from having her oestrogen stopped, and has been told by the doctor to take testosterone instead.
Article continues below this advertisement “We want to show the prison system and government we will protest for her release from prison and for trans rights!
“Right now, a vulnerable woman – who has spent decades behind bars and hasn’t been violent to anyone since her release – is being told that, in theory, she could spend the rest of her life in a male prison.
“Her supposed crime is a few misjudged words, spoken in the heat of the moment at a protest, which she immediately said she regretted. The drive to punish Sarah Jane Baker isn’t about protecting the public – it’s about hounding and demonising trans people.
“This case is a litmus test for whether politicians are allowed to send people to prison. It is only happening because of political interference by a hard-right Home Secretary.
“Political game-playing and Daily Mail headlines cannot be allowed to determine what happens in the judicial system. She must be released immediately.”
