MetroWeekly.com – by Yusef Najafi
With few answers in gender mix-up case in D.C. jails, activists look for solutions
It’s hard to imagine what Virginia Grace Soto went through during the two days she spent at a male detention center at the D.C. jail. After her arrest in July for a missed court date — stemming from her April arrest on suspicion of prostitution — she was wrongfully perceived to be a male-to-female transgender.
Despite being strip searched and having female genitalia, Soto’s androgynous appearance led to assumptions that placed the 47-year-old in a male facility where she had to shower with four other men. Her pleas to be moved to a female facility were repeatedly ignored.