Jan. 13, 2014: CeCe McDonald Released from Prison

Artist Micah Bizant said of this painting, “I made this image to support CeCe McDonald and all trans women of color who are fighting for their lives. I made it on Transgender Day of Remembrance 2013, to reframe the event towards supporting the survival and leadership of trans feminine people of color.” Source: micahbizant.com

In June 2011, CeCe McDonald, a Black trans woman, and her friends were verbally and physically assaulted in an act of white supremacist and transphobic violence in Minneapolis. McDonald defended herself and her friends and, in the process, one of the people who assaulted them was killed.

The Huffington Post reports, “McDonald was sentenced in May 2012 to spend 41 months in a men’s prison facility, despite identifying as female, for the death of Dean Schmitz in June 2011.”

A broad array of organizers and activists came together to support the #FreeCeCe campaign, and after continued and widespread protest, McDonald was released on January 13, 2014, after serving 19 months of her sentence.

Learn more about CeCe and the fight for transgender justice in the resources below.

Additional Resources

Transgender Justice in Schools edited by Linda Christensen and Ty Marshall at Rethinking Schools

The Bernard Center for Research on Women, where McDonald is an Activist-in-Residence, contains videos, interviews, and other resources

The Transgender Crucible by Sabrina Rubin Erdely in Rolling Stone

The Prison Letters of CeCe McDonald by Leo Cardoza

FREE CeCe!, a documentary about McDonald told through interviews by Laverne Cox

This post was written by the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective, which is an educational and fundraising project founded in 2001 to raise awareness and funds for political prisoners held in North America. The collective was formed by Black Liberation Army political prisoners Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes and white anti-imperialist political prisoner David Gilbert — all of whom have since gained their freedom after decades of incarceration — and outside supporters.