8 years in a men’s prison where she’ll be a target, and that is putting it mildly. It is arguably crueler than a quick hanging or a bullet behind the gas shed, at least in its intent. Direct malice where an execution or an equivalent sentence in a women’s facility, while disdainful, is not about humiliation and ritual purification by the threat of sexual torture. When trans people are put in the wrong prison, it is a punitive measure for that person’s perceived sexual deviance, and an open threat to the rest of the queer community: rape is and has always been considered an acceptable punishment for sexual minorities. If America had wanted to fix that, it might have, but American prisons are punitive above all else. So the question becomes, do we endorse torture on our political enemies? I don’t think we are the enlightened side of good if we argue “be thankful we don’t execute you.”