Ray, a veteran who served in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan, said the United States is good about sending help overseas, but when people are “in crisis” here, they are told to wait quietly. The marine said he was injured by an IED in Afghanistan. He has ongoing medical needs, he said, and was told to get on a two month wait list for treatment here.

Besides illustrating how the system is broken, he was at Saturday’s Justice for Jane Doe Rally “on behalf” of his cousin, Jenny, who he said was murdered in Brooklyn for no reason other than being who she was, a young trans woman.

Connecticut holding “Jane Doe,” a young Latina in near-solitary confinement, was the uniting issue of the event, even if protestors disagreed about which element of her case has been most outrageous or responsible for her predicament.

Two weeks ago Governor Malloy issued a statement that Jane Doe should be moved from the adult correctional facility to another setting. Several speakers at the rally, which began in front of DCF’s Central Office on Hudson Street, said they wanted to make sure that Malloy would make good on his promises.

Lgbtq+ Youth Kickback, a group out of New Haven, said “trans youth has been screwed over by law enforcement” forever.

Later, another activist suggested that had a cis woman been placed in a men’s prison because she was considered violent, the criticism of DCF Commissioner Joette Katz would have been much louder and more immediate. According to Doe’s lawyer, Aaron Romano, DCF originally sought to send the girl to a men’s prison.

Alice Leibowitz, however, said “this is not primarily a trans issue […]this is primarily a naughty youth issue.” There are people, she said, who believe that teenagers who “disobey” rules “ought to be tortured.” After Jane Doe’s situation is resolved, Leibowitz said she hoped that activists would work on the deeper issue of how adults treat youth.

While members of the gay and lesbian community were present, several organizations were notably absent from the rally, including PFLAG and True Colors.

The issues of gender and youth were not the leading concerns for all speaking out about Jane Doe’s imprisonment. Daniel Piper of Socialist Action saw this as a symptom of a society that leans
too heavily on its prison system, which he said did not exist on a large scale until after the abolition of slavery. According to Piper, mass incarceration has enabled the replacement of “forced labor that had been lost.”

Another activist said “we need to talk about every single victim of the police and the State.”

Others did see that Jane Doe’s situation was the result of multiple factors, or as one woman said, the imprisoned youth “is a convergence of oppressed communities […] not just gender-based oppression.” It was said that if Jane Doe were not Latina, if she had family support, or if she were wealthier, her situation would have a different outcome.

Saturday’s march and rally took place during Memorial Day weekend, making for a lot of noise in front of basically empty State offices. There was not much more attention to be had at the State Capitol, the march’s destination, though Lt. Governor Wyman was spotted entering the building while the rally was underway. Robyn Miller, State Representative for the 94th Assembly District in New Haven and Hamden, made an appearance to show support for Jane Doe.

A message was read on behalf of Aaron Romano, which urged Governor Malloy to step up. He also spoke to the need for more foster families.