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Bio
Janetta Louise Johnson is the Executive Director at Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project. She is a formerly incarcerated Black transgender woman and has been an activist and advocate in the transgender communities since 1997, when she moved to San Francisco from her hometown of Tampa, Florida. She survived three and a half years in federal prison, and while inside she fiercely and tirelessly advocated for her rights as an incarcerated transgender person. She became politicized through her kinship with Miss Major, her adopted trans mother, and after her release from prison returned to her work with non-profits and social service agencies with a higher compassion for people on the inside of jails and prisons. In 2006, she put her skills as a community organizer, trainer and activist to work as Interim Director of TGI Justice Project, during which she coordinated vibrant grassroots fundraisers to support the organization. In 2014, she became the permanent Executive Director of TGIJP when Miss Major retired from the position. She co-founded the Compton’s Transgender Cultural District, the first transgender cultural district in the country, here in San Francisco in 2016 and TAJA's coalition, community accountability for Black trans safety in San Francisco. Janetta is committed to building strategies and interventions to reduce the recidivism rate of the transgender community by providing leadership development and job opportunities to those who are currently being released from custody. She is also a fierce advocate for transgender people who are currently incarcerated, working tirelessly to improve the lives of those currently on the inside through legislative campaigns like the Name and Dignity Act, which enables people in held in California prisons to change their legal name and gender, while also fighting for the abolition of prisons at large. She believes that currently and formerly incarcerated trans people without a voice will be people without hope. She will continue to struggle to instill hope and belief in a better future for every transgender person that she can reach. Janetta uses she/her pronouns. Articles ● “I believe in creating a space without violence, discrimination, and over-policing; and making sure Black trans women have opportunities for ownership and cultural spaces [where] they feel safe. It’s most important for us to have a space to visit and visualize what our future could be like.” Jannetta Johnson, February 2019 ○ https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2019/2/18/black-trans-women-created-worl ds-first-trans-cultural-district ● Janetta voicing personal experiences with transphobia and incarceration, outlook on what is wrong with how trans people are treated, misgendering, abuse by correctional officers, on prioritizing safety and economic justice and mental health care for trans people, May 2016 ○ https://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/perspectives-belonging-janetta-johnson ● "San Francisco talks about being creative and innovative and a leader in all these things well, this is one of the most important and amazing things that we can do. We need alternatives to jails and prisons." Janetta Johnson, October 2018 ○ https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Anti-Jail-Group-Urges-Supervisors -To-Speed-Up-13328485.php Videos ● Janetta narrating the mistreatment of trans people in prisons, her experience studying the system and re-entry + recidivism, and the importance of gainfully employing trans people, June 2018 ○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R4KQwmmPjI ● Janetta on a panel after a documentary screening of “Major!” in New Orleans, speaking about community building, April 2016 ○ https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154085866716445 ● Panel discussion that highlights strategies to grow cultures of resistance where safety is built in struggle and not through state intervention featuring Ms. Janetta, November 2014 ○ https://soundcloud.com/onearchives/futures-of-abolition-panel ● Janetta speaking about the specific mistreatments of trans people in prison, the importance of mental/health care and wrap-around re-entry support, and vision for what TGIJP could grow into, December 2014 ○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Qo6koD5dw ● Janetta at CA Prisoner Hunger Strike, July 2013 ○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_m2J5cWvfs |
Janetta Louise Jonhson, Executive Director, TGI Justice Project
Janetta Johnson at SF Trans March, June 2016
Janetta Johnson with Janelle Monet, August 2015
Janetta Johnson posing for Out Magazine, February 2019
Janetta Johnson at TGIJP’s Sunday Dinner, August 2019
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