Tool 5: Places of Deprivation of Liberty and Gender other and feel safer in different environments. Transgender children may also have different needs to transgender adults and to each other.^ Women who have sex with women and men who have sex with men In some cases specific sexual orientations develop in places of deprivation of liberty but do not translate into changes in a person’s sexual orientation once released. In some single-sex institutions detainees live in same-sex relationships as a survival or protection mechanism and/or as a means of maintaining sexual relations, but do not identify as “lesbian” or “gay”. These groups have particular needs, for example condoms and checks for sexually transmitted infections, even though they may also maintain romantic relationships with heterosexual partners outside the facility. 2.5 Intersectionality Ways in which a person’s gender can affect the way they are treated, the conditions they experience and the needs and responsibilities that they feel are outlined above. However, it is important to be awake to the fact that people can experience multiple forms of discrimination. For example, women are not a homogeneous group: multiple personal characteristics and contextual circumstances can and do combine to intensify and perpetuate exclusion and marginalization. “Intersectionality” is a concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw as “a way of framing the various interactions of race and gender in the context of violence against women of color”.13 It is now used more widely as a way to define how expectations connected to gender interact with other societal markers, such as ethnoreligious background, age, social class, sexual orientation, marital status, race, ethnicity and disability, placing people in different positions of power and privilege, discrimination and exclusion (see Box 2). Box 2: Intersectionality The idea of intersectionality seeks to capture both structural and dynamic consequences of the interaction between two or more forms of discrimination or systems of subordination. It specifically addresses the manner in which racism, patriarchy, economic disadvantage and other discriminatory systems contribute to creating layers of inequality that structure the relative positions of women and men, and ethnic and other groups. Moreover, it addresses the way that specific acts and policies create burdens that flow along these intersecting axes, contributing actively to create a dynamic of disempowerment. Source: UN Division for the Advancement of Women, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) (2000) “Gender and racial discrimination. Report of the Expert Group Meeting”, 21–24 November, Zagreb, Croatia. Both the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture have noted that detention facilities have a culture that maintains a strict hierarchy, and those at the bottom of the hierarchy, including LGBTI persons, typically suffer double or triple discrimination.14 It is common for the staff of a place of deprivation of liberty to be drawn from ethnic and religious majorities. This can often mean that either via a lack of understanding of minority group culture or via (conscious or unconscious) discriminatory views, issues of gender equality can be complicated further through ethnic and/or religious discrimination. In addition, there are contextual circumstances that can heighten the level of discrimination, such as socio-economic situation, geographical remoteness, whether the individual can ^ For a more detailed discussion of terminology around LGBTI and diverse sexual orientation and gender identity see Tool 1, “Security Sector Governance, Security Sector Reform and Gender”. 11