Deon Haywood

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Deon Haywood (born April 4, 1968 in New Orleans) is an American human rights defender, activist, educator, and director noted for her work combating discrimination against Black women, the criminalization of sex workers, adverse living conditions against the working poor, and limited access to HIV healthcare for residents of the American South. She is the executive director of the social justice non-profit, Women With A Vision.[1]

Career[edit]

As a member of Women With Vision (WWAV)--which was co-founded by her mother Catherine Haywood and Danita Muse in 1989 as a grassroots collective to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in communities of color—Deon Haywood helped connect those living with HIV or drug addictions to medical care and recovery programs while also advocating for alleviation of homelessness and affordability issues throughout the rapidly gentrifying post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.[2] In 2008 she assumed executive directorship of Women With A Vision (WWAV) with the intent to overturn New Orleans' recently resurrected 203-year-old Crimes Against Nature Statute (CANS). The law, which was originally created to penalize gay sex, was expanded to require anyone prosecuted for prostitution within the past 20 years to register as a sex offender. Beyond losing the ability to live anywhere near schools and having to identify oneself to neighbors, the law also placed sex offender stamps on the state identification card of anyone prosecuted under the statute.[3]

Tackling CANS head on, Haywood formed the NO Justice Project in 2009 to raise awareness about the "scarlet letter" sanction the law placed upon already indigent women.[4] In addition to making the case that CANS made it impossible for these women to find employment or housing with a sex offender registration hanging over their heads, Haywood also built a network of challenges to the statute by organizing protests, raising awareness about the statute's undue burden, and filing legal cases.[5] Pushing the fact that 79% percent of those forced to register under the statute were Black, the NO Justice Project's agenda was given even greater precedence after the United States Department of Justice initiated an investigation that found the New Orleans Police Department had consistently practiced discriminatory policing “so severe and so divergent from nationally reported data” that it epitomized “a violation of constitutional and statutory law".[6][7][8][9][10]

Prosecution under CANS was left to the discretion of arresting officers who had complete power over whether to apply the statute or to level lesser misdemeanor charges.[11] Overwhelmingly, those targeted by the NOPD were poor Black and transgender women who were frequently baited and arrested by undercover officers even when sex was not offered.[12][13] Compounding this issue was the fact that though women represented 32% of new HIV diagnoses in 2009, Black women were diagnosed with HIV at rates 11 times greater than their white counterparts.[14] These figures, reported by the Louisiana Department of Health, worsened in 2011.[15]

On February 15, 2011, WWAV and its cooperating legal team initiated a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Louisiana on behalf of nine people who had been forced to register as sex offenders through CANS.[16] A month later the NO Justice Project partnered with Representative Charmaine Marchand-Stiaes to revert convictions under the statute to the level of a misdemeanor. That June, the bill was signed into law by then Governor Bobby Jindal.[17][18] Continuing in federal court, in 2013 the original case was finally settled in favor of the more than 700 people who had been placed on the registry with the stipulation that the Superintendent of the Louisiana State Police agree to remove anyone registered as a sex offender solely because of conviction/s of Crime Against Nature by solicitation.[19][20]

Arson attack and continued activism[edit]

In May 2012, while the CANS case was still waging, Women With A Vision's building was burned down in what the New Orleans Fire Department categorized an aggravated arson.[21][22] Though no one was injured in the fire, WWAV's equipment and work space were entirely destroyed forcing the organization to temporarily relocate to a local church.[23] News of the attack was reported in major headlines as a hate crime.[24][25][26] Following the fire, Haywood doubled down on rebuilding and supporting Black LGBTQ advocacy in Mississippi and Louisiana. This work was assisted by a $100,000 grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation in recognition of WWAV's success in pinpointing the localized crossover between AIDS, health stigmas, and inequality in the South.[27]

This included dismantling misconceptions that the HIV epidemic was contained, exhorting Governor Jindal to expand Medicaid through available funds provided by the Affordable Care Act to fight the epidemic, and investing in alternatives to abstinence only sex education.[28] Additionally Haywood pushed for providing treatment services to people suffering from addiction, arguing that it is a public health issue.[29] She deepened this point by providing studies that proved treatment offered the most effective way to stem Louisiana's devastating HIV transmission rates while also highlighting that in refusing to address the issue of addiction, the state was essentially fueling the epidemic through neglect.[30][31] Because it lacked no strategic response besides HIV criminalization and discrimination which included denying services to members of the LGBTQ community, New Orleans was eventually labeled America's Ground Zero For HIV.[32][33][34][35][36]

Combating poverty[edit]

In advocating for the working poor, Haywood has frequently targeted rising levels of gentrification which actively displaces natives in the name of post-Hurricane Katrina driven business development and recovery by passing ordinances to outlaw traditional practices, such as playing live music.[37][38][39] Appearing on the Melissa Harris Perry Show on MSNBC in 2014 and 2015, she established connections between sex work, consent, and legality while also speaking of the need to provide women with tools to build solvent investments in their lives.[40][41]

That same year she made the case for decriminalizing prostitution in The New York Times by showing that sex work is frequently the only viable source of income for women, particularly single-parent households attempting to pay rent, without the means or education to advocate for themselves and their families.[42] In fighting against criminalization of sex work, Haywood also pointed to long term ramifications of serving time for sex work for women and their families, including barriers to legal forms of employment, increased risk for HIV, and children who end up in foster care. She concluded that decriminalization allows sex workers to speak against abuse without fear of prosecution or retribution from pimps or abusers.[43][44]

In 2017 she was one of 24 leaders of color in the LGBTQ movement to contribute to the Declaration of Liberation, a racial justice strategy for tackling the HIV epidemic.[45][46] She was appointed to Mayor LaToya Cantrell's Human Relations Commission's Advisory Committee of New Orleans in 2018.[47] In 2019 she raised support against Bill 184's ban on abortion after 6 weeks, equating its passage with an attack on a woman's bodily autonomy.[48][49] Following the bill's passage she vowed to push for its repeal by inspiring voters.[50][51]

Awards[edit]

In 2010 and 2011 Haywood was spotlighted by TheBody.com for her work in the HIV/AIDS Community as a "Person Who Makes A Difference". She was made Queen of Krewe du Vieux for the 2012 Mardi Gras with the theme of the parade mirroring her "CANS" victory: "Crimes Against Nature".[52][53][54] She was named a "Health Hero" by BET in 2013. That same year she was made the representative for the southern United States to The Human Rights Defenders in Dublin.[55][56] The following year she was honored by Planned Parenthood for Black History Month,[57] and in 2015 she was honored with the Kiyoshi Kuromiya Award[58] and a grant from the Elton John Aid Foundation.[59]

In 2016 Haywood was awarded a Public Voices Fellowship by the Ms. Foundation for Women,[60] the Ben Smith Award from The ACLU[61] and she was designated a Dream Keeper for Black History month, again by Planned Parenthood in 2017.[62] In 2018 she was awarded a fellowship by the Rockwood Leadership Institute[63] and made a Flame Thrower Awardee by The Red Door Foundation.[64][65] In 2019 she was named a "Champion of Pride" by The Advocate[66] and awarded the Gloria Award from Gloria Steinem for her work "igniting change in communities to ensure equity and opportunity for all women".[67][68]

Personal life[edit]

Haywood identifies as a lesbian. She is married to her longtime partner, Shaquita Borden.[69][70]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dequine, Kari (28 May 2012). "Mid-City health center destroyed in suspicious fire". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  2. ^ "CNN.com - Transcripts". transcripts.cnn.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  3. ^ Farrow, Kenyon (14 December 2010). "HIV/AIDS Community Spotlight: People Who Made a Difference in 2010 | TheBody". www.thebody.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  4. ^ "NO Justice Project Archive". wwav-no.org. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  5. ^ "Court Allows Challenge to Louisiana's Discriminatory and Archaic "Crime Against Nature by Solicitation" Law to Proceed". Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  6. ^ "Consent Decree Monitor Reports". www.justice.gov. 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  7. ^ "Doe v. Caldwell, 913 F. Supp. 2d 262 | Casetext". casetext.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  8. ^ McTighe, Laura; Haywood, Deon (2017-07-03). ""There Is NO Justice in Louisiana": Crimes against Nature and the Spirit of Black Feminist Resistance". Souls. 19 (3): 261–285. doi:10.1080/10999949.2017.1389584. ISSN 1099-9949. S2CID 149034011.
  9. ^ "DOJ Slams New Orleans PD in Scathing Report, Highlights Enforcement of Crime Against Nature Statute Challenged in CCR Suit". Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  10. ^ "Yearlong Justice Department probe blisters NOPD for constitutional violations: Update". NOLA.com. 17 March 2011. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  11. ^ "Louisiana's Crime Against Nature Law: A Modern-Day Scarlet Letter". Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  12. ^ Flaherty, Jordan (2010-03-18). "Her Crime: Sex Work in New Orleans". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  13. ^ Flaherty, Jordan (2010-06-20). "New Complaints of Police Violence in New Orleans". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  14. ^ Gruber, DeAnn. "2009 HIV/AIDS Program Report" (PDF). Louisiana Department of Health.
  15. ^ Gruber, Ann. "2011 STD/HIV Program Report" (PDF). Louisiana Department of Health.
  16. ^ "Doe et al v. Jindal et al, No. 2:2011cv00388 - Document 59 (E.D. La. 2011)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  17. ^ "Louisiana Sex Workers Will No Longer Be Labeled as Sex Offenders". Rewire.News. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  18. ^ Anderson, Ed (25 May 2011). "Those convicted of soliciting would not have to register as sex offenders if bill passes". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  19. ^ "Louisiana to Remove Hundreds of Individuals Unconstitutionally Placed on Sex Offender Registry". Center for Constitutional Rights. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  20. ^ "OUR WIN – Letter from Executive Director Deon Haywood". wwav-no.org. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  21. ^ "Fire at Women With A Vision Offices is Arson, NOFD Says". Nola Defender. 2012-06-01. Retrieved 2019-08-11.[permanent dead link]
  22. ^ Woodward, Alex (16 July 2012). "Women With a Vision Cope With Arson". The Advocate. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  23. ^ "Healing the Hurt". POZ. 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  24. ^ Flaherty, Jordan (2012-05-29). "Arson Attack on Women's Health Organization in New Orleans". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  25. ^ Terrell, Kellee (29 May 2012). "Fire Destroys Office of New Orleans-Based Organization, Arson Suspected | TheBodyPro". www.thebodypro.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  26. ^ "Good people attacked: Women With A Vision burned in New Orleans". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  27. ^ "Grantee Spotlight: Women With A Vision | Elton John AIDS Foundation". Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  28. ^ Stillman, Sarah (2014-04-07). "H.I.V.'s Grip on the American South". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  29. ^ "Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Learning From a Health and Human-Centered Approach". The Daily Chronic. 2019-02-28. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  30. ^ Flaherty, Jordan (29 August 2014). "Deon Haywood: "Nine Years After Katrina, It's All About the Takeover" | Dissident Voice". Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  31. ^ "US: Louisiana Fuels HIV Epidemic". Human Rights Watch. 2013-12-10. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  32. ^ "How New Orleans became America's ground zero for HIV – Jessica Wapner | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  33. ^ "Paying the Price | Failure to Deliver HIV Services in Louisiana Parish Jails". Human Rights Watch. 2016-03-29. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  34. ^ "Louisiana Is 'Ground Zero' for HIV, Incarceration Crises, Report Says". Rewire.News. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  35. ^ Villarosa, Linda (2017-06-06). "America's Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  36. ^ Lohr, David (2016-04-01). "Human Rights Watch Chastises Louisiana For Endangering HIV-Positive Inmates". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  37. ^ Harris, Gardiner (2015-08-27). "Obama, in New Orleans, Praises Results of Federal Intervention". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  38. ^ Flaherty, Jordan (29 August 2014). "Deon Haywood: "Nine Years After Katrina, It's All About the Takeover" | Dissident Voice". Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  39. ^ Haywood, Deon (2014-08-28). "MR Online | Interview with Deon Haywood: "Nine Years After Katrina, It's All About the Takeover"". MR Online. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  40. ^ "Sunday, February 2 - msnbc- NBCNews.com". www.nbcnews.com. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  41. ^ "Melissa Harris-Perry, Transcript 08/29/15". MSNBC. 2015-08-29. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  42. ^ Bazelon, Emily (2016-05-05). "Should Prostitution Be a Crime?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  43. ^ "Stop Criminalizing Sex Workers". Black Agenda Report. 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  44. ^ WOODWARD, ALEX (17 December 2018). "'Stigma and shame put lives at risk': Mayor Cantrell joins call to support sex workers". The Advocate. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  45. ^ "How Do You Build a Racially Just and Strategic HIV Movement?". POZ. 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  46. ^ pwnusa. "A Declaration of Liberation: Building a Racially Just and Strategic Domestic HIV Movement". Positive Women's Network - USA. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  47. ^ "MAYOR CANTRELL WELCOMES HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE". City of New Orleans. August 31, 2018. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020.
  48. ^ Jackson, Donovan (22 May 2019). "Those for and against abortion speak out as Senate passes bill to ban procedure in La". Fox News Channel 8. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  49. ^ "What to know in New Orleans this week (May 28, 2019): Abortion news, Louisiana animal abuse registry, and more". The Advocate. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  50. ^ "Black Women Will Fight Back Against Abortion Bans at the Ballot Box – Ms. Magazine". msmagazine.com. 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  51. ^ Wilson, Sabrina (21 May 2019). "Debates intensify as La. abortion bills near final passage". Fox News Channel 8. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  52. ^ Allman, Kevin (17 January 2012). "Krewe du Vieux announces new route". The Advocate. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  53. ^ "Deon Haywood is the 2012 Krewe du Vieux Queen". wwav-no.org. 11 January 2012. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  54. ^ Wyckoff, Geraldine (January 30, 2012). "Tributes, celebrations and traditions". www.louisianaweekly.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  55. ^ "Front Line Defenders Welcomes Deon Haywood to the Dublin Platform in October". wwav-no.org. 5 September 2013. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  56. ^ "Deon Haywood | Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders". Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  57. ^ "AIDS United | Latest News - AIDS United-Affiliated Leaders Honored by Planned Parenthood for Black History Month". www.aidsunited.org. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  58. ^ Jones, Ayana (2 June 2015). "Philadelphia FIGHT launches AIDS Education Month". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  59. ^ "Grantee Spotlight: Women With A Vision | Elton John AIDS Foundation". Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  60. ^ "Public Voices Fellowship". Ms. Foundation for Women. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  61. ^ "ACLU of Louisiana Honors Women's Activist Deon Haywood with Ben Smith Award". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  62. ^ "Black History Month 2018: Honoring Years of Resistance and Resilience". www.plannedparenthoodaction.org. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  63. ^ Foley, Joi. "2018 Fellowship for Leaders in Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Fellows announced!". Rockwood Leadership Institute. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  64. ^ "WWAV's Deon Haywood to be Honored as a 2018 Red Door Foundation "Flame Thrower Award" Recipient". wwav-no.org. 13 March 2018. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  65. ^ "2018 Red Gala". The Red Door Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  66. ^ "Meet The Advocate's 104 Champions of Pride for 2019". www.advocate.com. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  67. ^ "Photo Flash: Gloria Steinem, Debra Messing, Judy Gold And More Attend The 2019 Gloria Awards". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  68. ^ "Ms. Foundation to Honor dream hampton & Sana Amanat at Gloria Awards". Ms. Foundation for Women. 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  69. ^ #teamEBONY (2016-08-03). "BLACK PRIDE: What Does LGBT Pride Mean to You? [PHOTOS]". EBONY. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  70. ^ Muro, Maria (6 February 2012). "Cupid's Carnival". New Orleans Living Magazine. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

External links[edit]

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