On March 10 Veronnica Baxter, a 34-year-old Aboriginal woman from the Cunnamulla country, south-west Queensland, was arrested by Redfern police and held on remand. She dressed, appeared, and had identified as a woman for 15 years and was known by family and friends as a woman. Yet she was placed at the all-male NSW Silverwater Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre. Six days later, after a 14-hour break between checking her cell, she was found dead, hanging in her single cell.
The Indigenous Social Justice Association, Community Action Against Homophobia, Intersex Sex and Gender Association, Still Fierce, Organisation Intersex International (OII), Socialist Alliance, and the Greens are supporting a petition calling for a full, open inquiry. On June 23, they presented 500 signatures to NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale who presented them to the state Parliament.
[People can still sign the online petition.]