Daniel McGowan’s letter of support doubles contributions for Marius

thank-you-bear

Daniel sent a letter of support to his email list and doubled the contributions in one day. Please consider doing likewise!

Below is Daniel’s letter:

…Eco activist, anarchist and trans political prisoner Marius Mason has been finally approved for college courses and is trying to fundraise for them. The fundraiser has not been going very well to be honest. Can you help?

https://www.generosity.com/ education-fundraising/marius- mason-s-education–2

Marius is being held at a strange unit that is a combination of a CMU (Communication Management Unit), female death row (the federal system had one woman on death row) and a mental health unit (where people with significant mental health needs are kept but not treated). It is also a unit for women and Marius is the only male there. 

Prospects for release are not good and he has been there for 6 years now. Like the CMU I was held in, there are loads of problems- a tiny group of political dissidents and no programming coupled with intense censorship. Marius has a 22 year plus sentence and is trying to make a life for himself after prison while fighting very intense battles with the BOP to get medical treatment consistent with his gender. Early battles have been won on this front and Marius is now getting testosterone shots (first documented trans man to get this, by all accounts).

Marius has just applied to Ohio University Correctional Education – one of only a small number of colleges that offer full correspondence (rather than on-line) courses. As soon as all the paperwork is completed and expenses met, he will be starting his first course. Marius is really excited about starting classes!

There are, of course, costs. The coursework costs $343 per credit hour (each class is 3-4 credits), plus an application fee and books, totaling an estimated $1200-$1300 for the first course.

Marius wants to study psychology in order to, in his words, gain a better understanding of how the mind works, to develop a deeper understanding of his own diagnosed gender dysphoria,  and the way in which we all develop a sense of self and our relationship to the larger society. He adds, “When I am released I don’t want to be a burden to my family. I have a huge fine and will also have many costs to pay for my lifetime of probation. It will be necessary to provide for those costs, in order to avoid a return to prison…and more than anything else, I’d like to think that I could contribute something meaningful to society, to be a help and support as so many others have helped me through these prison years.”

Educational pursuits behind the walls really helped my survival in prison. Like Marius, I was not able to take many courses as many correspondence courses have gone to an online format only. Marius has a very real chance though to pursue these efforts so that when he is out, he has a chance to acquire employment.

Please give what you can.

thanks!
with love, daniel

If you can share this email or amplify Marius’s fundraiser on social media, that would be so awesome.

https://www.facebook.com/ supportmariusmason

https://twitter.com/ supportmarius

https://supportmariusmason.org