User:Stutzman702/Moka Dawkins

Moka Dawkins
Moka Dawkins is a trans-BIPOC Toronto-based activist and former sex worker who was a 2022 Toronto Pride Ambassador. She is currently associated with many community-based organizations that focus on BIPOC-related issues, Canadian transgender rights, carceral abolition, and HIV-positive Canadian prisoners. In 2015, she was charged with manslaughter for the death of Jamie Foster, who was her friend and client. Dawkins experienced life-threatening violence from Foster on the same night of his death which caused her to act in self-defense. She was imprisoned for four years in a Toronto men’s prison where she was placed in solitary confinement for most of that time. While imprisoned, Dawkins experienced physical and verbal abuse from both official staff and other inmates based on her transgender and BIPOC identities. These experiences of both structural and direct violence throughout all her interactions with the Canadian Criminal Justice System influence the reasons why Dawkins advocates for many social justice groups. In 2018, she helped officials implement more policies relating to protecting trans prisoners and their rights to have gender-affirming care. After being released from prison, Dawkins was nominated for “Person of the Year” in 2020’s Inspired Awards, was the subject of a 2020 documentary Surviving the Block , and created a podcast that focuses on giving advice and discussing issues within the LGBTQ+ community. She is enrolled as a student at two different colleges. Dawkins continues to be a voice and leader in the Canadian trans-BIPOC community despite her many ongoing activism and academic projects.