Discrimination and denial of opportunity put many transgender people in harm's way by leaving them vulnerable to poverty and homelessness and causing some resort to sex work as a means of survival.

That was the situation facing 43-year-old Duanna Johnson, an African American transgender woman living in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2008. She struggled with poverty, unemployment, and crack addiction, as well as several arrests for prostitution.

On February 12, 2008, Johnson was arrested on a charge of prostitution, which was later dropped. Johnson was booked at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center in Memphis. While Johnson was waiting to be fingerprinted, she was beaten by an officer, while another held her down. She was maced when she refused to comply with an officer's orders after the officer insulted her.