Your choice Washington

I recently flew to the United States for the first time in my life. I am a UK fringe playwright and stage director. I wanted to make a cultural visit to help poor people in America. But I'm not welcome in America. Find out why from my story.

Your choice Washington

There is no American Dream, all I can see is the American Nightmare, and I for one refuse to live it.

My name is Stella Baker. I'm a British fringe playwright and stage director, known predominantly for my work in Polish theatre between 1995 and 2005. In this period I wrote and staged thirteen of my own plays in Poland, creating a new concept of post-Grotowski theatre. I am considered to be the most influential figure of that period in Polish alternative theatre, the first Western playwright ever to become part of Polish culture, the only stage director to stage all productions in both Polish and English, the first stage director in Polish alternative theatre to write my own plays, the first to stage a play in Polish theatre in a non-theatrical building, and I am the only playwright in the English language to have ever exported successfully modern fringe theatre.

As a result of my popularity in Polish theatre I became part of the Polish Solidarity movement and even today in my work this concept of the original philosophy of the Polish Solidarity movement lies behind everything I do. But this is not the same Solidarity principles of Lech Walesa, the trade unionism, the fighting and struggle – the basis of my concept of Solidarity comes from the Soliticus Rei Solidaris teachings of the late Pope John Paul II, it is non-political, it is non-religious, only I have gone one step further from the Pope's 'solidarity with the poor' to my own 'solidarity with the people'. This is not something which has been assumed by me, but given and encouraged by those who created the original Polish Solidarity movement – Aleksander Hall and Adam Michnik.

I am non-political, and through my time in Poland have been supported by both post-communists of the Socialist Alliance – it was former communist Education Minister Professor Jacek Fisiak who made my artistic work possible through giving me work at his university in Poznan and allowing me to work with students, and it was Adam Zielinski, proprietor of a local Warsaw newspaper who promoted much of my later work in Warsaw – notably the well-known Scottish Patient production, a production which started on the same day as 9/11 and which I chose to continue to show solidarity with Americans and to take my own stand against terrorism. Both Prof. Fisiak and Adam Zielinski are very close personal friends of former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

I have also been supported by the centre-right Citizen's Platform party (Platforma Obywatelska) created by Aleksander Hall out of the failed Solidarity government, which supported and funded my work in Warsaw and Wloclawek, enabling me to help the local authority raise $600,000 for local youth and community activities. But by far the biggest support has come from Adam Michnik, proprietor of Gazeta Wyborcza, which was Solidarity's own newspaper and in 1990 when Lech Walesa formed the first non-communist government in Poland, Gazeta Wyborcza became the first national Polish newspaper.

My work has been popular among expatriate Americans, and for a long time I have considered their suggestions about coming to America to share my work. I turned down an offer to work in Hollywood in 1990, when I started writing, because my ambition was to unite Eastern and Western Europe through culture and my artistic work, but I was happy to share my work with America but later when I had worked out my own theories. I held out until I had something to share and offer with the American people. I thought I had found it when Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern states and developed a project to include Americans for the first time.

But there's a problem.

I'm a transgendered female.

It was the revelation of this which ended my artistic career in Poland. I was born with a rare genetic condition called 'mosaicism', and throughout my adulthood my body has been producing female XX chromosomes and internally I am female. I was coping with my male gender role with increasing difficulty, and ever since the production of The Scottish Patient in Warsaw in 2001 I was living privately as a female, as myself. I kept this fact secret from the Polish media for four years, until 2005 and the controversy over equal rights for gays, lesbians and transgendered people in Poland. I spoke out in support of them, just as in 2002 I spoke out about the sexual harassment of women in the workplace, just as in 2003 I spoke out against Iraq, and against domestic violence. In 2005 I came out publicly just before the 2005 Warsaw Equality Parade in support of Polish gays, lesbians and transgendered people. The Church, the local authorities and the media turned against me. I lost everything and was forced to return to London. I left behind an uncomfortable silence and a social taboo. Very few in Poland are prepared to accept that the top playwright they adopted from the West is a transgendered female.

In Britain I have come back from being street homeless to developing what will be one of the biggest ever fringe theatre projects in London, working with homeless people and bringing black people into the performing arts. I felt sure that I would be welcomed into the United States last year to make a short cultural visit and talk about a similar project in Mississippi.

I was wrong.

For the record I am on the gender reassignment program at London's Charing Cross Hospital. I was referred to this program by a well-known London psychiatrist Dr Trevor Turner, and have met all the tough, strict requirements of the program. On the basis of being on the program and in accordance with the UK's Gender Recognition Act 2004 I applied for and was issued possibly as the first transgendered female with a full United Kingdom biometric passport in female gender in my name of Stella Baker.

I have no criminal record, have never been to the United States, never applied for a visa, so therefore have never overstayed a visa, I have no political affiliations, no links to any terrorist organizations, and being aware of the spread of organized crime from Eastern Europe I am well aware of the need for increased security and restrictions. Long time coming in fact.

On December 13 2007 I flew out on the delayed BA 2227 flight from London Gatwick to Atlanta, destined for Gulfport/Biloxi regional airport in Mississippi to spend my first American Christmas with a friend, and just to spend time getting to know her, her community, to meet people in Ocean Springs and Biloxi, to see the damage done by Hurricane Katrina, to see what has been done to repair the damage and rebuild this part of the world, and to gather information to present to the US Consulate in London a proposal for a project to introduce modern fringe theatre to American culture and society, and start a new trend in American theatre starting in Mississippi.

None of this happened. I was stopped and questioned by US Customs and Border Protection officials at Atlanta airport, subjected to transphobic abuse, and even though the purpose of my visit was verified by my friend's mother the official lied to her mother and lied to me. He also spent ten minutes asking a five year old girl questions about me prior to asking my friend's mother about the purpose of my trip.

I was accused of fraud, of travelling on a fake passport to enter into the United States and denied entry into the United States for being inadmissible. The official claimed that I needed medication for my 'sex change' and would become a public charge. He refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of my British passport. I had a crowd of US Customs and Border Protection officials demanding to know in an open office environment in front of other travellers whether I had a penis. I was told “We don't care what it's like in Britain, in the United States you're male, deal with it.” I was interrogated, held against my will, I had this US Customs and Border Protection officer search me on his own, squeezing my genitals. I was forced to spend the night in the male wing of the Atlanta City Detention Center, the city's jail. I was denied access to water, food, medication and also access to the bathroom. I was denied privacy, I was ridiculed, made fun of. I was also removed from the Visa Waiver Program and told I was lucky not to be deported from the United States.

I also had my passport defaced. The report I have with me prepared by this official for the US Consulate in London is full of false, misleading and inaccurate statements. The cited reason for denying me entry is the Immigration and Nationality Act section 217.a (i) (I) – lack of a valid, unexpired travel document. I take this to be a refusal to acknowledge the sovereignty of my brand new British passport in female gender in the name of Stella Baker.

I planned to go back, and have taken the matter up with the Department of Homeland Security and paid the $131 for a speculative tourist visa to the United States. But the Department of Homeland Security is claiming not to have received a signed declaration which I have sent twice, electronically and in the post. The deadline is up.

As a result of all this I have changed my plans. I have family in Toronto, Canada. On the basis of my artistic work in Poland for which I can provide documentary evidence for being at the top of my field over the period of five years I do not need a visa to set up another project in Canada as I am developing something towards Canadian culture. I am relocating to Toronto.

I have been denied both entry and redress to the United States. Fine. I get the message. I now know that what I have to offer the American people and American culture isn't important, that my being transgendered is more important, and that because I happen to be transgendered I am not welcome in the United States.

I never intended to reside or settle in the United States, I didn't want to find a better life in the States, I didn't want to take anybody's job, I just wanted to share my artistic work, to make a valuable contribution to American culture and society, to help poor Americans find their way back into society through theatre, and to bring benefit to thousands of Americans through what I do.

I have decided therefore not to develop any more projects in the United States and to exclude the United States from any plans for projects in my artistic work. I don't need the United States, I'm successful enough as a playwright and stage director without any American involvement. As much as I love Americans, the people, and want to help them and work with them I'm not prepared to consider coming to the States until Washington changes its perspective and start treating people like me with the same dignity and respect as they treat everyone else. I have no desire or wish to enter a country which doesn't welcome me.

I'll leave it to others to work out who's side they want to take here. You can take my side, or that of an American in uniform who abused his powers and denied me my human rights. It appears the US Department of Homeland Security are sticking with this official.

I'd like to congratulate the United States government on yet another example of showing just how they feel about human rights and just how much they remember the Gettysburg Address of 1836.