Xandan Gulley: Female to Male Transgender Inmate Pen Pal

Britney Gulley is his legal name, but this female to male transgender inmate is better known as Xandan. He's a political prisoner, activist, and published writer. Xandan Gulley enjoys football, reading, astrology, Greek mythology, women’s basketball, dogs, and listening to NPR. One minuscule tranquility for Xandan is being able to watch the sunrise and sunset every day, out his small window in the 6X9 solitary cell (where he has been a victim of prolonged solitary confinement for over 14 years). Xandan Gulley has been published in the Texas Observer, The Advocate magazine, LGBTQ Nation, San Francisco Bayview newspaper, Prism, and Black Lipstick magazine, and recently won a 2025 Stillwater Award. Naturally down-to-earth with a great sense of humor and contagious smile, Xandan doesn’t allow his dire circumstances to break his soul or dictate his spirit. He loves making people smile and laugh while continuing to bring awareness to the concealed injustices within a flawed prison system. In this episode, you'll hear his story of discrimination, loneliness, strength, and courage living as a Black trans man in a woman's prison in Texas, locked alone in a cell with no human interaction other than phone calls to his mother, and an occasional correctional officer grunting as he passes by the cell door. Through the story he shares, Xandan proves how “a single candle has the power to defy darkness."