For anarchists, May is often remembered for the tragedies of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre and the murder of Kent State students by Ohio national guardsmen in 1970. But in 2026, we will celebrate this month for the release of political prisoner Marius Mason, coming home after a 22-year sentence for acts of resistance to this ecocidal empire.
Marius, an anarchist, environmental/animal rights activist, vegan, trans advocate, and Fifth Estate writer, was released from federal prison to a halfway house in Detroit after over 18 years confinement for acts of property damage carried out in defense of the planet.
After being threatened with a life sentence for acts of sabotage, he pleaded guilty in 2009 to arson charges at a Michigan State University lab researching genetically modified organisms for Monsanto and twelve other acts of property damage. No one was harmed in these actions. Marius was sentenced to 22 years of incarceration and a multi-million dollar fine. This is the harshest punishment of anyone convicted of environmental sabotage.
Marius came out to friends, family and supporters as transgender in 2014. Previously known as “Marie Mason,” he changed his name, uses he/him pronouns, and embarked on a course to get a medical diagnosis that would allow him to seek gender affirming surgery and hormone therapy.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) diagnosed Marius as having gender dysphoria, and made clothing and commissary accommodations in accordance with their established policy. In 2016, Marius received his first “T” hormone (testosterone) injection. In 2021, he won his fight to be transferred to the male section at Federal Correctional Institution Danbury, Conn.
Mason was approved by the BOP for gender-affirming surgery in 2022. He was transferred from Danbury after living there for two years to a federal prison medical facility in Fort Worth, where he was to undergo surgery. This was the culmination of a 10-year process beginning in 2013 when Mason asked to be considered for the new BOP transgender medical policy after a lawsuit created a pathway to medical transition.
But in January 2025, on Trump’s first day in office, his fascist-right administration issued an anti-trans Executive Order denying gender-affirming medical care to trans prisoners, among other scapegoating attacks. As a result, Marius was denied surgery and moved back to the women’s unit at Danbury from where he will be released. As of March, trans prisoners are being cut off of Hormone Replacement Therapy in a final act of cruelty. Trump’s campaign spent $27 million on ads condemning gender surgery for prisoners and the BOP quickly remanded those detained back to prisons corresponding to their birth gender, particularly endangering trans women.
While in prison, Marius continued studying, making art, and contributing to the well-being of his fellow prisoners. His paintings have had several exhibitions and he has written articles for the Fifth Estate and displayed his artwork such as the one on this page.
The next step in long-term support is gathering resources for his post-release life. Marius has begun the process of reintegrating into the daily life he was robbed of for so many years. The solidarity and mutual aid that sustained him through almost two decades will continue as he is welcomed back into the local and international communities.
As with all political and environmental prisoners, they’re in there for us; we’re out here for them. Throughout his stay in prison, Marius was supported by the annual January 22 Trans Prisoner Day of Action and the International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and All Anarchist Prisoners on June 11 of each year. The need is no less with Marius’s release.
Keep an eye on the Support Marius website and social media for details on writing letters to him.
supportmariusmason.org
Panagioti Tsolkas is a former editor at the Earth First! Journal and Prison Legal News, and a current member of the Agency editorial working group.
For Renee Nicole Good
by Marius Mason
What has been…
Trampled in the snow
The ice, sliding into the accident
So many long guns
Three shots, the shock
Murder is an ugly word,
But apt.
No one will forget you,
Little mother,
Or the peace
You
Tried to
Bring.