A biological male transgender woman in Minnesota is sueing the state Department of Corrections for discrimination. Christina Lusk, 56, is asking to be moved from a men’s prison to a women’s prison.
Christina Lusk, 56, came out as “transgender” 14 years ago and began hormone therapy treatments. Lusk pleaded guilty to a felony drug possession charge and is serving a sentence until 2024 at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Moose Lake, Minnesota.
CBS Minnesota noted that Lusk wants to be moved to a women’s prison in Shakopee, Minnesota.
Jess Braverman, an attorney for the group Gender Justice, which is representing Lusk along with the Minneapolis law firm of Robins Kaplan, said her client is unsafe in Moose Lake.
“She’s a woman, and suddenly she’s placed in a men’s facility. She’s in a locked cell with a number of men, and she’s really exposed to harassment and violence in that setting,” Braverman said.
Fox News noted that Lusk is suring in part because the Department of Corrections is deferring sex reassignment surgery.
Reportedly, Lusk had undergone “top surgery” before going to prison and was about to schedule “bottom surgery.”
Braverman said that transgender people “disproportinately face abuse and harrassment in state institutions including jails and prisons, schools, healthcare facilities, and more.”
In April, Matt covered how a biological male “transgender” inmate at a women’s prison in New Jersey impregnated two female inmates. The Daily Mail noted that the prison housed over 20 transgender inmates.
Two women at New Jersey's only all-women's prison have both fallen pregnant after having sex with transgender inmates.
The pregnant women, who were not identified, are housed at the embattled Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, in Clinton, which New Jersey Governor announced plans to close last year.
Prison bosses said that in both instances, the sex was consensual.
It is unclear if the women had sex with the same transgender inmate, or if it was two different inmates. Edna Mahan houses 27 transgender prisoners, and over 800 women altogether. It is also unclear how far along the two inmates are, and whether they plan to continue with their respective pregnancies. An investigation has been launched.
The correctional facility began to house transgender women - including those that have yet to undergo gender reassignment surgery - last year.
That came as part of a settlement following a lawsuit brought by a trans woman and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey.
After the news broke, women’s rights activist Kara Dansky appeared in an interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” where she slammed the prison for housing biological male “transgender” inmates.
“The story that’s happening in New Jersey is obviously horrible for so many reasons. We need to not have men being housed in women’s prisons,” Dansky said in the interview.
“But, a couple takeaways from this that I just want to point out are first of all, the state is not getting away with this by telling its residents that they are housing men in women’s prisons. What are doing, of course, is they are telling the residents that they are housing so-called ‘transgender women’ or ‘trans women’ in women’s prisons, suggesting that there is some sort of subcategory that is called ‘transgender women’ or ‘trans women’ and it’s not true. The fact of this story shoots a hole right through the trope that ‘trans women are women,” Dansky added.