In Minnesota, a male-to-female transgender prisoner who was locked up on drug charges scored a significant win in court last week. Christina Lusk had sued the Department of Corrections over the prison’s refusal to transfer him to a women’s prison and failure to provide him with medical care in the form of sex-change surgery. The DOC recently decided to settle the case in Lusk’s favor. He will receive nearly $500,000, be provided with “vaginoplasty” surgery, and be transferred to the Shakopee women’s prison next week. So… all’s well that end’s well? (Fox News)

A Minnesota transgender inmate is being moved to a women’s prison and will receive a vaginoplasty as well as $495,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections.

Christina Lusk, 57, will be transferred to the women’s facility in Shakopee next week, which will mark the first time a Minnesota inmate is moved to a different prison based on gender identity, according to local affiliate FOX 9.

As part of the settlement announced last week, the Minnesota DOC agreed to provide Lusk with a vaginoplasty as well as strengthen its policies regarding transgender inmates.

As it turns out, Lusk was arrested in 2018 for an unspecified federal drug offense and sentenced to prison. He’s due to be released next year. The prison originally declined to offer the surgery, saying he could pursue that on his own after being released, which seems reasonable. They’ve apparently thought better of it now.

Normally, all of the stories we hear about men being transferred to women’s prisons under the guise of being transgender end horribly. The prisoners almost inevitably wind up sexually assaulting and/or impregnating other prisoners or even the guards. But that may not be the case here.

Lusk reportedly didn’t suddenly “decide he was a woman” after going to prison. He began the transition process back in 2008 (as an adult), a full ten years before being arrested. He’d already had “top surgery” (breast implants) prior to being arrested and had been taking hormones for a decade. So it seems that he was serious about it.

Also, if they’re going to go ahead and do the “bottom surgery” on Lusk almost immediately, the amount of damage he could do in the women’s prison is obviously more limited. Of course, he’s a big guy and might still hurt someone in a fight, but that’s a risk you take with anyone in prison.

But I’m still concerned about the precedent this sets for the rest of the prisons in the state. If this surrender in a civil lawsuit is going to translate into the DOC’s official policy going forward, how many other male prisoners will hear of this story and think it sounds like a great opportunity? And they may not turn out to be as “sincere” in their belief as Christina Lusk. I would offer a compromise for Minnesota. Approve transfers to female prisons for male trans prisoners, but insist they have the bottom surgery first. Then let’s see how many of them still want to make the trip.