**Transgender Inmate Wins Landmark Case in Minnesota: Taxpayers to Fund Sex-Change Surgery and Prison Transfer**
In a Minnesota first, Craig Lusk, who changed his name to Christina in 2018, will receive a $495,000 settlement along with a sex-change surgery, funded by taxpayers. Arrested on drug charges and assigned to a men’s facility, Lusk sued the Minnesota Department of Corrections, claiming discrimination and misgendering. The legal victory will now pave the way for other transgender inmates to be housed with members of the opposite sex.
57-year-old Lusk was arrested in 2018 for dealing large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine. Previously convicted for first-degree robbery, Lusk pleaded guilty to first degree possession of a controlled substance and received a 98-month prison sentence. Assigned to a men’s facility, Lusk, with the support of LGBT activist group Gender Justice, filed suit claiming discrimination, misgendering and deferral of his sex-change surgery until release in 2024.
Gender Justice argued that Lusk was “socially, medically, and legally” female, having received breast implants and taken hormone replacement therapy before his incarceration. Attorney Jess Braverman of Gender Justice said that Lusk was exposed to harassment and violence in the men’s facility.
As a result of the settlement, the Minnesota Department of Corrections will not only pay nearly half a million dollars and provide Lusk with sex-change surgery, but it has also agreed to transfer Lusk to a women’s prison. This now allows for other inmates claiming to be a different gender to be imprisoned alongside the opposite sex, if it corresponds with their alleged ”
