A man who identifies as transgender presented a speech for a Women’s Empowerment event held at New Jersey’s only correctional facility for women on June 20, where he lectured female inmates on the importance of “inclusivity.” La’Nae Grant reportedly told the women that he believed “cisgender women” may hesitate to accept trans-identifying men as female due to jealousy or “competition” between the groups for male sexual partners.
A source inside the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women passed information on to Reduxx regarding the reactions of the female inmates who attended the event and heard Grant speak. Kokila Hiatt, an inmate at the facility, told Reduxx that many, if not all of the women who attended, had not been made aware that the event would be addressing the topic of gender identity.
Hiatt explained that a portion of Grant’s presentation emphasized that female inmates ought to accept that “transgender women are women,” amongst other pro-gender ideology themes.
“Many women behaved in a polite manner by sitting and listening. A lot of people just tuned out. No one was anticipating what this event was really about. It was billed as a Women’s Empowerment Event. His picture was on the sign-up sheet, but this person visibly ‘passes’ as a woman, so no one thought anything of it when they signed up to attend,” Hiatt told Reduxx.
“Attendance was not required in that people signed up to attend, but please remember, no one knew what it was they were really signing up for. They were duped into attending something for this transgender person,” she continued.
“This event was government-funded and facilitated. It occurred in the gym of this unit which means New Jersey’s Department of Corrections executive staff from Trenton had to have approved it. Custody staff members here had to enable inmate movement and supervise attendance. Some members of this facility’s administrative staff was present,” Hiatt added.
Speaking with NJ Advance Media in 2021, Grant explained that prior to claiming a female identity, he believed he was a gay man. “I remember playing with a group of kids, and I just had a natural attraction for the same sex. It was a couple of boys I thought were cute, and as I grew older I gravitated more in that direction.”
He stated that he “began transitioning into a woman” approximately ten years ago, when at the age of 28, he began taking estrogen. He has since undergone genital surgery and received chest implants, which the outlet referred to as “breast reconstructive surgery.”
One struggle cited by Grant which motivated his decision to undergo surgery was his discomfort at attending pool parties or going to the beach.
“I didn’t feel comfortable going to the beach… it stopped me from doing a lot of things — events, pool parties especially, anything that involved me showing my body. Those [breasts] are essential parts of a female that’s not just physically for the eye, but for the mind, too,” Grant said.
Last year, Grant was quietly appointed to the Board of Trustees for Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. According to an announcement posted to the state-run website for the Office of the Governor, Grant was touted as “a longtime activist for the rights of the transgender community, including transgender persons that are currently incarcerated.”
Prior to his appointment in a leadership role at EMCF, Grant worked as an HIV counselor and tester. He has created promotional materials for the North Jersey Community Research Initiative on the topic of AIDs awareness.
In June of 2021, the state of New Jersey reached a settlement with the ACLU-NJ and agreed to adopt major reforms to prison policies which would allow housing according to a self-declared and subjective ‘gender identity’ rather than on biological sex.
The case which prompted the policy change was brought forward by ACLU-NJ on behalf of convicted terrorist and Marine Corps veteran Danielle Demers, born Daniel Smith, who was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office for attempting to sell ammunition and pipe bombs.
In August of 2019, ACLU-NJ filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections on behalf of Demers, arguing that a “woman” named only as “Sonia Doe” had been “imprisoned for the past seventeen months in men’s prisons,” a situation that was said to constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The legal action, which used “she/her” pronouns to refer to Demers, claimed that he was discriminated against “on the basis of her gender identity or expression and on the basis of her sex,” and that he had been “treat[ed] differently than other women solely because she is transgender.”
It was further stated that Demers suffered from an “exceptional vulnerability as a woman,” which included prison staff “referring to her as male, using male pronouns to address her, and sometimes even explicitly telling her she is a man.” The lawsuit sought financial compensation for “the more than seventeen months” that the DOC “caused [him] to suffer in men’s prisons.”
Also mentioned in the complaint was Demers’ lack of access to “gender-affirming undergarments”. In one specific example, a bra owned by Demers was confiscated, and he had filed 13 grievances to the NJDOC related to his desire for women’s underwear.
Since his release from prison, Demers has been active online in communities related to a sexual subculture in which adults, primarily men, achieve arousal by behaving and dressing like babies.
According to previous testimonies provided to Reduxx from women incarcerated at Edna Mahan, among the first men to be transferred to the prison after the ACLU was victorious in their lawsuit was a sadistic murderer who had boasted about drinking his victim’s blood.
Perry Cerf was handed a 50-year sentence in 2003 for the brutal rape and murder of a sex-trafficked woman from Ecuador. Cerf, who now goes by “Michelle Hel-loki Angelina” and is recorded as female by the DOC, had been found wearing his victim’s clothes and utilizing her identification with his photo superimposed over hers.
Another male transfer to the facility made headlines last year after it was discovered that he had impregnated two women in the prison. According to sources at the prison, Demetrius ‘Demi’ Minor had been trying to have sex with the female inmates from the moment he was transferred in.
In May, Reduxx revealed that a female inmate was battered by a male transfer after she repeatedly refused his sexual advances. Inmate Shakira Reed described how she was assaulted by Jermaine Gibson, who identifies as transgender and uses the name Cyntara, who had been sexually harassing her for weeks leading up to the assault.
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