A transgender pedophile serving a 40-year sentence for sexually abusing multiple children for over a decade is demanding the state of Alaska pay for genital surgery and allow him to transfer to a women’s prison. While incarcerated, Emmanuel Cancel legally changed his name to Emalee Rain Wagoner, and in 2016, he began claiming to identify as a woman.
Cancel was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse in June 2011 after one victim came forward. Shortly after, two others told investigators they had also been raped and abused. In January 2015, Cancel pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Authorities had initially charged him with 50 counts of child sexual abuse, though after Cancel agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors consolidated them. Cancel was convicted for raping and sexually abusing two of his stepchildren and the daughter of a family friend over a period of approximately ten years, and sentenced to 60 years, with 20 years suspended and 40 years in prison.
Cancel changed his name to Emalee Wagoner in 2016, and, according to court documents which refer to him using feminine pronouns, “changed her external presentation by growing out her hair, changing her name, wearing improvised makeup, and otherwise presenting as female to the extent possible in prison.”
The Alaska Department of Corrections (AKDOC) has denied a formal request filed by Reduxx for access to a recent booking photo.
Cancel was a father to four biological children and two stepchildren. According to court documents, from 1998 until 2007 he sexually abused at least three of the children by “walking around the house naked; fondling the children; requiring that they perform oral sex on [him]; and digital and penile penetration… The abuse was pervasive and devastating to the children.”
Superior Court Judge Eric Smith said the case was among the worst he had ever seen in his career.
“I keep a log of all the cases I have and all the sentences I do,” he said. “It helps me remember cases. I would put Mr. Cancel’s case in terms of the sheer horror of what he did (to the victims) with only two or three other cases that I have seen.”
A reply filed by attorneys representing the AKDOC and prison officials refers to Cancel using his new legal name of Wagoner. The response states that he threatened the children into silence and forced them into serious drug use.
Disturbingly. the sex offender “attempted to keep the children quiet by threatening to kill them if they told anyone about the abuse.” Cancel would tell the children stories of alleged murders he had committed, and detailed how he would dispose of their bodies. The children were further terrified into silence as Cancel frequently physically abused them as well.
According to court records: “… The children thought this threat was legitimate due to the level of violence Wagoner displayed in the household, including slamming the children’s heads against the wall, whipping them with a belt, and beating their mother. She also provided them with marijuana, cocaine, crack, and meth as a bribe to keep them quiet,” states the defense’s reply, again using feminine pronouns to refer to the sadistic offender.
Cancel, who had been detained for the sexual offenses in 2011, was ultimately sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment with 20 years suspended, on charges relating to the sexual abuse of minors. The earliest projected parole date was set for 2038.
After legally changing his name to Emalee Wagoner in 2016, Emmanuel Cancel attempted to cut his genitals in an act of self-harm. The defense argues that the incident occurred after Cancel had communicated his intention to self-mutilate to his fiancé.
“In August 2016, she attempted self-surgery. Initially, she claimed that it was an accident. Later, she changed her story and claimed that she was attempting a gender-affirming surgery. On one other occasion, Wagoner re-injured her penis which required elevated medical attention at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center,” the defense attorneys remarked.
“Starting in August 2016, she started to communicate with her then-alleged fiancé that she was contemplating attempting to perform a self-surgery by cutting off her penis and genitals. It appears that the motivation for this was either to be released from prison or to be transferred to a women’s prison.”
Counsel for prison officials noted that leading up to his self-harm, Cancel could be heard in a recording with his then-alleged fiancé explicitly stating that his motivation for claiming to identify as a woman was to secure a transfer to a female prison, where he believed he could be together with the unnamed woman.
“If things change – and I do [the self-surgery] and get moved over, will you come see me?,” Cancel said. In another recording, Wagoner stated as follows: “[The self-surgery is] the only way I can see us being together otherwise its 22 more years will tear us apart. Six years have already destroyed us. It’s the only way I see it happening… So, if I get [the self-surgery] done, you will come live with me?”
Cancel’s now ex-fiancé, who was not an inmate, ended the relationship shortly after he performed a self-inflicted injury to his penis, which is consistently referred to by the court in ongoing proceedings as “her penis.”
In 2017, the AKDOC recognized a diagnosis of gender dysphoria for Cancel, which was described as co-occurring with diagnoses of borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. At the beginning of 2018, Cancel submitted a request form for prosthetic breasts, an item which is typically considered a fetish object. As such, AKDOC denied his request on the grounds that it did not serve a medical purpose.
In September 2018, Cancel lodged a civil rights complaint alleging Eighth Amendment violations of “cruel and unusual punishment” over having not been provided with genital surgery on the taxpayer dime. Wagoner’s claim sought damages of $5 million, declaratory relief, and injunctive relief, citing repeated denials of feminizing hormones and surgery. The convicted pedophile requested a trial by jury and has continuously demanded the Alaska Department of Corrections (AKDOC) adhere to guidelines published by the controversial lobby group the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
Curiously, evidence provided to the court by AKDOC reveals that almost immediately after his arrest on dozens of charges related to raping children, Cancel filed a formal complaint alleging that his life was in danger at Palmer Correctional Center. “Due to publicity of charges against me, I’m requesting protective custody. Due to life threats [sic] from a list of people… You can call my fiancé, she has the list.”
In August 2022, the sex offender was prescribed feminizing hormones by Dr. Rachel Samuelson, while the state provided him with cosmetics and “female undergarments” at taxpayers’ expense.
Cancel’s multiple requests for genital surgery were formally denied in October 2023 by the AKDOC’s Medicaid Advisory Committee (MAC), which found that he did not meet the diagnostic criteria required to deem genital surgery as a medical intervention.
In September 2023, Cancel filed a request for Voice Feminization Therapy, and the following year, July 2024, his request was denied by Jill Cronin, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) on the basis that Voice Feminization Therapy is not considered essential healthcare.
In 2024 to 2025, the ACLU of Alaska and Lambda Legal began to represent Cancel in court proceedings. The legal team argues that the AKDOC acted with deliberate indifference to Cancel’s “gender dysphoria” by withholding “medically necessary care”, which they claim violates his Eighth Amendment rights. The foundation for their argument rests on Standards of Care published by trans activist lobby group, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) — an organization steeped in controversy which is currently being sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for fraud and deceptive practices.
Counsel for the convicted pedophile is seeking an injunction against AKDOC’s de facto policy against approving genital surgeries for inmates, and asserts that AKDOC maintains an implicit, unconstitutional blanket ban on “gender-affirming surgeries”.
AKDOC’s attorneys argue that Cancel is already being adequately managed through hormones and counseling, and is enjoying the use of “female undergarments” and cosmetics. They maintain that since starting on hormones in 2022, he has been objectively stable, showing no self-harm or suicidal ideation. The defense asserts that providing hormones, such as estradiol and anti-androgen spironolactone, alongside mental health support and ongoing monitoring, demonstrates active care, defeating any claim of intentional neglect or deliberate indifference.
Despite this, following a trial in May 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled in favor of Cancel and entered a permanent injunction that ordered the Alaska Department of Corrections (AKDOC) to provide him with a “vaginoplasty,” or the construction of a wound intended to resemble and function as a labia and vagina. According to a 2025 Must Read Alaska report, while some legal precedents exist for giving trans-identified inmates “gender affirming” surgery, Cancel’s case will test those boundaries further.
One such precedent involves another convicted child rapist, Adree Edmo, formerly known as Mason Edmo. Edmo first launched a lawsuit against the state of Idaho and the state department of correction’s medical provider, Corizon Correctional Healthcare, in 2017 after being denied “gender” surgeries. In 2018, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that Edmo was at risk of “irreparable harm” without the surgery, and ordered the state to pay for it.
The state of Alaska has appealed the district court’s decision on Cancel’s “gender affirming” surgeries, and the case is currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
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