A trans-identified male who previously sued a spa for not allowing him to bathe with women has announced that he has been accepted to compete as a “woman” in the 2025 Boston Marathon. Riya Young Suising, born Robert Chien Hwa Young, has placed on the winner’s podium at multiple women’s running competitions.
Suising, 57, celebrated his qualification in the race via Facebook with his confirmation email from the 129th Boston Marathon: “Yay! 15th Boston next April, and I barely made it in this time,” he wrote. He has qualified for the female category. The race is set to take place in April 2025.
The Boston Marathon has age and gender qualification categories. Genders include male, female, and “non-binary.” Notably, the “non-binary” category has identical qualifying times as the corresponding female categories.
In Suising’s case, he had to demonstrate a time of 4 hours and 5 minutes or less; Suising qualified with a time of 4 hours, 1 minute, and 27 seconds. Had he been forced to compete with other males he would not have qualified for the marathon, as participants in the men’s category are required to meet a 3 hour and 35 minute performance cutoff.
Suising has been competing in women’s running since at least 2010, and has also participated in female dance classes at the San Jose Dance Theatre. In addition to being a flight attendant with United Airlines, he works as a part-time massage therapist and Zumba instructor.
Suising competed in the 2024 San Francisco Marathon dressed in a “sexy” bumble bee costume, complete with black nylons and a mini skirt. He wore the same outfit in previous races, including a 2017 New York City Marathon and in a 2018 Los Angeles Rock and Roll Half Marathon. He also competed in the female category of the 2024 California International Marathon on December 8.
In a since-deleted Facebook post from 2015, the Palo Alto Run Club announced that Suising was seen taking second place in the women’s category of the Brazen Racing half marathon, seizing a $500 prize.
In November of this year, Beth Bourne, an advocate for women’s rights and safety, recognized Suising as one of her attendants on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Mexico. Bourne had previously competed against Suising at multiple races in Northern California, including the 2014 Golden Gate Park cross-country women’s race.
9. In closing, my draft letter to @united's CEO Scott Kirby:
Dear Mr. Kirby,
On Friday, November 8th, I flew from SFO to MEX on flight UA821. I am writing today to request a refund ($320) for this portion of my trip.
“I first saw this man in our local racing scene here in the San Francisco/Sacramento area in 2013. It made me so uncomfortable seeing him dressed up as a woman—but I didn’t know what was happening. So I said nothing… [It’s] awful that the race directors let him compete in the women’s category, as it impacted individual and team scoring,” said Bourne.
“I find it misogynistic and degrading to see men pretending to be women, so I was upset to see a male trans-identified United Airlines flight attendant on my recent flight. As a paying customer, I don’t believe my speech should not be compelled when talking to other passengers, including my boyfriend who was seated next to me, about this flight attendant.”
Bourne says she felt particularly concerned because she was aware of a recent incident involving another United customer whose family had been removed from a flight for allegedly “misgendering” a flight attendant.
A family has reportedly been left stranded in San Francisco by @united after "misgendering" a flight attendant.@JennaLongoria, her mother, and her toddler were denied boarding while the plane took off with their stowed medications and luggage.pic.twitter.com/czUfdZLjSJ
“If men want to dress up as women in the privacy of their own home that is fine – if United Airlines wants to employ men dressing up as women outside of the view of paying customers, that might also be a different circumstance but in this instant, flying between San Francisco and Mexico City, I was being held hostage to having to participate in this man’s fetish.”
On X, Bourne announced that she requested a refund from United Airlines, describing Suising’s in-flight behavior as “degrading and misogynistic to women” and noting that he had been wearing a name tag with “she/her” pronouns listed. Bourne says she has not received any communications from the company regarding her complaint.
On Suising’s participation in the Boston Marathon, Bourne says she is upset that he has been allowed to compete in the women’s category.
“The qualifying time for men in the 55-60 age group is 3:30 and 4:00 for women. Likely he would never be able to make the men’s time standard but by declaring himself a ‘woman’ he can steal a coveted spot that was meant for a woman,” Bourne says.
“I’ve competed in several international marathons, including the Boston Marathon in 2010, so I know this it’s a big deal to qualify for a spot. I’m also super disappointed that the captured Boston Athletic Association has a ‘non-binary’ division, which of course is predominantly men winning all of the top spots across all age groups.”
Biological males have won in the non-binary category both years it has been offered by the marathon, and with the accommodation of trans-identified males in the women’s category, it provides men three opportunities to take top spot.
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British Transport Police participating in diversity and anti-hate crime campaigns over the years.
A human rights charity is taking legal action against the British Transport Police (BTP) over a new guidance which allows men who claim a transgender status to strip search female detainees. The policy, implemented in September, permits male BTP staff to intimately search women on the condition that they have obtained a document which declares them to be legally female, known as a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
The charity behind the litigation, Sex Matters, works to “promote clarity about sex in law, policy, and language,” according to the organization’s mission statement, and contests that “people with beliefs about gender identity cannot impose them on others. A statement issued by the charity yesterday announced that Sex Matters had sent the BTP a letter detailing how the new guidance “is a breach of women’s rights and unlawful,” and asking that the policy be withdrawn.
Why is Sex Matters suing the British Transport Police? (a thread with all the documents)
On September 30th BTP released a new policy on searching.
BTP’s Transgender and Non-Binary Search Position guidance was issued internally on September 30 and obtained by a Freedom of Information (FOI) request the following month. According to the guidance, staff are urged to treat the possession of a GRC as a condition which takes precedence over certain sex-based rights guaranteed under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).
“Certain provisions in law explicitly state that searches and other procedures may only be carried out by, or in the presence of, persons of the same sex as the person subject to the search,” acknowledges the policy. However, it goes on to state that “in law, the sex of an individual is their sex as registered at birth unless they have been issued with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA), in which case the person’s sex is their acquired sex.”
Additionally, BTP states that it “recognizes the status of Transgender and Non-Binary detainees/staff from the moment they identify in that gender with or without a GRC.”
The policy then sets out the two types of searches that are performed by officers and states that the guidance is applicable to both. “More Thorough Searches (Strip) in the context of searches involve the removal of more than, jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear, and footwear. EIP Searches are searches that expose buttocks, genitalia, and (female) breasts.”
Regarding Strip and EIP searches, “BTP officers will only search persons of the same sex as either their Birth Certificate or GRC.” The BTP policy further states that “any information relating to a person’s GRC or original gender” is classified as “protected information,” and therefore staff are prohibited from disclosing the biological sex of an officer when it differs from the information provided on a GRC.
Sex Matters sent a pre-action letter to BTP Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi on November 22 warning that the policy breached established law via PACE, which stipulates that strip searches must be conducted by an officer of the same sex as the detainee. The human rights charity proposed that BTP authorities respond by the end of the month on the matter in order to avoid a legal claim.
The pre-action letter asserts that it “may be humiliating and frightening for a women to be strip searched by a male officer,” and similarly, that “female officers would be likely to experience humiliation and degradation if required to carry out a strip search of a man.” Therefore, legal counsel for Sex Matters insisted that BTP withdraw the new guidance and confirm that strip searches will be “carried out on the basis of same biological sex only.”
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, told Reduxx that the charity is requesting that the High Court determine whether BTP’s policy is lawful, given that it violates women’s right to be strip searched by an officer of the same sex.
“Sex Matters is asking the High Court to consider whether BTP’s policy is lawful, both in relation to female detainees being searched by trans-identifying male officers, and in relation to female officers being pressured into searching trans-identifying males,” Forstater said.
“In developing the case we interviewed several female officers who agreed to speak only under terms of anonymity. This illustrates the power imbalance and fear they feel.”
Sex Matters is suing British Transport Police for their breach of women's human rights.
We are represented by @akuareindorf , Beth Grossman and Sasha Rozansky (legal dream team).
This case is important. "What is a Woman?" has consequences. BTP's search policy is abusive. https://t.co/lnIOjkZ8vU
“Those officers described the risks, humiliation and lack of dignity involved in searches with a trans-identifying man. Only 22% of BTP officers are female, and most of those searched are male,” Forstater continued. “They explained that it would be very difficult for a female officer to object to searching a trans-identifying male detainee because she would fear being perceived as transphobic, weak or unprofessional.”
“They emphasized that custody sergeants have great authority and that it would be hard for a young female officer to refuse an order. If she did refuse the order, the search would simply be passed on to another woman.”
Forstater, who was subjected to an employment tribunal after her work contract was not renewed in 2019 due to her former employers claiming views she had expressed on social media were “offensive and exclusionary” in regards to gender identity ideology, was at the center of a court decision which found that beliefs critical of gender identity “must be tolerated in a pluralist society.”
“BTP is gaslighting both female detainees and female officers with its statement that when a trans-identifying man searches a woman, ‘the female is being searched by a female’, and with its denial of the role sexual fetish can play in cross-dressing and trans identification,” Forstater remarked.
“Rules that are supposed to protect women from humiliating and degrading situations are instead being used to subject them to abuses while denying that this is happening.”
As an example of a trans-identified male police officer who has influenced gender identity policies within the legal system, Sex Matters has previously highlighted the case of Skye Morden, an officer with the West Midlands Police.
Morden, director of activist group Trans in the City, has served as both a Police Constable and a Tactical Training Officer with a focus of creating policies for authorities that prioritize the “inclusion” of men who claim to be women.
In a previous statement issued to MP Chris Philip at the start of the year, Sex Matters pointed to two other trans-identified male police officers: Cherry O’Donnell, with East Herts Police, and Steph Calvert of the Border Force. The letter asserts that “misrecording the sex of any police officer is not compatible with implementing the policies that are needed to respect human rights, to maintain public trust and confidence, and to police professionally.”
Men who claim to be transgender have influenced policing policies in the United Kingdom, and a number of forces have previously come under fire for their support for trans-identified males.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Sussex Police once came out in defense of a transgender serial pedophile following “hateful” comments about his gender identity on social media. On September 26, 2022, Sussex Police issued a status update on the case of John Robert Dixon, who was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison following a conviction on 30 charges related to the sexual abuse of multiple children.
Sussex Police referred to Dixon as a “woman” in their update, prompting backlash from women’s rights advocates. In response, the force issued a scolding reply to at least three X users in which they condemned “hateful comments” towards Dixon’s gender identity, and suggested a hate crime investigation may be opened into those who misgendered the pedophile.
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The German federal government was responsible for funding a research project labeling “organized transphobia” a threat to democracy. The project, which was made in collaboration with a trans-identified male known for threatening violence against women he disagrees with, classifies those opposed to Germany’s radical gender self-identification laws as “enemies” of society.
Days ago, the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ Jena) published a brochure reporting the outcome of a research project it had undertaken on “Organized Transphobia: Concepts, Actors, Narratives, and Counter-Strategies.” In the 92-page release, it concluded that transphobia poses a danger to democratic co-existence and outlines strategies to tackle radical feminists who define biological sex as binary.
The research project, published in collaboration with the Federal Association for Transgender People (BVT), was funded by the German government through the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, which provided it a total of 228,833 Euros.
The project portrays feminists critical of gender ideology as enemies of the state who, together with right-wing extremists, pursue a political agenda to maintain an “endo-cis-binary gender system” – something that is deemed incompatible with the “principles of liberal democracy.”
The research itself claims it was conducted using a “scientifically grounded foundational work” and empirical surveys in the form of interviews with so-called “experts” who were all part of the “queer community.” Most of the project’s main researchers and the authors are transgender, according to their self-describing statements.
One of those “experts” is a trans-identified male named Mine Wenzel, formerly known as Benjamin, who goes by the pseudonym “Mine Pleasure Bouvar.”
Wenzel, who identifies as a “non-binary lesbian femme,” has previously been invited to act as an expert for state-funded projects and lectures. He is well-known for his calls for violence against women, and has accused lesbians of bigotry for declining to have sex with trans-identified males.
Erstmalig stimmt ja so nicht, Mine Wenzel. Aber es klingt natürlich dramatischer. Erinnern wir uns daran, was Mine Wenzel so von Frauen- und Lesbenrechten hält. pic.twitter.com/RX8Z1zLXMu
In a 2021 article by the Heinrich Böll Foundation titled “TERFs False Friends – Feminism for Privileged Women,” Wenzel labeled feminists who advocate for their sex-based rights as FARTs, claiming they maintained an “outdated” understanding of biology to secure their privileges.
Together with the Robert Koch Institute, a German federal agency and biomedical research center, Wenzel also developed a questionnaire for a study on the “sexual health of transgender individuals,” in which women and girls are referred to as “people with short urethras” whose primary genital organs are called a “front hole” or “pussy.”
The Robert Koch Institute, a leading biomedical research facility associated with the German government, is under fire for a survey where it describes females as “people with short urethras” whose primary sex organs are the “front hole” or “p*ssy.”https://t.co/BcZ4n3RC44
Wenzel has also previously worked under his pseudonym “Mine Pleasure Bouvar” as an anti-discrimination and education trainer invited by German universities to give lectures on “transmisogyny.”
Disturbingly, while hosting his own podcast series, Wenzel admitted to masturbating while wearing his sister’s clothing and pretending to be a female character from Japanese animation.
In the document published by IDZ Jena, Wenzel was one of the experts who called for the creation of more taxpayer-funded initiatives to combat “transphobia” in Germany, adding that schools should participate in the “decriminalization of trans-people” through educational initiatives targeting youth. Additionally, the report calls for a national monitoring system for “transphobic hate crimes” in order to make transphobia visible as a threat to democracy.
Much of the research revolved around condemning critical attitudes towards Germany’s new gender self-identification bill.
The bill was first introduced in April of 2024, when the German Bundestag voted for the Self-Determination Act, which allows people to simply change their sex and first name at the registry office and threatens with a fine of €10,000 if someone reveals their previous first name and real sex. The Act came into effect on November 1.
Politicians who have expressed concerns about the bill and its impact on women and children have been faced criticism, even from within their own parties.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FPD) is seeking to prohibit the re-election of two female members who voted against the law. Katja Adler and Linda Teuteberg are the only two women in the FDP who voted against the law, with both expressing concerns about the implications gender ideology has for women’s safety. As a result, the FDP is seeking to remove both of them from standing in the upcoming election, and replace them with members who supported the Self-Determination Act.
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The ACLU has filed a lawsuit on behalf of multiple trans-identified male inmates in Florida who allege that a new policy prohibiting “gender affirming care” amounts to a violation of their Eighth Amendment Right against cruel and unusual punishment. Among the three named in the lawsuit, one is a convicted pedophile who sexually abused two 10-year-old girls.
On September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections established Health Services Bulletin 15.05.23, entitled “Mental Health Treatment of Inmates with Gender Dysphoria.” The new policy stipulates that “state law prohibits the Department from expending any state funds to purchase cross-sex hormones for the treatment of gender dysphoria.” The Bulletin represented a deviation from previous state policy, which had allowed for both cross-sex hormones and other accommodations to be provided to trans-identified inmates.
Inmates in FDOC care were given 30 days to comply with the policy, which also included turning over any feminine undergarments they had been provided and cutting their hair.
In response to the policy change, the ACLU of Florida filed a lawsuit on behalf of four trans-identified male inmates, arguing that the Bulletin violated their rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
The primary inmate named in the suit is Reiyn Keohane, a trans-identified male serving a 15-year sentence for attempting to murder his female roommate in 2013. Keohane had become enraged and stabbed the woman in the throat before fleeing the crime scene on a moped.
Reiyn Keohane. Photo courtesy the Florida Department of Corrections.
The victim was able to alert a neighbor for help and identify Keohane as her attacker before losing consciousness. When arrested, Keohane was found with two knives and an AR15 clip. He was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison and is currently incarcerated at the Wakulla Correctional Institution Annex in Crawfordville.
In 2016, Keohane sued the FDOC after he was denied cross-sex hormones. Two years later, a court ruled in his favor and ordered the FDOC to accommodate his demands for “gender affirming care” and “female grooming standards.” Keohane’s 2016 suit resulted in the FDOC instituting the policy on “gender affirming care” which has now been rescinded.
Keohane is now the main plaintiff in an ACLU-backed lawsuit tackling the FDOC’s newest policy, which prohibits the state use of funds towards “gender affirming care” for inmates. He has been joined by three other named inmates so far.
A second plaintiff that has submitted a testimony in the lawsuit is George “Sasha” Mendoza, a trans-identified male convicted of both first and second degree murder in 1985.
In his statement, Mendoza, 53, claims he had known his “gender identity” since he was 15 years old, and began transitioning while in the custody of the FDOC.
George “Sasha” Mendoza. Photo courtesy the Florida Department of Corrections.
“I love wearing make-up. Even though I can only do it inside the dorm, I would look forward to being able to wear it. It makes me feel more like a woman. I feel better and don’t feel like a man,” Mendoza writes in his testimony. “Being able to receive hormone therapy and follow female clothing and grooming standards has made it possible for me to live as the woman I am and, thus, alleviated the painful distress of gender dysphoria.” Mendoza is currently incarcerated at the Dade Correctional Institution.
The third plaintiff named in the case is Matthew “Michelle” Ward, 53, a convicted child rapist serving a life sentence for the sexual abuse of two young girls.
According to a 1993 article from the Tampa Bay Times, Ward victimized two 10-year-old girls from his neighborhood after offering to babysit them. According to one of the victims who testified against Ward in court, “he brought us into the bedroom and did nasty stuff to us.” Ward was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for sexual battery.
Matthew “Michelle” Ward. Photo courtesy the Florida Department of Corrections.
Testimony provided by Ward to the ACLU claims that the convicted child sexual abuser has “known [his] gender identity is female” since he was a young boy.
“I am a 53 year-old transgender woman in the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections… I have known my gender identity is female since between ages 8 and 10… I tried to cut my penis off when I was 10… I began socially transitioning – wearing female-typical clothing, hairstyles, and cosmetics – at age 15.”
Ward stated that he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in May 2019 by Dr. Gascon while he was incarcerated at Dade Correctional Institution. He was then provided with a bra and “female undergarments, hair accessories, and makeup” and stopped cutting his hair.
After Dade Correctional authorities recalled the feminine underwear that had been given to male inmates who claimed to be women, Ward said he felt “naked and humiliated” without his bra. “My breasts were evaluated by medical on October 10 and I was told I did not qualify for a bra. I have a B cup.”
Ward also claims that he was ordered to have his hair cut, and that during the process he “cried the whole time.”
“The loss of my hair, along with female undergarments and makeup, has been earth-shattering for me. The thoughts about self-castration and suicidality that I experienced before treatment came flooding back like a tidal wave. I stay awake crying many nights.”
The case is proceeding through the courts, and while the ACLU has filed for an injunction to temporarily allow trans-identified males in FDOC custody to receive “gender affirming care,” the court has not yet made a decision on the request.
The ACLU has pursued multiple lawsuits in several states against the US prison authorities on behalf of men convicted of horrific crimes. As revealed by Reduxx, a 2019 ACLU lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections which required the state to allow violent male inmates to self-identify into the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women was lodged on behalf of a self-admitted diaper fetishist and convicted terrorist.
In September, the ACLU in Indiana successfully fought to have a transgender baby killer be given taxpayer-funded “gender affirming” surgeries. Yesterday, the United States District Court of Indiana ruled that Autumn Cordellioné, born Jonathan C. Richardson, had been subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” by being denied the various plastic surgeries he had demanded.
Last year, the ACLU of Florida criticized officials for not providing “gender-affirming care” to a convicted rapist and murderer prior to his execution. Duane Owen had been handed a death sentence after brutally murdering a 38-year-old mother and a 14-year-old girl in 1984. Owen claimed that he sexually assaulted women as part of a ritual to harvest their hormones, and that he was a transsexual who carried out the sexual violence to “turn himself into a female.”
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A trans-identified male in Quebec, Canada, has been found guilty of murdering his wife and two children in a grisly triple homicide that took place at a Brossard condominium in 2022. Mohamad Al Ballouz, 38, began identifying as a woman after being arrested and now calls himself “Levana.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, Al Ballouz was first arrested in September of 2022 after firefighters responded to an alarm originating from his 12th floor condo unit. Inside, they found a bonfire had been lit in the bedroom, where Al Ballouz was found lying on his bed beside the corpse of his wife, Synthia Bussières. Their two children were also on the bed, seemingly lifeless. First responders immediately noted that Bussières’ body had a number of stab wounds.
All four were rushed to the hospital, but Bussières and her children were declared dead shortly after. Al Ballouz had reportedly consumed windshield wiper liquid in an apparent suicide attempt, but he was placed under arrest after being treated for his self-imposed illness.
Al Ballouz was initially assigned some of the best defense lawyers in Quebec, but fired all of them due to disagreements. He represented himself in court, and delivered his closing arguments at the Longueuil courthouse in Québec last week. In his statement, he alleged that Bussières had tried to kill him after murdering their children, and that she had rearranged items in their home and stabbed herself to make it look like he had attacked her.
However, according to the prosecution, Al Ballouz stabbed Bussières repeatedly before suffocating the two boys with a pillow. Expert witness Maria Fiorello, a crime scene expert with 20 years of experience, testified that traces of Al Ballouz’s blood were found in many parts of the family’s condominium.
The accused killer’s blood was identified on the walls of the children’s bedroom, inside the shower, on the handle of the front door, on the handle of a mop, and on a box of garbage bags.
“The mop was still wet, so it appears it was used to clean up blood,” Fiorello said. She further explained that in her expert opinion, the location of Al Ballouz’s blood stains indicated he had been attempting to clean up the crime scene. Not only was the mop bloody, but the accused’s blood was on the washing machine, and he had changed his clothes.
While the exact motive of the crime remains unclear despite the trial, Bussières’ mother recently came forward to reveal that her daughter appeared increasingly troubled in the two years leading up to the murder.
“She had been with this man for 12 years, but in the last two years, she had changed. I didn’t recognize her anymore,” Sylvie Guertin told Les 2 Rives in September of 2023. She also said that she had seen Bussières in the weeks before her death, and had observed that her daughter looked frail.
“In August [of 2022], I saw that something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to look like the mother who gets involved in something that doesn’t concern her,” Guertin said. “I thought she had lost weight.”
On Monday, the jury rejected Al Ballouz’ version of the events, finding him guilty of the second-degree murder of his wife, and the first-degree murders of their two sons. He is now facing life in prison without parole for at least 25 years.
Throughout the hearings, Al Ballouz attended court wearing a blond wig and makeup. There is currently no indication that Al Ballouz was experiencing a change in his self-perceived “gender identity” prior to the trial, suggesting his claim of being transgender followed his arrest.
The court “respected” Al Ballouz’ newfound identity. According to CBC, the prosecution had to “warn” the jury that several witnesses would refer to Al Ballouz as a man to preempt any concerns about “disrespect.”
Canadian media outlets covering the trial have similarly referred to Al Ballouz as a “woman” or by using feminine pronouns. Global News opted to only refer to Al Ballouz by his feminine “chosen name,” declining to use his birth name throughout their coverage. Once sentenced, Al Ballouz will be entitled to request housing in accordance with his gender identity under Canadian law.
Largely due to the efforts of the governing Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau, the category of “gender identity” was made a protected characteristic after it was added to the Canadian Human Rights Act via a controversial piece of legislation known as Bill C-16. The amendments granted men access to single-sex female spaces like washrooms, changing rooms, prisons, and rape shelters on the basis of their identity.
Since Bill C-16 was enacted in 2017, a number of violent and sexually depraved male inmates have been transferred to women’s prisons across Canada.
As previously reported by Reduxx, one egregious example includes a trans-identified male who raped an infant before being transferred to a women’s prison.
Tara Desousa, also known as Adam Laboucan, sexually assaulted a three-month-old baby boy in Quesnel, British Columbia in 1997. The infant was so brutally injured by the attack that he had to be flown to Vancouver, 410 miles away, to undergo reconstructive surgery. After declaring a transgender status, Desousa was transferred to the Fraser Valley Institution for Women, where he is one of multiple trans-identified males with a history of sexual violence at the facility. Desousa is designated a “dangerous offender” and is considered such a risk to public safety that he is serving an indeterminate prison sentence.
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A trans-identified male convicted of murdering his own parents is attempting to be get back into a women’s prison after being transferred out due to his sexual behavior with the female inmates. Amber FayeFox Kim, 35, whose birth name is Bryan, is suing the state’s Department of Corrections, claiming that being housed in a male prison is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
On June 21, the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) transferred Kim out of the Washington Correctional Center for Women (WCCW) and to the Monroe Correctional Facility, a men’s prison. Kim had been detained at the WCCW for three and a half years, but was moved due to “safety concerns” after he reportedly had been observed having prohibited sexual interactions with a female inmate at WCCW.
According to The National Review, a prison guard witnessed Kim and his 25-year-old cellmate, Sincer-A Marie Nerton, “actively having sex” on the floor of the cell. The guard, who chose to remain anonymous when speaking with the outlet, filed a report in March detailing a firsthand account.
“Kim’s hands were on Nerton’s buttox [sic] in a spread open position while Kim’s erect penis was penetrating Nerton’s vagina,” the report read. “This is against MSU rules and policy. WAC-504-Engaging in a sex act with another person within the facility that is not otherwise included in these rules, except in an approved extended family visit.”
Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has announced their legal support for Kim in a bid to have him transferred back into a women’s prison while arguing that incarceration at a men’s detention center places him “at imminent risk of harm.” A press release issued by the ACLU on December 17 argues that the placement of Kim in Monroe, a prison for men, is “unconstitutional” and an example of transphobia.
“Ms. Kim has lived at the WCCW since 2021,” reads the ACLU statement issued by Attorney Adrien Leavitt, which refers to Kim with feminine pronouns. “On March 14, 2024, Ms. Kim and her cellmate, a cisgender woman, were caught having consensual sexual contact and were each found guilty of a 504 infraction for violating rules around sexual contact.”
The press release continued: “In its filing, the ACLU of Washington argues that the transfer violates Article I, Section 14 of the Washington Constitution, which prohibits cruel punishment … Transfer to a men’s prison exposes Ms. Kim to an imminent danger of violence, sexual assault, and harassment.”
An affidavit filed December 17 by the ACLU on Kim’s behalf contains testimony from the convicted killer. “I read the encyclopedia off and on for years. When I reached the letter ‘T,’ I found a word for the secret of me, ‘transsexual.’ I was in middle school,” Kim states.
Bryan ‘Amber’ Kim during pre-trial questioning in 2007.
“Throughout middle and high school, I went by the name ‘Kim.’ Although my friends and peers thought they were just calling me ‘Kim’ because it was my last name, I loved being called a female name and it helped me emotionally as I struggled with gender dysphoria,” he continues.
When Kim was incarcerated at the age of 18, he claims that he became “the target of constant bullying due to being effeminate” and other inmates perceiving him as being homosexual.
“I survived two attempted sexual assaults at Walla Walla. Each time, I was able to physically defend myself and ward off the attacks. I know that, had I not fought back, I would have been raped. I feel that I was targeted for these attempted sexual assaults because of my effeminate appearance.”
While incarcerated among the male prison population, Kim alleges that he “was heckled, cat-called, hit-on, objectified, sexualized, and stalked by men,” and that he received “a nearly constant stream of notes from other inmates” propositioning him for “anonymous sex in the showers.”
Kim says that he “became involved in a coalition supporting transgender prisoners” which assisted him in legally changing his name from Bryan to Amber Fayefox, adding, “My name change was used as a template for other incarcerated transgender people who wanted to change their names.”
Bizarrely, Kim adds his rationale for choosing the feminine name ‘Amber,’ saying, “I chose the name Amber because it is one of few precious stones that was once part of a living being; it preserves the past within it and yet is electrically alive. I was also draw to the name Amber because, in Greek mythology, the name Amber is equivalent to the name of the Greek goddess Electra… The name Amber reflects my true identity.”
The convicted murderer also claims that his 2021 transfer to the female prison estate was “a massive improvement” because he could “truly live and be seen as a woman.”
Kim in 2007 after being arrested for the murder of his parents. Photo credit: The Spokesman-Review
While held at WCCW, Kim began receiving electrolysis for facial hair removal on the taxpayer’s dime, and was placed on a waitlist for genital surgery. Kim claims he received genital surgery “shortly after” he was transferred back to a men’s prison after having engaged in sexual interactions with a female inmate at WCCW.
After Kim was transferred out of women’s prison WCCW at the end of June, The Huffington Postreported sympathetically on the case while referring to Kim with feminine pronouns and condemning the “transphobic rationale” that had seen Kim placed in a male correctional facility for fifteen years.
According to the outlet, Kim requested to see documentation authorizing his transfer during the relocation process. When his requests were denied, he refused to continue walking. As a result, guards were left no other option than to restrain and forcibly relocate Kim, where he was also placed in solitary confinement as a disciplinary action for refusing the transfer.
Immediately following Kim’s transfer to Monroe, he began a hunger strike in protest. After 17 days, he discontinued the hunger strike because, according to Kim, he was told he would be denied state-funded genital surgeries if he did not comply.
In November 2023, The Huffington Post had also portrayed Kim in a compassionate light in an article on trans-identifying male inmates – despite the fact that Kim has previously been described by a psychiatrist as suffering from antisocial personality disorder and having “no conscience.” In a 2022 psychiatrist report, Kim is quoted as saying that he was “no good at being a boy but not allowed to be a girl” during his childhood. Kim claimed that his parents had made multiple threats to kill him leading up to the murder, and that they had refused to let him move out.
“Kim fatally stabbed her father and killed her mother when she returned home,” read the Huffington Post article. “Kim, 18 at the time, was sentenced to die in prison. Her plans of coming out now seemed impossible.”
The Spokesman-Review, January 30, 2008
In 2008, at the age of 19, Kim was found guilty of aggravated first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his father, Richard Kim, and the bludgeoning and strangulation of his mother, Terri Kim reported The Spokesman-Review. The Kims were killed by their son at their home in Mount Spokane on December 5, 2006.
During his closing remarks at the trial, Chief Deputy Criminal Prosecutor Jack Driscoll told the jury Bryan Kim killed his parents because they had been charging him $1,000 for rent and were prepared to evict him from their home. “His parents had given him a deadline. They needed to die so he could have what he felt he was entitled go,” Driscoll told the jury.
Expert witness Dr. William Grant, of Eastern State Hospital, testified that he believed Kim had “no conscience” and diagnosed him as displaying symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, as evidenced in part by the violent outbursts which he had been prescribed medication to control.
The public defender’s expert, Dr. Michael Arambula, of San Antonio, argued that the medication had aggravated his condition and as such was not entirely responsible for the murders of his parents. Arambula said Kim suffered from depression at an unusually early age and hadn’t been properly treated.
Both psychiatrists agreed, however, that Kim was mentally ill. After brutally killing his parents, Kim attempted to clean up the crime scene, and had earlier that same day stolen his father’s debit card. Before the murders, Kim withdrew $1,000 from his father’s account and went shopping.
During court proceedings, Kim’s sister Jessica testified that her brother suffered from bipolar disorder. She also knew him to be “fascinated with Zip ties” and remarked that he “slept with a knife under his pillow”.
Similarly, a former girlfriend, Marina Ritchey, told the court of the “violent images” Kim said would flood his mind whenever he thought of his parents. Tensions were high in the home and disputes broke out frequently over Bryan’s refusal to take his medication to treat his bipolar disorder. According to Sgt. Dave Reagan of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, there was also a “history of assault behavior” between Kim and his parents leading up to the murders.
Last October, the Washington Department of Corrections reached a settlement with the nonprofit organization Disability Rights Washington that updated the prison system’s policies in regards to trans-identifying inmates.
“Patients with gender dysphoria will also be promptly evaluated for gender-affirming surgeries and procedures by a community expert in gender-affirming care and patients will have access to gender-affirming mental health care,” reads a press release announcing the decision.
According to the updated prison policy, an inmate’s “gender expression / transition status or gender identity … will be maintained as confidential and will only be disclosed within the Department on a need-to-know basis.” DOC Secretary Cheryl Strange hailed the “landmark agreement” as “a step in the right direction.”
Kim is not the first trans-identified male inmate caught having sexual contact with a female inmate at WCCW in recent years.
As previously exclusively reported by Reduxx, another trans-identified male transfer at WCCW sexually assaulted a female inmate in 2022. The woman, who was identified under the pseudonym “Mary,” came forward to tell Reduxx that violent sex offender Christopher Williams sexually abused her after he was moved into her cell.
The situation took a turn for the worse after Mary was prescribed sleeping medication to help with her anxiety at night.
“I’m not sure how many times he touched me because of my [meds]. But one day I came back to my cell from a work shift and he had two strap-on dildos and asked me to use them on him. I refused. That night, I was woken up to him touching me.”
While Kim’s transfer to the male estate is a first for the state of Washington, it is not an isolated case nationally. At least one other male inmate who has claimed to be a woman has been transferred out of a women’s prison – though unlike Kim, the decision was made to protect him, rather than to safeguard women.
Raequan ‘Rae’ Rollins was previously held at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women (EMCF) in New Jersey. In 2019 he was sentenced to four years in prison for a violent robbery incident, and after spending five months in a male facility, Rollins changed his legal gender marker to ‘female’ and was subsequently transferred to the Edna Mahan women’s estate in October of that year.
EXCLUSIVE:
A trans-identified male inmate whose story of being abused in a women's prison was highlighted by national news reports was allegedly abusing staff and female inmates at the facility, according to a whistleblower.https://t.co/e0fFEPYen2
While detained at EMCF, Rollins assaulted several prison officers and sexually harassed female guards and inmates. Rollins would ultimately provoke one of the most violent prison riots at EMCF’s history in January of 2021, during which he was beaten, and six women were severely battered by guards.
After filing a lawsuit that year, Rollins was transferred out of the women’s prison for his safety and temporarily placed in the male estate at the New Jersey State Prison, before being transferred again to Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Muncy, a facility for adult female offenders.
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The German federal state of Saxony has released records on the amount of trans-identified males housed in women’s prisons, but only after demanding an egregious €1,100 fee. The effort, spearheaded by Let Women Speak, revealed that a number of male sex offenders were being housed with women.
In May of 2024, Initiative “Let Women Speak” (Lasst Frauen Sprechen) began to file Freedom of Information requests requesting data on the amount of males being housed with women in various state facilities across Germany. Most of the states responded with data which indicated that trans-identified males had been transferred to women’s prisons far ahead of any federal law requiring them to be accommodated according to their “gender identity.”
The Ministry of Justice in Saxony, a region led by the pro-trans Green Party, was the only federal state which demanded a prohibitive fee of €1,100 to access the records. As a result, Let Women Speak was forced to withdraw their request and requested local assistance in getting the information.
In response to their call for help, right-wing political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) submitted an inquiry asking how many individuals with a “deviating gender identity” had been imprisoned in the state of Saxony since January 2020. The Ministry of Justice responded to their request, admitting that there were nine people with “deviating gender identities” in their facilities. However, they did not provide any information about what sex these people are or where they had been accommodated. The Ministry further revealed that inmates who legally changed their gender identity prior to being imprisoned would not be recorded as having a “deviating gender identity.”
German outlet NiUS also facilitated a request for similar information and received a response from the Ministry of Justice in Saxony indicating that three males had been housed at the Chemnitz correctional facility for women between 2023 and 2024. The inmates had criminal records indicating assault, sexual assault, sexual harassment and assault on law enforcement officers. One of them was convicted of rape.
While the identities of the men are not known, multiple female inmates have come forward this year to report that they had been housed with a sexually abusive trans-identified man in Chemnitz.
According to the women, who spoke to Freie Presse earlier this year, the trans-identified male inmate repeatedly ambushed them during activities and was aggressive, verbally abusive and threatened to beat them.
The man had also reportedly forced the women, including female correctional officers, to watch him masturbate. According to Freie Presse, he was eventually transferred back to the men’s prison.
In another incident out of Chemnitz, a trans-identified man identified as Jan Daniel K. almost murdered a female correctional officer by strangulation. According to BILD, Jan Daniel was a violent criminal and pimp who had been sentenced to 13 years in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. He declared himself “female” during his sentencing hearing, and was transferred to a women’s prison shortly after.
Jan Daniel targeted the female correctional officer after being penalized by her, and took his revenge by dragging her into his cell during routine checks and strangling her. It is unclear whether he was transferred back to the male estate or was allowed to remain in the women’s facility.
Despite there being several known problems in Chemnitz as a result of male inmates being moved in, the Saxon Green Party initiated a change to the state’s prison law in December 2023 intended to further satisfy “trans inmates.”
The draft of the law states its intention is to improve the treatment of “transsexual, intersex and non-binary prisoners” and “prisoners with diverse or no sex marker” in their legal documents. The law includes “sexual identity” as a protected characteristic, thus removing the principle of separation between male and female inmates as soon as a detainee proclaims he is a “woman.”
The law would further strengthen Germany’s already-radical gender Self-Determination Act (SBGG), which came into force November 1. The SBGG allows individuals to change their name and sex with few restrictions and imposes harsh punishments for those who fail to treat individuals in accordance with their self-declared gender identity.
Speaking to Reduxx, Hanna-Katarina Zippel of Let Women Speak said that she was “shocked” with the information released by the Ministry of Justice in Saxony, which demonstrated that the government was moving men into women’s prisons even before they were legally obligated to.
“It was shocking to learn that so many men were already being held in women’s prisons even before the self-identification law came into force. At the same time, however, the fact that so many media outlets and also some politicians took up our research shows me that it was worth making the inquiry to begin with,” she said.
“In order to fight for the withdrawal of self-identification law, it is crucial to educate people, especially women, about what it really means for them and to show them real-life examples. I hope that with our research we have reached many people who were not aware of the consequences of the new German self-ID law and that we have encouraged many people to speak out critically, so that hopefully one day no woman will have to endure being incarcerated with a man anymore.”
Despite female inmates having come forward about abuses they have suffered, all 16 federal state ministries deny that any sexual assaults have taken place in female facilities as a result of trans-identified males being housed with women.
René Müller, Federal Chairman of the Association of Prison Officers in Germany, has publicly expressed doubts about the official information. Speaking to Die Welt, Müller said that not every incident would have been recorded or reported by those affected. In its response to the AfD, the Ministry of Justice in Saxony also admitted that the sexual abuse or harassment of female inmates by trans-identified males would not be recorded.
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Guwahati, Assam, India. 8 March 2020. Supporters and members of the hijra and/or transgender community participate in a Pride Parade. Credit: D. Talukdar / iStock
A trans-identified male in India has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after brutally raping an 8-year-old girl. Farin Kinar reportedly tried to claim his transgender identity made it “impossible” for him to have raped the child.
The sexual assault occurred in March of 2022 in the city of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. The child had visited the home of Kinar’s aunt to watch television, but was soon targeted by the man who led her to his own nearby residence. Kinar’s exact age is unknown, and he has been reported as being between 20 and 30 years of age.
When the girl returned to her mother, she was experiencing vaginal bleeding and had to be rushed to the hospital, where she was admitted and spent 10 days in treatment. During an interview with police, the girl revealed that Kinar had threatened her against speaking out about what happened.
According to the Times of India, Kinar was arrested on June 22, and booked on charges of “rape on a woman less than 12 years of age” and criminal intimidation.
In a bizarre turn, Kinar’s defense lawyer attempted to argue in court that Kinar was “female transgender by birth and cannot commit rape,” adding that his gender identity made it impossible for him to have committed the assault. The court then ordered Kinar to undertake a sex test, demonstrating he was biologically male.
During final proceedings on Monday, Special Judge Umashankar Khar found Kinar guilty based on both DNA evidence and victim testimony, and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment. Kinar was also ordered to pay a fine of 12,000 rupees (approx. $140 USD) to his victim.
While limited details on the case have been made available, likely in part due to the young age of the victim, it is speculated that Kinar may belong to the “Hijra” subculture. While initially defined as a “third gender” in India, Hijra have increasingly been referred to as “transgender” both locally and in news reports.
Hijra are primarily characterized by the development of their feminine identity through their sexual receptiveness to men as well as a castration ceremony that some, but not all, undertake. Hijra wear stereotypically feminine clothes, and often leave their families to join fictive kinship hierarchies with other Hijra, many of which are criminal gangs.
In some regions of India, Hijra were traditionally invited to bless new born children in exchange for gifts and money. But the tradition has been declining in recent years, while Hijra participation in crime, particularly sex trafficking and child abuse, has skyrocketed over the past decade.
As previously reported by Reduxx in February, a trans-identified male was sentenced to death after a Mumbai court convicted him of raping a three-month old infant. The perpetrator, who did openly identify as a Hijra, abducted the baby girl, sexually tormented her, and murdered her in an act of vengeance against the family for not offering him a customary money gift, or “badhai,” after the child’s birth.
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A Canadian man currently on trial for the brutal murders of his wife and two young sons has blamed the mother of his children for the slayings. Mohamad Al Ballouz, 38, has been charged with the second-degree murder of his wife, Synthia Bussières, and the first-degree murders of their two sons, Eliam and Zac, aged just 5 and 2 years old. Al Ballouz, who recently adopted the feminine name Levana and has been referred to as a “woman” by Canadian press, argued in court that his now-deceased wife Synthia Bussières was responsible for the murders.
On September 24, 2022, firefighters attended Al Ballouz’s 12th floor condo in Brossard, Quebec, in response to an apparent house fire. Inside, they found Al Ballouz lying in bed between the two children, and a small bonfire of household items had been lit next to the mattress. Bussières was discovered riddled with stab wounds in the bathroom.
All four were rushed to the hospital, but Bussières and her children were declared dead shortly after. Al Ballouz, who was also injured, had reportedly consumed windshield wiper liquid in an apparent suicide attempt, but he was placed under arrest after being treated. Al Ballouz has no previous criminal history.
CANADA: A man currently standing trial on charges of murdering his wife and two young children has begun identifying as transgender and wearing a wig to court.
Mohamad Al Ballouz is now being referred to as a "woman" by Canadian media outlets.https://t.co/e47z44Nh87
Representing himself after firing all of his lawyers, Al Ballouz delivered his closing arguments at the Longueuil courthouse in Québec on Wednesday. In his statement to the court, he alleged that Bussières tried to kill him after murdering the children, despite the multiple stab wounds Bussières had suffered. The accused claimed that the boys’ mother had rearranged items in their home to make it look like Al Ballouz had attacked her.
Referring to the panel as “charming members of the jury,” Al Ballouz argued that because expert witnesses were unable to identify with certainty which victim was killed first, it was therefore the case that Bussières had murdered the toddlers before self-inflicting the 23 “superficial” stab wounds which led to her death.
However, according to the prosecution, Al Ballouz stabbed Bussières repeatedly before suffocating the two boys with a pillow. Expert witness Maria Fiorello, a crime scene expert with 20 years of experience, testified that traces of Al Ballouz’s blood were found in many parts of the family’s condominium.
Crime scene photos shown to the jury depicted Al Ballouz’s blood around the apartment, and bags filled with Bussières’ personal items, some of which had been set on fire.
The accused killer’s blood was identified on the walls of the children’s bedroom, inside the shower, on the handle of the front door, on the handle of a mop, and on a box of garbage bags.
“The mop was still wet, so it appears it was used to clean up blood,” Fiorello said. She further explained that in her expert opinion, the location of Al Ballouz’s blood stains indicated he had been attempting to clean up the crime scene. Not only was the mop bloody, but the accused’s blood was on the washing machine, and he had changed his clothes.
The timeline presented during deliberations suggests that Al Ballouz stabbed Bussières before killing the two boys.
At approximately 8:26 p.m. that evening, Al Ballouz had left the family condominium in his car. Ten minutes later, he returned to the building carrying a case of beer. In security footage, Al Ballouz can be seen to have looked directly into the camera while winking – the first time that Al Ballouz had made such a gesture.
A neighbor told the court that screams could be heard a few minutes later, at about 8:30 p.m. “I suggest to you that Synthia Bussières was defenseless, near the bath, while the accused stabbed her in the face, neck and hands. Not a single stab wound. Not two. Twenty-three wounds, including 11 defensive wounds,” stated the presiding Judge Lamoureux.
According to the Crown prosecution, Al Ballouz suffocated his two sons shortly after. Once his children were dead, Al Ballouz detached the apartment’s smoke detectors, then started a fire at the foot of the bed. He drank windshield wiper fluid and lay down between his sons in bed.
Al Ballouz’s trial began on November 11, but during the proceedings it was learned that he now identifies as a “woman” named Levana Ballouz. During his hearings, he appeared in court wearing a blonde, curly wig and nail polish. He is reportedly representing himself after firing his two criminal defense lawyers, both of whom were considered to be among the best in Quebec.
Court illustration of accused killer Mohamad Al Ballouz, who is now claiming to be a transgender woman.
According to CBC, the prosecution had to “warn” the jury that several witnesses would refer to Al Ballouz as a man to preempt any concerns about “disrespect.” Prior to the start of the trial, no previous news coverage had documented that Al Ballouz was expressing a change in his self-perceived “gender identity,” suggesting his claim of being transgender was extremely recent.
Canadian media outlets are respecting Al Ballouz’ new identity, with multiple articles covering the trial referring to Al Ballouz as a “woman” or by using feminine pronouns.
While the trial is expected to last at least 10 more weeks, if Al Ballouz is found guilty and criminally responsible, he would be entitled to request housing in a women’s prison.
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A U.S. Circuit Court has upheld the conviction of a trans-identified male found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing his 7-year-old stepdaughter. Robert William Perry II, who changed his pronouns to “she/her” during the trial, is planning to demand another rehearing in protest of his conviction.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Perry was sentenced to life in federal prison following a conviction for the aggravated sexual abuse of a minor. The victim was Perry’s 7-year-old stepdaughter, but she referred to him as “dad” and “daddy” and viewed him as a biological parent due to their close relationship.
According to court transcripts, Perry would coerce the girl into performing sex acts in exchange for candy, toys, and the opportunity to play video games in what Perry termed as a “man cave,” a closet where he regularly played video games and watched pornography. The abuses took place from 2017 to 2018 on the Muscogee Nation reserve in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The sexual abuse first came to light after the victim divulged some of her ordeal to a close friend at school. The conversation was overheard by another student who immediately went to a teacher and reported what she had heard. The teacher informed the school’s principal who did not take any action and instead dismissed the child’s revelations as “gossip.”
The principal who refused to act, Jene’ Carpenter, is still listed as being employed at Patrick Henry Elementary School. Reduxx reached out to Tulsa Public Schools for comment on Carpenter’s apparent safeguarding failure, but did not receive a response. This article may be updated in the event a response is received.
Patrick Henry Elementary School Principal Jene’ Carpenter.
Despite the abuse revelations being dismissed by Carpenter, the teacher was persistent in her support for the girl, and spoke to her the next school day in private. During the conversation, the girl was hesitant to speak about what had happened because Perry had told her to “keep secrets,” but she would go on to draw pictures of what had happened to her.
The child began to write down descriptions of her abuse, including in one drawing where she wrote “my dad lets me suck on his privates every night.” In another, she repeated the claims she had said to her school friend.
Her teacher then gave the drawings to the school’s counselor, who immediately contacted the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner further interviewed the child and began to liaise with police.
Perry was initially arrested and charged in 2018 and he was convicted in an Oklahoma state court in 2020, but the conviction was later dismissed because it was determined that the state lacked the jurisdiction to prosecute the case. In the United States, only the federal government or tribal councils have jurisdiction to prosecute cases that occur in Indian Country that involve Native American defendants. Because Perry is Indigenous and the crime had been committed on Muscogee land, the case was turned over to the federal government.
During the repeat trial, Perry admitted to having a number of untreated psychiatric conditions, and disclosed that he was struggling with an “addiction to pornography,” including of the “transsexual” genre. It was during his federal hearings that Perry announced that his pronouns were “she/her” and that he identified as a “female.”
After a lengthy trial during which the young girl gave extensive testimony on the sexual abuse she endured, Perry was sentenced to life in federal prison for his crimes in February of 2023.
A subsequent Department of Justice press release on his sentence was edited to include a note on his revised pronouns.
The February 2023 DOJ Press Release edited to include Perry’s pronouns.
Earlier this year, Perry filed an appeal agains his conviction, with his defense team arguing that the prosecution had inappropriately led the jury to favor the testimony of the child victim.
“The government’s Answer Brief argues there was overwhelming evidence to convict. There was not. Instead, the case rose or fell based on [the victim’s] credibility versus Perry’s credibility. If the jury believed [the child], it could convict. If it believed Perry, it could not,” Perry’s attorney wrote.
In the appeal, Perry’s lawyer argues that the prosecution made improper statements that lended too much credibility to the child victim.
“The government used the phrase ‘kids don’t make this up’ no less than three times in its initial argument,” the appeal states, continuing: “… any vouching for the credibility of [the victim] or any other improper argument to unfairly bolster her credibility or diminish Perry’s would have an outsized impact on the jury here.”
On December 5, the United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit rejected the defense’s arguments, affirming the conviction.
In his summary, Judge Joel Carson III wrote that none of the prosecution’s comments were erroneous or made the trial “fundamentally unfair.”
In response, Perry’s defense has filed an intention to request a petition for a rehearing, challenging the appellate court’s decision. In his submission, defense attorney Blain Myhre used “she/her” pronouns throughout to refer to Perry, a deviation from previous records where it was noted that Perry had changed his pronouns but that masculine pronouns would be used to avoid confusion. Myhre also included a footnote reminding the court that Perry identifies as a female.
From the Unopposed Motion For Extension Of Time To File A Petition For Rehearing.
Perry’s attorney has requested until January 16 to file a petition for a rehearing.
Perry is currently incarcerated under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Prisons at USP Terre Haute, a men’s prison, but under current Bureau of Prisons guidelines, he is able to request housing on the basis of his self-declared gender identity, if he has not done so already. In the original sentencing order, the judge requested Perry be accommodated in a facility where he can access “gender affirming” care.
On January 13 of 2022, the Bureau of Prisons revised its Transgender Offender Manual, which included guidelines previously scrubbed by the Trump administration with respect to gender self-identification for federal inmates. Under Trump, inmates were housed based on biological sex as a sole consideration, but the Biden administration re-invoked Obama-era guidelines requiring gender identity be considered when making housing assignments.
