A new constitutional right to taxpayer-paid sex changes was just discovered

And a well-connected local political nonprofit is driving the agenda.

In settling a lawsuit brought in 2022 by a Minnesota prison inmate, the state just discovered a new constitutional right to a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation. As reported in AlphaNews last week,

“The DOC is constitutionally obligated to provide medically necessary care for incarcerated people, which includes treatment for gender dysphoria,” said [Dept. of Corrections] DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell.

The inmate, now going by the name Christina Lusk, is now eligible receive a taxpayer-funded vaginoplasty. Lusk is scheduled for release from prison in May 2024. Lusk will be transferred to a women’s prison to serve the remainder of the sentence. Lusk has been incarcerated since 2019.

Inmate Lusk’s story has received national and international news coverage.

Lusk will also receive a cash settlement of $495,000 from the state, half of which will go to Lusk’s lawyers. The lawyers work for the St. Paul-based nonprofit Gender Justice, supported by a private law firm.

Gender Justice was formed as 501c3 nonprofit in 2010. In late 2021, they incorporated a political arm, Gender Justice Action. The Action unit registered with the state’s Campaign Finance Board on September 22, 2022, just before the general election.

In that six-week period, Gender Justice Action raised more than $176,000 in support of Democratic candidates.

Among those candidates receiving independent expenditure support from Gender Justice were Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Supposedly, both Walz and Ellison were to represent the interests of Minnesota taxpayers in the lawsuit in opposition to Gender Justice. But it’s clear from the result that the state’s executive branch and the political nonprofit were working hand in glove.

If that weren’t enough, one of Gender Justice’s senior employees is sitting state Sen. Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley). Sen. Maye Quade was first elected to the Senate last year.

She previously served a single term in the state House, before leaving in 2018 to run unsuccessfully for Lt. Governor. As a first-term Senator, she was the chief author of HF 146, which established Minnesota as a “trans refuge state.” Maye Quade previously worked as a staffer for then-Congressman Keith Ellison.

It’s not clear in her current role as a state Senator whether Maye Quade is representing the citizens of Apple Valley or her current employer.