Male Muslim prisoner sues after being strip searched by transman

[CaitlynsCat]

reason.com/volokh/2018/08/15/muslim-male-inmate-objects-to-strip-sear

"According to the plaintiff, when it was his turn to be strip searched, defendant Buhle, a female correctional officer, approached him and ordered him to strip. The plaintiff states that he asked defendant Buhle how she was able to do that and she responded, "I'm a dude." The plaintiff says he looked at the other correctional officers, "to see if this was a prank," but that they avoided eye contact with him. He alleges that at this point, he "started to panic because he knew that Officer Buhle was a female based on her female features (breasts, face, voice and demeanor) and that exposing his nakedness to her would be in violation of his Islamic beliefs ….

The plaintiff indicates that "[i]t was later brought to [his] attention that Officer Buhle is a female claiming to be a male and therefore is afforded all of the duties that the male officers perform without discrimination.""

As I understand it this has been an issue in the UK, in that in the past this was deemed a barrier to employment of transgender police officers, as they would not be able to search people, but in the end it was decided that your opinion about your gender identity (as the searcher) is more important than mine (as the person being searched), essentially.

It's interesting in that it essentially comes down to competing fantasies (that you are actually a man versus my belief that god doesn't want me to be naked except in front of my wife).

regardless of his religion he should have been able to request someone who was born male in the same way that I should request someone born female.
it gives the impression that they were mocking his religion anyway - if there was more than one officer searching why was it necessary for this person to specifically search this man?

It is pretty much certain this was deliberate, as he has complained of religious discrimination previously on numerous occasions

law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca7/16-2279/16-2279-2017-02-13.html
www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2795993/rufus-west-v-gregory-grams/

I agree with NoProb

I also think you are being a goady fucker call someone's religious beliefs a 'fantasy' and compare them to the issues around self ID.

Everyone should have their dignity respected by having intimate searches carried out by someone of the same sex as them.

No-one should be asked to compromise their dignity by being required to believe that someone is the opposite sex from the one they clearly are. Or by being required to believe that gender trumps sex.

So men are being affected now? Hopefully this will focus minds

he should sue for both then.
if I was strip searched by someone with a male body against my will I would class it as sexual assault.
imagine that happening while other women were present and they refused to help or even make eye contact.

It'll take white men being affected before this makes much of a ripple.

Yep agree noprob I'd also class that as sexual assault.

The difference between self ID and religious belief is that people of faith, in this country, ask for their beliefs to be respected as their beliefs affect themselves. They are not asking other people to actually believe their faith. As Magdalene Berns pointed out, Priests do not demand that non-catholics call them Father.

Self ID is asking everyone else to treat their self ID as if it is actually and literally true even where this seriously impacts on other people.

Agree this is a sexual assault and you don't have to be a Muslim for that to be the case.

I do not say it often but - poor bloke. It's unacceptable.

I don't share his religion but tgis was clearly set up to cause him extreme discomfort.

Ordinarily I'd say this didn't happen, because This Never Happens. But as it didn't happen to a bloke, perhaps it did happen after all. Or, as a PP said, perhaps things only happen if they happen to white blokes.

This Mail on Sunday article is about transgender prisoners in the UK.

"According to a book by transgender prisoner Sarah Jane Baker, this means that men who are transitioning to women will have different parts of their bodies searched by male and female guards."

‘Pre-op, trans-women [male to female] will, by consent, have the top half of their bodies searched by two female officers. The lower half will be searched by two male officers,’ she wrote in Transgender: Behind Prison Walls."

Presumably the female officers are not allowed to say no to this.

I also think you are being a goady fucker call someone's religious beliefs a 'fantasy' and compare them to the issues around self ID.

Rubbish. I have religious beliefs and I absolutely do compare them with trans beliefs.

The essential difference being that my religious beliefs determine how I behave and trans beliefs determine how everyone else behaves.

I agree jellyslice. Other people's beliefs only become my business when they demand that I pretend to share them.

But the fact that this man is Muslim is irrelevant. He should be entitled to a male searcher without having to justify that request. Women should never have to justify their refusal to be naked in front of a man, either.