(LifeSiteNews) — Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’ administration worked closely with an LGBT activist group to craft a new policy allowing gender-confused male inmates to be housed in a women’s prison.
Furthermore, the new policy opens the door for any gender-confused prisoner to have taxpayer-funded transgender drugs and surgeries – potentially forever, even after leaving prison. The changes came without any vote in the state legislature, any public hearings, or other opportunities for citizens to express their opposition.
READ: In Tim Walz’s Minnesota, ‘transgender’ male pedophiles are being sent to women’s prisons
Rather, “a constellation of interests was able to negotiate a deal behind closed doors,” according to Open the Books, a government watchdog.
The policy followed a lawsuit from a gender-confused man who goes by the name “Christina” and successfully obtained so-called “hormone therapy” and a transfer to a women’s prison.
The “deal” means that the Minnesota Department of Corrections will now follow the standards of the “World Professional Association for Transgender Health” (WPATH) – a transgender activist group – for gender-confused individuals.
This will happen even though it is impossible to change one’s sex and the group has come under scrutiny for ignoring evidence on the dangers of chemical and surgical procedures for gender-confused individuals.
The new deal came about when “Gender Justice” (which has a board member working as a manager for the state) sued Minnesota. The LGBT group was represented by law firm Robins Kaplan, which has donated nearly $25,000 to Walz’ re-election campaign several years ago.
Open the Books compared the deal to “sue and settle,” a strategy environmental activists used prominently during the Obama administration to extract concessions from sympathetic Environmental Protection Agency staffers without any oversight.
“The EPA would routinely settle claims from environmentalist nonprofits seeking stronger regulations,” Open the Books wrote in its article. “By making those deals in private, it cuts the taxpayer out of the conversation – including state governments and local business owners who have a stake in the outcome.”
The group provided further comments to LifeSiteNews.
“Taxpayers elect representatives and send them to legislatures for a reason – to approve a budget and pass laws that advance the public good,” spokesperson Christopher Neefus told LifeSiteNews via email.
Lawmaking “requires open debate” and should involve a “reasonable cost-benefit analysis” since tax dollars are at stake, Neefus said.
“These surgeries and [cross-sex hormones] are expensive and require lifelong [intervention], and now Minnesotans are meant to pay for them – potentially in perpetuity,” Neefus said. “After inmates are released, this settlement says the Department of Corrections – that is, state taxpayers – will cover ongoing out-of-pocket costs. Who signed up for that, exactly?”
The Department of Corrections told LifeSiteNews that agencies “have authority to create their own department policies” in a response to a question about policymaking without votes.
“Policy decisions by state agencies, like those concerning the management and placement of people who [identify as] transgender, are informed by litigation and a review of appellate cases around the country,” Director of Communications Shannon Loehrke told LifeSiteNews. “Questions about legislative actions should be directed to the legislature.”
The Supreme Court’s decision over the summer to reverse the Chevron doctrine means bureaucrats will be held more accountable in crafting regulations.
“Career bureaucrats are happy to expand their authority if they can manage to do it without having to pass a pesky new law,” Neefus, the Open the Books spokesman, told LifeSiteNews. “That’s true even if it incurs costs on businesses, stakeholders and taxpayers.”
He said “sue-and-settle” “skyrocketed during the Biden administration” after decreasing during the Trump administration.
“Nevertheless, freewheeling federal rulemaking will now be up for scrutiny by the courts,” Neefus said. “While the Gender Justice deal is a statewide matter, taxpayers should take a look at this controversy in DC and consider how they feel about aligned interests expanding their authority in private.”
The change in Minnesota policy comes despite mounting evidence of the dangers of transgender drugs and surgeries. The drugs have been linked to depression, suicide, bone density loss, and other problems. The surgeries can render someone permanently infertile and make it impossible for females to breastfeed in the future.
The deal fits in with Walz’s agenda as governor to push for LGBT interests, including signing a law that could allow state courts to seize temporary custody of a gender-confused child if a parent was not supportive of drugs and surgeries.
Editor’s note: The author is a former intern for Open the Books.