A transgender woman charged with murder in Hennepin County is currently being held in solitary confinement in the county jail, local LGBT rights activists say. The activists are attacking the county for using a measure criticized by many national transgender rights organizations as a flawed attempt to keep the accused safe while she awaits trial.

The prisoner, 23-year old Chrishaun McDonald, has been charged in the murder of 47-year old Dean Schmitz, of Richfield, outside the Schooner Tavern on the night of June 5. Despite identifying as a woman, McDonald is currently being held on $150,000 bail in the men’s section of the county jail in downtown Minneapolis.

Solitary confinement is an imperfect solution to a terrible problem, said Michael Silverman, Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“In jail, as in post-sentencing prison, transgender people are at great risk of harm from other prisoners,” Silverman told the Minnesota Independent. “We see high incidences of violence and sexual violence committed against them because they’re transgender.”

In a high-profile February report from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), researchers found that 37 percent of transgender inmates surveyed reported harassment by correctional officers, while only 35% reported harassment by fellow inmates. Sixteen percent reported physical assaults, and 15 percent reported sexual assaults while in a prison or a jail. Furthermore, black transgender inmates reported harassment rates 20–25 percent higher than their white peers.

“As a guiding principal, the safety and security of all inmates is paramount,” said Lisa Kiava, spokseperson for the Hennepin County Sherif’s Office.

Officials with the Sheriff’s Department could not be reached for comment on the county’s policies for holding transgender detainees, or why McDonald was being housed in the men’s section of the jail. However, several transgender rights organizations say solitary confinement is one way jails and prisons try to protect transgender prisoners from other inmates.

“It’s a terrible proposed solution that’s implemented too widely,” said Lisa Motett, an attorney with the NGLTF and an author of the Task Force’s recent report on anti-transgender discrimination.

While solitary confinement keeps a transgender prisoner and their assailant separated, Motett said, being kept in solitary confinement typically limits or eliminates a prisoner’s ability to use exercise yards, libraries and other prison facilities.

“Solitary confinement is incredibly punitive,” Motett told the Minnesota Independent. “It punishes the victim instead of the perpetrator.”

“Chrishaun McDonald’s case is a tragedy, but unfortunately it’s not a rarity,” said Katie Burgess, Executive Director of the Trans Youth Support Network. “Although none of us knows all the details about what happened on June 5, we do know that the deck is stacked against Ms. McDonald, and we ask concerned community members to support her in her trial.”

Burgess said at a press conference on Tuesday that she and other community members worried McDonald would not receive a fair trial because she is transgender.

McDonald reportedly confessed to stabbing Schmitz in a fight after Schmitz and others at the Schooner Tavern asked her, “Did you think you were going to rape somebody in those girl clothes?” The remark started a brawl, during which Schmitz was stabbed. He later died from his wounds.

Hennepin County attorneys say Schmitz was trying to break up the brawl when McDonald stabbed him, but McDonald’s friends maintain the attack was in self-defense. In a letter sent from jail, McDonald recanted her earlier confession, saying she was covering for unknown members of the group she was with at the Schooner Tavern.

Burgess suggested that transphobia could make a jury discount these and other pieces of McDonald’s story.

Meanwhile, friends of McDonald present at Tuesday’s press conference were adamant that she was not a murderer.

“That’s not CC,” said McDonald’s friend David Tomlinson. “That’s not who she was.”

Simpson, a former test pilot who has worked in the defense and aerospace industries for 30 years, has downplayed the role her gender identity plays in her new job.

“Being the first sucks,” she told ABC News.com. “I’d rather not be the first but someone has to be first, or among the first. I think I’m experienced and very well qualified to deal with anything that might show up because I’ve broken barriers at lots of other places and I always win people over with who I am and what I can do.”

Religious right leaders, are not looking at Simpson’s qualifications, however, and are instead targeting her appointment on political grounds.

“This isn’t like appointing an African-American in order to try to provide diversity and right some kind of discriminatory wrong,” Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth, a group that opposes homosexuality, told a conservative website. “This is about political correctness. President Obama, before he was inaugurated, told the world that he had signed off on every single demand of the homosexual-activist lobby.”

Focus on the Family released a statement criticizing the appointment. Focus’ spokesperson Monica Schleicher said, “Efforts to promote ‘transgenderism’ in public policy deconstruct one of the most fundamental concepts known to mankind… In doing so, activists like Simpson are asking the rest of society to radically reorder the ways in which the culture makes reasonable and rational accommodation for the two genders.”

LGBT rights groups said it’s progress that a qualified transgender person wasn’t overlooked for the position.

“What is noteworthy about this appointment is not that a transgender person is serving this administration — many transgender people work for the federal government — the real story is that Amanda Simpson was selected based on her exemplary credentials and not because she is transgender,” Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality said in a statement Monday. “Countless transgender people are overlooked every day for jobs they can do very well. When an employer does not discriminate based on gender identity, they have access to more highly qualified people. That’s what happened here.”

Trevor Thompson of the Human Rights Campaign in a statement Monday said, “As the first transgender person appointed by the president, Amanda is not only eminently qualified for her new position in the Department of Commerce, but she is also a trailblazer for equality.”

Simpson is one of a number of LGBT appointments that Obama has made since taking office. Last week, the Senate approved Obama’s selection of Minneapolis’ Sharon Lubinski as the country’s newest U.S. Marshal.

“In this interview, Governor Pawlenty disrespects the professionalism of Minnesota teachers, including transgender teachers, and is willing to use children as a shield from criticism for his change in position about anti-discrimination legislation,” NTCE said in a statement. “What cynical maneuvering on his part.”

“Sadly, Gov. Pawlenty states his opinion that the law should be changed—taking rights away from the people of his own state is certainly not evolution in our book,” the group continued. “The online article is titled, ‘Tim Pawlenty Gets No Respect.’ We can certainly see why.”

Full text of NTCE’s statement:

Reversing evolution: Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Gender Identity

When asked by Newsweek how his views have evolved over time, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (and possible GOP 2012 Presidential candidate) responded by turning his back on the anti-discrimination ordinance he himself had voted for in 1993. He described the landmark measure as “overbaked” because it includes provisions to protect people from discrimination based on gender identity, which he characterizes as a “preference for the way they dressed and behaved.” As if that weren’t enough, he then goes on to create a fictitious scenario in which a third grade teacher changes gender literally overnight, thereby theoretically confusing the class.

In this interview, Governor Pawlenty disrespects the professionalism of Minnesota teachers, including transgender teachers, and is willing to use children as a shield from criticism for his change in position about anti-discrimination legislation. What cynical maneuvering on his part.

Sadly, Gov. Pawlenty states his opinion that the law should be changed—taking rights away from the people of his own state is certainly not evolution in our book. The online article is titled, “Tim Pawlenty Gets No Respect.” We can certainly see why.

Read the interview here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/227748/page/1. The material cited above is on page 3.

From Newsweek’s Q&A:

Newsweek: Yes, gay-rights activists regarded you as a pretty cool guy at the time.
Pawlenty: We overbaked that statute, for a couple of reasons. If I had to do it over again I would have changed some things.

Overbaked?
That statute is not worded the way it should be. I said I regretted the vote later because it included things like cross-dressing, and a variety of other people involved in behaviors that weren’t based on sexual orientation, just a preference for the way they dressed and behaved. So it was overly broad. So if you are a third-grade teacher and you are a man and you show up on Monday as Mr. Johnson and you show up on Tuesday as Mrs. Johnson, that is a little confusing to the kids. So I don’t like that.

Has the law been changed?
No. It should be, though.

Pawlenty’s office did not return a request for comment on whether he planned on using his last year in office to end that provision or if he has worked with party leaders to get a bill offered in the 2010 legislative session.

His dislike of the 1993 law shouldn’t come as a surprise. Pawlenty has vetoed a number of LGBT-rights bills in his career as governor. He vetoed a bill to beef up anti-bullying efforts in schools; legislation that would give control to local municipalities in deciding who could receive domestic partner benefits (twice vetoed); and a bill would have expanded current laws that allow for the use of sick time to care for spouses and dependent children including same-sex couples.

“We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way,” said the pontiff. “The Church speaks of human nature as ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and asks that this order is respected… The rain forests deserve our protection, but man as a creature indeed deserves no less.”

The Rev. Sharon Ferguson of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement took the Pope to task for his comments: “It is more the case that we need to be saved from his comments. It is comments like that that justify homophobic bullying that goes on in schools and it is comments like that that justify gay bashing.

“There are still so many instances of people being killed around the world, including in western society, purely and simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

“When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God’s work in ridding the world of these people.”

This month, after a long national search, Johnson has been hired as the new executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest public policy and advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. I recently met with Johnson, a longtime lawyer who’s helped countless GLBT families navigate the confusing world of family law, at her office in the fittingly named Rainbow Building in Minneapolis to discuss the future of the GLBT movement in Minnesota, the sense of grief and urgency California’s Proposition 8 has evoked in the community and how technology might impact OutFront’s future.

Andy Birkey: What experiences do you bring to OutFront Minnesota?

Amy Johnson: My background has a lot to do with where I am today. For the last 20 years I have been representing GLBT families and individuals in their businesses and in their family planning. Alongside that is my very active volunteer life. I’ve done vol work at the Minnesota AIDS Project, with National Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association and, more recently, as president of the PFund Foundation. I have really enjoyed working in this movement.

On the professional side, I’ve been working family by family, helping them ensure stability and trying to plan against the discrimination that can come down the pike. And so now to be able to combine my volunteer and professional life.

I get to plan with an amazing team of talent how to make the entire state safe for families.

Birkey: How did you become an activist?

Johnson: I grew up in St. Paul, and I started my volunteer career at 5 years old. My mom stuck a placard in my hand and did a little counter-protest at the Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway. When it first went in, it was really controversial and there were all these [anti-abortion] protesters and my mom said, “Come on, honey!” and an activist was born.

I just really do feel that it’s uncanny how my professional and volunteer life, how it has prepared me for this job. I think OutFront Minnesota has really exciting possibilities, and I hope I can help OutFront realize those possibilities.

Birkey: The marriage issue is a big one, and as I’ve reported a number of times, there are members of the community who don’t want to wait to get married. Already for 2009, there is a lawsuit and a piece of legislation planned for marriage equality. Is it the right time? How do you see the timing and strategy?

Johnson: The timing issue. There’s a difference in philosophy between the lawsuit and legislation. I don’t think it’s one of timing. I think it’s the political realities and legal realities, so that’s sort of on a macro level of those two different tracks.

Looking at the [upcoming bill proposed by Sen. John Marty to equalize Minnesota's marriage laws], OutFront Minnesota is not against him bringing that bill and having a hearing at the judiciary [committee]. The more this issue comes up, the more that people hear “gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender” and understand that we are talking about regular families and dignity and stability and respect.

We think it will take three to five years. If John Marty’s bill gets through, gets heard, gets passed and if the governor signs it? Hallelujah! I mean, that … would … be … phenomenal. Unfortunately, realistically, it’ll take a few more times than that.

Birkey: Proposition 8 passed in November, effectively removing the right for same-sex couples to marry in California. What was your reaction?

Johnson: (Heavy sigh). That is such an interesting and tragic case study. My first reaction was to cringe because I really felt, and I do feel, that the entire country was watching. And I think our detractors could say, “See? The courts were ahead of the people,” and thereby [our detractors] could stop other legislative efforts across the country. I think it will take a little more education because of Prop 8.

I think that that’s an OK thing because we really want this to happen organically. We believe that the people of Minnesota want stable families with all communities living free from discrimination, and the work that we are going to do is really just to make sure that that grows organically and to show the legislators that all the constituencies are there with us.

It also had the funky outcropping of a younger generation who might have been complacent. Well, complacent is the wrong word … unaware of the subtle, more subtle discrimination that really does exist out there.

Birkey: Definitely. Being out in the community and talking to folks I encounter people who’ve never been to the Capitol, never signed up for an advocacy organization or talked to a legislator — some haven’t even voted. This year has been the year they’ve showed up to the marriage rallies, sent out e-mails about marriage equality to friends and family. Is this a great time to take advantage of that energy?

Johnson: Absolutely. I was surprised. I’ve gotten a lot of calls … this is my first official day. More people left messages on my Facebook than called or e-mailed.

Birkey: The Internet is certainly a big part of my work, and we saw how effective social networking was in the 2008 elections. Is OutFront harnessing some of that organizing power?

Johnson: Absolutely. I think we are for sure and excited to take a page out of the president-elect’s book and communicate and bring people, engage people through different means: texting and Facebook and MySpace. I’ve already started some research on that and there are some other organizations doing that and we are going to be careful not to duplicate efforts. It’s a wonderful common goal that a lot of the GLBT organizations have, and it’s a really great background for us to be working together on.

Birkey: There are some parts of the GLBT community that are less interested in marriage rights. They don’t see it as very important to their lives. How do you respond to those community members?

Johnson: I think OutFront Minnesota’s approach is a little bit unique in that we are committed to a legislative approach, and so this isn’t something that is coming from the top down and all we are getting is marriage and an intellectual debate. This is coming from the bottom up. So all of the community organizing we do, all of the education, all of the engagements that we make are going to reduce discrimination and normalize relations between GLBT community and our allies and we are going to build allies. And so everyone is going to benefit whether you choose to get married or not.

Birkey: What are some of those issues that might be coming up in the next few years?

Johnson: I do know that there is a safe schools initiative coming up, but today’s my first day and we haven’t finalized our legislative agenda (set to be released next week).

Communications Director Jo Mariscano added: Some other issues … expanding our organizing efforts with communities of color. We are going to be doing much more work in that area and doing more work with the transgender community. I don’t think anyone can be in this community and not know about the organizing importance of the transgender community, and we saw that with the united [Employment Non-Discrimination Act] campaign.

We will also be working on broader issues that affect the GLBT community. Reproducive rights, health care and working with unions on labor issues.

Doesn’t some of the blame lie with the American media who enables this fraud? Doesn’t some of the blame — I would say a majority of the blame does not lie with the nitwit that shot him, other than the fact that he’s a nitwit and a guy who should have been in prison in my opinion, who shot him. But to me, this is the — this is an example of how, by enabling people and trying to push this false reality, leads to horrible crimes like this…

He added, “I believe the media and the rest of the enablers out there, they have this guy’s blood on their hands because they create this false sense of reality and they enable people who need serious psychological counseling.”

Andy Birkey of Eleventh Avenue South (and our former colleague here at MnIndy) writes, “Baker’s ignorance of the realities of trans people is telling. Psychological counseling is most often the bedrock of a transition from the born gender to the target gender. A person’s transition is never something that is done lightly as it comes with great obstacles in virtually every facet of that person’s life.”

Birkey reports that Soulforce Q, a young-adults group “dedicated to confronting spiritual violence against the LGBT community through nonviolent civil disobedience,” has gotten tentative permission to have a representative appear on Baker’s show to discuss the issues.