A magistrate judge in Manhattan refused to block a law professor's testimony in the case of a transgender lesbian who was arrested at the Republican National Convention and claims New York City's law enforcement officers "subject transgender individuals to invasive, overly intrusive searches in order to ascertain their genital status."
Kaitlyn Tikkun sued the city, the New York Police Department and the New York City Department of Correction, claiming she experienced this treatment first-hand after she was arrested with about 1,800 other demonstrators at the 2004 convention.
She said the city implemented a policy of strip-searching detainees for minor offenses, even if they weren't suspected of concealing weapons or contraband.
This treatment was even worse for transgender detainees, she claimed, due to the officers' "inappropriate touching or squeezing of their chest and genital areas, as well as partial and full strip searches" to determine their gender.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV on Wednesday denied the city's motion to preclude the testimony of Tikkun's expert witness, Dean Spade.