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Trans prisoner says she was raped in both a male and female facility

Written by gaytourism

Elytta Manton. | Photo: Facebook/Elytta Manton

An Australian trans woman has claimed she was gang-raped at a juvenile boys’ detention facility and then raped again at a girls’ facility.

Elytta Manton has identified as a sistergirl – an Aboriginal trans woman – since she was a child. But as a teenager authorities placed her in a boys’ facility, despite identifying as female.

‘When I first went in, they thought I was a real girl but they were a bit confused because when they took my pants down, there was something there that wasn’t supposed to be,’ she told ABC Online.

Authorities placed Manton at the boys’ Cobham Juvenile Justice Center. It was at this center she alleged she was gang-raped in the 1990s.

‘I didn’t feel safe, I thought something was wrong and something was going to happen,’ she said.

‘Within 15 minutes, my room was full of 15 boys and they did the most hideous things that anyone could endure.

‘They knocked me to the ground and raped me and left me lying in a pool of blood.’

Manton thought she would be safe when authorities moved her to a girls’ center after the alleged rape. But she was not safe at Yasmar Juvenile Justice Center for girls either. A male guard allegedly raped her there.

‘He raped me and bashed me and left me lying in the toilet,’ she said.

‘It was one of the female workers who came down to check on me that raised the alarm.’

In a written statement, for Juvenile Justice New South Wales Manton’s allegations were being investigated.

The rules for trans prisoners vary state by state in Australia. NSW is considered the most inclusive, allows prisoners to continue hormone therapy.

But Sydney Gender Center’s, Liz Ceissman, said Manton’s case highlighted how dangerous a prison could be for trans people.

‘You certainly don’t thrive in jail or survive the corrections system in a way that at least levels your safety to that of other inmates,’ she said.

‘The existing system of protecting people, I don’t think necessarily works.’

‘I ripped the mirrors out of my house’

Manton who is from the central coast town of Lismore has set up a Go Fund Me page to help pay for breast implants.

‘Lismore’s Lilly’ said she ripped her the mirrors out of her house after ‘scarring’ she received during treatment for cancer.

The long-time community caregiver asked for help to pay for her implants because ‘it would help improve my life’.

‘(I’ve) loved and lost a lot in my life and (I’m) asking for a second chance,’ she wrote.

‘I have a dream to become  a model and to finally  be able to wear a swim suit and not to think of myself as a freak of nature.

‘I’m also an indigenous sister girl who loves life and would be blessed and thankful for everyone’s help… this means the world to me so much.’

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