out of order

Trans influencer Nikita Dragun is being detained in a men’s jail unit and folks are furious

Nikita Dragun

Following an arrest late Monday night in Miami, controversial trans makeup artist Nikita Dragun is reportedly being held in the jail’s men’s unit.

According to a report obtained by TMZ, the police were contacted after Dragun was seen walking around the Goodtime Hotel pool area nude and refusing to stop. By the time the cops got there, she had already gone back to her room. Officers and hotel security then told her that the music she was playing in her room was too loud and that she’d either have to turn it down or leave the hotel.

The influencer then splashed water from her water bottle on the officers and security guards, at which point she was arrested for “felony battery on a police officer”.

Her public arrest information reveals that she was booked as a male, and leaked video from her preliminary hearing shows Dragun on the verge of tears asking the judge to be moved within the jail.

She asks, “Do I have to stay here in the men’s unit still?”:

Related: Queer and Trans People Are Revolutionizing the Beauty Industry 

The judge just says “I don’t make the rules up there” before noting that there is “proper accommodation for you in a separate area.” She then advises Dragun to contact the bondsman to seek her release.

Her bond is reportedly set at $5,000 not only for felony battery on a police officer, but also misdemeanor disorderly conduct and misdemeanor battery. All this for poolside nudity and getting bottled water on a cop.

The makeup artist is a complicated figure in the community, but that’s not stopping people from standing up in the face of this injustice.

Fans and critics alike are united on her behalf for perhaps the first time:

Related: Caitlyn Jenner misgenders trans woman and then rages against “LGBT community”

Dragun has had her legal sex marker changed to “female” for years, including on her personal identification. Her being held in a men’s facility is not only dangerous and harmful for her, but also legally dubious.

The fact that this could happen to someone so prominent speaks to the reality of all trans people in carceral situations. In 2020, NBC News found that out of 4,890 incarcerated transgender people across 45 states, only 15 people were held according to their lived gender. The other 4,875 people were forced to be classified and held as their assigned sex at birth.

However the beauty personality’s situation is remedied — and it had better be remedied — the unjust treatment of trans people throughout the American prison system deserves the same energy.

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