A trans-identified male who identifies as a Muslim woman has received a $350,000 settlement from New York City after being denied access to the women’s section of Rikers Island. Ali Miles, formerly Dylan Miles, accused the city of “gender identity discrimination” for placing him in the men’s section of the prison while he was awaiting trial on domestic violence charges.
According to independent news outlet Reduxx, Miles was briefly jailed at Rikers in 2022 after he was arrested on a warrant out of Arizona. He was held at the facility for one month before being sent to Yavapai County Jail, where he was found guilty of “two counts of aggravated harassment per domestic violence,” as well as “disorderly conduct, harassment, threatening or intimidating, and false reporting to a law enforcement agency.”
Miles was sentenced to just over ten months in jail, with 132 days credit for being incarcerated while awaiting trial.
Despite only being at Rikers for one month from June to July in 2022, Miles launched a lawsuit against the City of New York in August of 2023, demanding over $22,000,000 in compensation for “gender identity discrimination.”
In the complaint, Miles claimed that a judge had acknowledged his request to be housed in a women’s facility after he stated he was transgender and required special accommodations. But instead of being placed in the Rose M. Singer center, the only women’s facility on Rikers Island, he was placed in the all-male George R. Vierno center.
In the suit, Miles alleged he was abused and mistreated at the men’s facility both by staff and other inmates. In addition to claiming the prison staff were “transphobic,” he alleged he was sexualized by a male guard during the strip search who said he had “nice tits and one hell of a pussy.” This is despite Miles not having undergone genital surgeries. Miles also accused “multiple African American male inmates” of sexually assaulting him.
As a result, the City of New York offered Miles $350,000 on the condition he would drop the lawsuit and not pursue legal action against them again. The agreement also stressed that the city was not admitting guilt to any of Miles’ accusations.
This is not the first time Miles has pursued legal action for “discrimination.” As previously reported by Reduxx, Miles has launched several lawsuits over the years, claiming to be a victim of transphobia and discrimination.
Last year, Miles sued a yoga studio in New York for $5 million after staff asked him to use the men’s washroom instead of the women’s. The incident occurred at Chelsea Traditional Hot Yoga during a class when he told the studio owner he wanted to use the women’s washroom because he is “closely aligned with female gender identity.”
Although the owner told him he must use the men’s facilities, Miles ignored them and used the women’s locker room after class, sparking outrage among the female patrons using the facilities who asked him to leave.
Miles was then ushered to the men’s locker room, which he claims caused him to feel “shame, humiliation, and frustration” for being “forced to use a locker room and bathroom that was not most closely aligned with [his] gender.”
Similarly, in February of 2022, Miles launched several other civil actions based on “gender identity-based harassment and discrimination.”
Miles filed a lawsuit for $75,000 against his former employers, Sedona Soul Adventures, alleging that the tourism company wrongfully terminated him for his gender identity. The lawsuit was dropped after Miles and his former employer reached an out-of-court agreement.
One month later, Miles filed two other civil actions against Planet Fitness and Bagel Point, alleging both companies discriminated against him for identifying as a woman. Both suits were dismissed after Miles failed to pay filing fees and complete the necessary paperwork requested by the court.
Several months later, Miles launched yet another lawsuit, this time against New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Although the lawsuit was eventually dismissed, court documents revealed that Miles was alleged to have been verbally abused by hospital staff while getting pain management treatment.
In addition to claiming that two doctors referred to him as a “faggot,” Miles also claimed that the hospital discriminated against him for being a “Muslim transgender woman” and that “the hospital had a ‘scheme’ to make him ‘suffer’ with chronic pain.”
