Say What?

This is part of the reason why I have an ambivalent attitude towards Christianity/religion in general. Amber Yust, transgender woman, went to her local DMV in San Francisco to get her name changed on her driver's license. The change went through without incident. At least until Yust got a letter at her home a few days later. According to the Transgender Law Center:

Unbelievably, on Monday, Amber received a letter from the person who had processed her name change at the DMV. In the letter, which had been mailed to her at home, the DMV employee quoted from the Bible and stated that Amber had made a "very evil decision." The strongly-worded letter told Amber that she was "an abomination" and said that homosexuals should be put to death.



"I was shocked to receive this letter from the person who processed my paperwork at the DMV," said Amber. "I would never have expected that a DMV employee could use information from my name change application to reach out and personally attack me. This has been a traumatic experience for me and I want to ensure that nothing like this happens to anyone else."

The Transgender Law Center is investigating the incident.

What could make someone feel they have the right to use someones' personal information obtained from their job to send a letter telling them that who they are is an abomination that is destined to burn in hell? Nothing but the pompous, self-righteous attitude that too often comes from those who claim to be "speaking the truth in love."

No employee has the right to lecture (or in this case harass) customers who they feel don't live up to their personal standards. I wasn't thrilled about the fact that people came through the checkout line and bought cigarettes/chewing tabacco when I worked at Wal-Mart, but I definitely wouldn't send them a letter in the mail admonishing them for their "sin." Not that I'm comparing smoking to being transgender, but you get the point. I mean what's next? Sending Daily Bread books to a guy if he buys pink polos at the mall? A box of holy water for girls who wear baggy jeans?

You can read the whole letter here.

Transgender Day of Rememberance

Via Rod 2.0 below is a video listing all of the victims of anti-transgender violence. Unfortunately, violent attacks against trans people are on the rise. In the U.S. the victims are often black and latino, and sadly their murders often go unnoticed by the mainstream media. Personally what sickens me the most about anti-transgender prejudice is that a lot of it comes from the mouths of gays, lesbians and bisexual. As misunderstood, stereotyped and reviled as we are by straight homophobes and religious conservatives, we should be the last group of people to discriminate. Anyways, watch the clip below:

Report: Transgender Murders On The Rise

A frightening new report by international group Transgendered Europe (TGEU) states that 200 transgendered people were killed from January 2008 to June 2009. While the report casts transgender violence as a global problem, the United States ranks as the second most dangerous place in the world for transgender people.

The report shows Brazil is by far the most dangerous place in the world for the transgendered community. In 2008, 59 people were murdered while another 23 murders were reported so far this year. Last year, 16 transgendered people were murdered in the United States, the second most dangerous place on Earth.

While the report is an effort to document all crimes, even its authors admit to the limitations of compiling a survey while countries continue to avoid reporting hate crimes.

"Firstly, the collected data shows only those cases which have been reported," report author
Carsten Balzer wrote. "There is no data and no estimates available for the unreported cases."

"Secondly, the data presented here does not show all reported cases worldwide, but only most of those, which can only be found on the Internet with some effort. Reports from local newspapers which have no web page are also missing," Balzer adds.

Sadly, with cases like the shooting death of 22-year-old transgender woman Lateisha Green and most notably Gwen Araujo in 2002, such figures don't seem that far off.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day in which we remember trangendered people who have been murdered because of their gender identity or expression.

For those not in the know, a little Transgender 101: Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity(sense of themselves as male or female) or gender expression differs from that usually associated with their birth sex. Many transgender people live part-time or full-time as members of the other gender.

With the recent murder of Lateisha Green, a 22-year old transgendered woman, this event becomes even more poignant. While gays, lesbians and bisexuals certainly suffer discrimination and sometimes violence, transgenders face violence and prejudice not only from the straights, but sometimes from gays as well.

In addition antidiscrimination laws in most U.S. cities and states do not protect transgender people from discrimination based on gender identity or expression. While many of us cannot imagine what it must be like to feel that you were born in the wrong body, that's no excuse for hatred or ignorance.

The best weapon is education. To find out more information on transgender issues you go to www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/transgender