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Sometimes, one can’t help but wonder if one of the functions of state and local government is transphobia. Below are two stories on agents of government allegedly behaving badly.
Story 1.) You may remember Amber Yust. She’s the California transgender woman who filed for a new driver’s license, only to allegedly have the DMV employee who assisted her send a letter to her home.
The letter was framed in antigay terms. The letter tied her name change to “[t]he homosexual act,” and went on to say:
Supporting those who commit this act and encouraging and justifying those who have the orientation also lead one to hell.
The letter quotes and highlights scriptures from Leviticus, 1 Corinthians, Romans, and Genesis.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel has added to the story in their article DMV employee put on leave after allegedly sending hate mail to transgender woman. In the article, learned the name of the DMV employee that allegedly wrote to Amber Yust: His name is Thomas Demartini. From the article:
[Below the fold: More about the California DMV Employee (Thomas Demartini) and the DMV's action so far, and the DC Trans Coalition press release, entitled DCTC Condemns Alleged Anti-Trans Assault by MPD Officer].
Yust received a letter at her home from Demartini that was dated Oct. 22, the day after he processed the changes to her DMV record.The one-page document lists biblical references that imply homosexuality and gender transitions are mortal sins. In the letter, Demartini apparently begs Yust not to complete her gender transition.
“Jesus clearly prohibits gender change operations,” Demartini wrote. “If an operation like this is the reason for changing one’s name, then one has made a very evil decision.”
The ABC affiliate in Los Angeles is reporting DMV employee in transgender case suspended — apparently Thomas Demartini has been suspended with pay.
The San Francisco Chronicle, in their piece Transgender woman says DMV clerk warned of hell, reports the following (emphasis added):
The same day, Yust said, a DVD arrived from a fundamentalist church warning of eternal damnation for anyone “possessed by demons” of homosexuality. The DMV employee’s letter had referred her to the church’s website as a source of “critical information for your salvation.”What’s more, the DMV had kept the employee on in 2009 even after he refused to process another transgender woman’s name-change application, Yust said in a damage claim filed with the state, the precursor to a lawsuit.
I had “the demon of transvestism” cast out of me in 1979. I know all about how Evangelicals and Pentecostals — basically, Christian fundamentalists — feel about transgender people. Too bad Thomas Demartini never closely read Matthew 19:12; Isaiah 56:3-5; Acts 8:25-40; Judges 4; and 1 Samuel 16:7b, and learned that his God respected gender variance, and that while folk like him look at people from the outside, his God looks at people’s hearts.
Anyway, UPI is reporting in their piece DMV worker faces lawsuit:
In a damage claim filed with the state, preliminary step in the filing of a lawsuit, Yust alleged the DMV retained Demartini on its payroll following an incident in 2009 in which he refused to process a name-change application for another transgender woman.
California’s DMV needs to take antitransgender behavior very seriously — I know I’m planning on telling the DMV that via their General Drivers License and Registration Information number, which is 1-800-777-0133, that I want to know if transphobia is something they take seriously. Hey, I found the number on the DMV Phone Directory webpage — I plan on asking for the management official who is in charge of their antidiscrimination policy.
2.) The DC Trans Coalition has a new press release out, entitled DCTC Condemns Alleged Anti-Trans Assault by MPD Officer. From the press release:
Washington, DC – The DC Trans Coalition is alarmed by the alleged assault of a transgender woman by an off-duty Metropolitan Police officer on December 1, as reported last week by the Washington Blade.If the allegations prove true, this case would mark a flagrant violation of the DC Human Rights Act. Even more disturbing is that to date, criminal charges are still pending against the alleged victim of this assault.
According to the Blade, Chloe Moore and a friend approached a man – off-duty Officer Raphael Radon – to ask for a light for a cigarette. Upon discovering Moore and her friend were trans, Radon proceeded to utter transphobic epithets and threatened violence, and, according to Moore, also shoved her. At this juncture, Moore used pepper spray in self-defense. Radon proceeded to chase Moore two blocks, and beat her on the sidewalk. Soon after, uniformed MPD officers arrived and determined, based on witness testimony, that Radon had instigated the incident. However, Moore was handcuffed and taken to First District headquarters, where the watch commander ordered that she be charged with assault, against the advice of the officers who had arrived at the scene.. MPD officials have said that the issue is under investigation.
“What’s especially disturbing about this case is that it features several flagrant violations of MPD’s general order on dealing with trans people,” said Alison Gill, a DCTC attorney. “Medical attention was apparently not provided promptly, and the use of degrading, transphobic language is expressly forbidden,” Gill continued. Since June, DCTC has been working with several LGBT community organizations to train officers affiliated with MPD’s special liaison units in cultural competency and relevant MPD policies. So far, roughly 70 officers have been trained in this program. “What this incident shows us is that training self-selected volunteers is only a small step toward ensuring that MPD officers fully comply with DC’s human rights law. We want to see a swift rejection of this kind of behavior from the highest levels within MPD, along with a real plan for making sure that every law enforcement officer knows and follows the law, including mandatory training for the entire force,” Gill said.
“We will provide whatever support we can to Chloe Moore as she battles this injustice, and we look forward to working with Mayor-elect Vince Gray and MPD officials to ensure that this kind of violence does not happen again,” said Sadie-Ryanne Vashti, a DCTC advocate. “We call on our allies to stand up and reject transphobia perpetuated by the criminal justice system. No one should be arrested for being the victim of an assault,” Vashti said.
What can I say about this story that the DC Trans Coalition hasn’t already said?
Still, it does seem strange that alleged antitransgender behavior by agents of the government occurs still in parts of the country where gender identity or expression is a protected class. And, that antitransgender behavior by agents of the government isn’t treated by the managers of these agents of the government as seriously as other kinds of bad behavior by agents of the government would be.
I ask the question of myself and others — what can do we do to affect changes in the way government deals with antitransgender discrimination? What can we do to make sure enforcement of antidiscrimination laws and policies based on gender identity or expression are approached with the same level of seriousness that we would expect antidiscrimination laws and policies based on race, gender, and disability would be treated?
I’m know I’m starting with a phone call to the California DMV about how Amber Yust was allegedly treated. If I lived in the District of Colombia, I’d be calling the Metropolitan Police Department, the city Mayor’s office, and LGBT organizations based in DC — specifically to ask them to take action regarding the alleged behavior against Chloe Moore.
~~~~~
Related:
*California DMV Employee Tells Trans Woman In Letter She’s Made A “Very Evil Decision”
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13 Comments
And if you don’t live in DCCall the PD anyway. Ask if the LGBT community should take our tourist dollar$ to a safer vacation city, in light of the assault allegation by a Metropolitan Police Officer.
But suspend the DMV employee without pay……and the Religulous Reich squeals about the “attack on religious liberties.”
WhatEVER they do, DMV is the sticky stuff between the rock and the hard place.
I hate statements phrased as questions.Tell them straight up this will drive away the LGBT tourist dollars.
Ms. Yust got a DVD from a church the same day?As in before any of this hit the media? Sounds to me like that DMV bigot also divulged her name and address to the church, a clear violation of privacy. What other information on people whom he views as “sinners” is he taking with him for personal use?
Help me understand this…The Yust/DMV incident happened several months ago. And DMV employee DiMartini is still employed? Yes. Yes. Yes. I understand he’s “on leave” — but with pay! That’s a nice gig, if you can get it!
What’s the problem with the “investigation” (assuming there really is one)? How much time does it take to figure out the letter he wrote (and signed with his name) really was a letter he wrote and signed with his name? That – alone — should be ground for termination (as in bye-bye- no pay – no how – no way)
What am I missing here?
Probably a union thing.The flip-side of protecting unionized employees in general from arbitrary abuses by their superiors is that occasionally scumbag employees get protected from justified punishment too.
Sadly,…this is true. The strong civil servant unions are the ones who also protect police abuses.
I wish unions were more proactive about civil rights and actual protection of its members (like from each other and the “bad apples”) but they’ve become bureaucratic nightmares.
Tiime off w/pay and a departmental investigation are all fine and good, but…I’m amazed that there have been no criminal charges.
-CA codes against data misuse by State employees ($5k fine, possible jail)
-Stalking
-Harassment
-Hate Crime (now, with Federal Assistance!)
It’s not the DMV head we need to be contacting, it’s the
SF District Attorney’s office:
http://www.sfdistrictattorney….
DistrictAttorney@sfgov.org
Possibly…But remember… the unions also have non-discrimination policies! Maybe a few well-placed letters with not only the county union, but the national union it’s a part of!
Non-discrimination works both ways!
Sadly, same ole same ole here in DCI am sure Autumn remembers the hideous case a few years back when EMTs actually stopped doing rescue work on a trans woman who had not fully surgically transitioned. Once the EMTs realized this, they basically let her die. Part of the settlement with the family was that the Fire Department hire a staffer specifically to deal with LGBT sensitivity issues and to conduct sensitivity training. To date, AFAIK, the training still has not taken place. At one point the Fire Department came to Brother, Help Thyself, a local community chest for LGBT and related small charities, to look for funding for the training program. You can assume how ticked off it made the board of BHT to be asked to fund the training meant to reduce discrimination against the community. The staffer they hired later left the department amid claims of homophobia.
The police department had been better, but unfortunately Chief Lanier made a huge mistake when she disbanded the specific LGBT liaison unit and redeployed those staff back into the regular precincts. The idea was that all the force would be trained to deal with LGBT matters, but that hasn’t happened and the liaison unit, once the country’s model, has become largely ineffective.
This is all really sad when you realize DC is second only to SF in terms of LGBT population percentage.
Seriously.Not that I want in any way to minimize the transphobia aspect of this story, but the fact is that a DMV employee using the data for ANY reason, especially a negative one, should warrant dismissal.
If a customer got a note at home saying her kids were ugly, or her dress wasn’t flattering, or that she should sign up for Pilates at the clerk’s gym, or anything else, the employee should have been (and likely WOULD have been) seriously disciplined.
So this is case not just of transphobia being given a pass, but even more of a pass than a lot of other, far less bigoted behaviors would.
???????????“Hate Crime (now, with Federal Assistance!) ”
What are you talking about? The Mathew Sheppard bill? That requires serious bodily injury. I mean, even those marines in Savannah GA who allegedly hit that gay guy so hard he had a seizure and wound up in the hospital “couldn’t” be charged under that law because the injuries weren’t “severe” enough.
The other stuff? Sure, I guess, if it’s true. But being so far off on the “hate crime” alllegation makes the others a “presumptive stretch.”
No, just a state one.The reference to the Mathew Sheppard bill was meant to be tongue in cheek as it has turned out to be largely a pretty piece of paper outside of the symbolism (which does have value, please don’t get me wrong).