Utah's Transgender Education Advocates (TEA) ground breaking survey establishes that most gender diverse Utahans are fairly happy with the states driver licensing process.
Or are they? While many on the TEA Board of directors have resigned due to the fallout and the organization issued a public apology for "re victimizing" the transgender victims they have yet to apologize to some of the activists the Board threatened or post the statement from the victim. Transparency = credibility.
What is really at issue at the beginning remains unchanged. The UTAH DMV is perfectly within its rights to make subjective determination about a applicants gender.
Victim Regina Audette statement found on Pride in Utah but not on the TEA website.
"I was the transgender female who was asked to scrub my make up off so they could took my photo. Well it was Thursday afternoon and my brother and I went to get my ID at the DMV at the Fairgrounds and the assistant supervisor and the security officer was laughing at me and so it was my turn to get my picture taken and so I gave them the… proper paperwork and they looked at it told me they need to talk to the supervisor who pulled me in her office and told me to remove my make up because I was altering my identification and so I took the make up off and they took the picture and while I was waiting the assistant supervisor was yelling that wasnt a female that is a man and making the situation that much worse and then my brother and I went to talk to the supervisor and she said that they wernt making fun of us he had to itch his ass and didnt want to do it in front of me and that was their excuse on why they were laughing."
Removing of make up, changing clothes, repositioning hair in a way expressing a gender other than the applicants and the inevitable misgendering is all within the rights, even expected of DMV employees. Until that is rectified history will continue to repeat itself. Utah transgender residents know it.
NO amount of white wash or gay money will rectify this situation. Only righteous and even occasionally abrasive straight forward transgender advocacy will. Although TEA is on track they really need to present the whole story to regain there respectability.
One person commented on the Pride article how bad the Texas DMV is. She's right, our glass house is far from being in order either.
I had a lady misgender me all through the process when I went for my first license after getting my name and gender marker change. I sucked it up that time.
The next time after four years living authentically I got the same lady! I told her quietly I wanted to wait for another clerk. Wouldn't you know it but she started talking loud enough for the whole town to hear asking me why, why would I want another clerk. She was dieing to humiliate and out me using my personality against me.
This time I didn't do no sucking. I told her in a even, firm demanding taxpaying voice I wanted her supervisor, NOW.
Bullshit ended right then and there. We deserve to be treated with the respect every minority expects and gets. Period.
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