This is distrurbing...

Once in a while something comes along that is truly and frighteningly wrong. And last night I came across it.

A woman went into a DMV in Salt Lake City to renew her driver's license. She was mocked, ridiculed and forced to remove her makeup and pull back her hair before they would take her picture. The employees and a supervisor made anti-transgendered slurs and laughed at her.

This is the sort of transphobic behavior that leads to violence and worse among the transgendered community. It festers and hides in corners and then it's like a plague, hard to eradicate until you've seen half the population wiped out. It's also something that should never, EVER be tolerated.

Aren't we in the land of the free? With liberty, and justice, for all?

Apparently not so free and not so much liberty for some.

Now I understand perhaps you are uncomfortable with a transitioning person, maybe it's against your religious beliefs. I can't fault you if you say 'someone else will be helping you'. I don't agree that religion should be tossing stones at others but we'll come to that some other time. These employees acted like 5 year olds and what's worse, the supervisor followed suit. And now it's gotten out there and there's been a furor about it. I suspect it's gone pretty viral at least in the TG community by now.

Thank goodness that the upside is a woman named Amber stood in the faces of these bigots and shouted them down. I half-wonder if they realized this wasn't going to end well, retreated to secluded spots and started polishing their resumes. After all, I'm sure a future employer would look at them (imagine if they had an interview with a transgendered boss) and say 'Why did you leave your last job?' 'Ummm... I was fired for making anti-transgendered slurs.' I can see the outcome... 'don't call us, we'll call you...but don't count on that happening either.'

I'm not entirely sure why people should need counseling, but I guess it's just the status quo. If you are the majority and you think you have the power, you exercise that power without thought or question. But then when you realize how little power you wield and how much power can be found by others to counteract your position, you suddenly feel small and under a microscope. Perhaps it is a learning experience for these jerks who feel it's somehow considered okay to treat another person, another human being like this. Let's rewind and watch a few disturbing and inhumane films on the Nazis and their death-camps so we can realize again about man's inhumanity to man and lessons learned about that absolute power DOES corrupt absolutely.

And they aren't even in any sort of power. So let's be reminded of the fact, even if you think you have power, chances are pretty good you don't. So wield your five-year-old type slurs and laughter, act like a toddler in need of a good spanking.

We wish you would grow up in your future endeavors.

Here's the link to the story: http://prideinutah.com/?p=10545