Victory!

April 22, 2015 - TLDEF is thrilled to announce a settlement in a historic federal lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles on behalf of Chase Culpepper. The settlement is featured in  Los Angeles Times.

Chase is a transgender girl who was targeted for discrimination in March 2014 when she attempted to get her first driver’s license. She was told by DMV employees that she could not take her photo unless she removed the makeup that she wears on a regular basis. They told her that she needed to “look male” in her license photo and refused to provide her with her driver’s license if she did not remove the makeup she was wearing.

For more, follow the link above.

We Almost Had Mail!

I don't know what "glitch" I had here in the Crysti's Condo this afternoon, but it managed to chew up and completely destroy a couple of your comments.

As you all know how much I value your ideas and in fact I did reply to a couple and poof! they were gone!

Two came from Pat and were rather interesting in how totally I disagreed with her. On the one about the Wow! post - I was able to go back in and delete my comment since Pat's didn't post at all. It's only fair to not paraphrase her comments if I don't have them.



The others were comments about the DMV folks who wouldn't let Chase Culpepper present his external gender anyway he wanted. One wanted to throw the kid under the bus because the DMV folks were nasty anyway-anywhere, but another was an extremely insightful one.  She said, isn't the whole episode similar to the age old double standard of girls allowing to be "tom boys" and boys not being allowed to be "tom-girls." Can you imagine one of the "jolly" DMV clerks telling a grumpy woman she looked like hell and better go put on makeup for her picture?

It's a different story here in Ohio where the DMV's were "privatized" years ago.  When I went into renew my license the last time years ago, it was the day after my first visit to the hair salon.  The woman paused for a second and then shrugged and took a very androgynous picture of me for my license since I wasn't seeking a name or gender marker change anyway-the same as Chase.  The DMV simply gets a share of every license plate or ID they process.  So it's "show me the money!"

Finally, Mandy sent in a couple comments that did make it about my second mammogram and ultra sound tomorrow. She was kind enough to fill me in on the actual procedure.

Deep down I believe from the time we are born until the time we die, our lives are built on different new experiences.  My latest new experience will hopefully mean nothing more than a clean bill of health.

One way or another though, the total and complete irony of it will not be lost on me.

I'm Getting Dizzy

Before you cheap shot me and say "Cyrsti-you always have been dizzy" - let me explain.

On certain days and in certain weeks, it seems there is almost a daily give and take of transgender rights being given in one place and then taken away in another.

Bobbie (one of our Cyrsti's Condo readers) keeps me pretty much up to date and in fact passed the Obama story along yesterday.  Bobbie is Canadian by trade and sent me a couple encouraging stories of improving transgender rights in Vancouver and Alberta.  She said the province of Alberta quite possibly is the most conservative of all the Canadian Provinces.  Don't worry, if I get any of this wrong she will deservedly correct me!

Then, right in the middle of all the warm and fuzzies- comes this totally ignorant story from South Carolina. Right now I can hear some of you saying "Damn Cyrsti, what do you expect-it's South Carolina.  I don't like to play that game because more than a few think that about the citizen's of Ohio.

At any rate, here's what happened:  "A South Carolina teen who wears androgynous or feminine clothing says he was prevented from wearing makeup in his driver’s license photo. Chase Culpepper, (above) who identifies as gender nonconforming but uses a male name and pronouns, had already passed his driver’s test and went March 3 to the Anderson Department of Motor Vehicle to obtain his driver’s license. But DMV officials told the 16-year-old to take off his makeup for the picture, because they said he did not look how a boy should."

I get so tired around here about ranting about stupid little people playing God.  

Fortunately, these days we have good guys and girls on our side and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has asked the DMV to allow the teen to take another photo – wearing makeup.   attorneys with TLDEF said the decision violated Culpepper’s rights and said:

“He is entitled to be who he is and to express that without interference from government actors,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of TLDEF. “Forcing Chase to remove his makeup prior to taking his driver’s license photo restricts his free speech rights in violation of state and federal constitutional protections.”

My fondest desire is at my age, the bigots are beaten back and we can live in a free world...before I die.  The bad thing is I have gay friends who still don't understand I don't have the rights they do.

For more of the "Culpepper" story, go here.