Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

The Utah Pride Center and TransAction, its transgender advocacy program, released a press release this morning concerning the incident at the Utah Drivers License Division where a transgender woman was mocked, laughed at, and forced to scrub off her makeup before she was allowed to get her photo taken to renew her drivers license. From Valerie Larabee, executive director: “We learned of this incident on Thursday, March 24, when the bystander called and asked for advice because she didn’t feel the DMV office staff had been responsive to her initial complaint, … When told by an ally that one of our transgender community members was witnessed being ‘humiliated’ we encouraged the bystander to document her account of the incident and continue to pursue all DLD complaint channels to report the incident and gain additional understanding around what is expected from Utah DLD offices when working with the public, which includes transgender Utahns.” Take note: Encouraged the bystander to ...

Update: TEA has accepted the resignation of Christopher and Teinamarie Scuderi Over the weekend, Eric Ethington over at Pride in Utah posted the horrifying story of a transgender woman being mocked , laughed at, and forced to scrub off her makeup before she was allowed to get her photo taken to renew her drivers license. This incident received attention after Amber Anderton witnessed the whole ordeal and filed a complaint. Amber Anderton, witness. Yet in an article by the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday , the Utah Drivers License Division (DLD) is claiming that not only did their employees not laugh or ridicule this individual, but that they have video footage to prove it. A local group that goes by the name Transgender Education Advocates of Utah (TEA of Utah) was invited to view the security footage. They reported to the Trib that no discrimination took place . Then in a Fox 13 article , Chris Scuderi of TEA additionally commented that he “… appreciates Anderton’s concern for t...

Transgender Woman Mocked At Utah DMV, Forced To Scrub Off Makeup  > This is what the woman who was discriminated against wrote to Amber, the witness, just earlier today: hey I just want to thank you for what you did at the DMV for me for them discriminating against me and would like to know the steps you took to file the complaint and would like to know if you can help me get it across that I am still human and would like my voice to be heard if you can help I would really appreciate it thank you so much for everything

My favorite story in the This American Life: Testosterone podcast (which originally aired in 2002) was Griffin Hansbury’s story about his transition. He’s now a psychotherapist in New York. When asked about what he missed the most, he replied: Maybe the close relationships that I had with women. I still have close relationships with the women that I’ve known since before T, but I don’t make close relationships with new female friends. It’s hard to do. There’s a barrier. So I kinda miss, like, being part of a cool bunch of women. I actually like women better than men. It just so happens that I fit in more as a man, ya know, but I think women are really cool. Um, ya know, sisterhood is powerful and all that stuff. And when asked what the biggest thing he’s gained is: Biggest thing I’ve gained… um, you know, it’s just so great when people call me sir, even after seven years. I don’t always hear it, but it still rings a little bell inside my heart. It’s wonderful and I … it’s som...

Not to beat on my own lackadaisical wah drum, but I stopped being intimate with other people for some time before I started hormone therapy in December of 2008. Since my first dabblings in nitty-gritty-ville when I was 18, I’d been be intimate, albeit uncomfortably. With each passing year living female-bodied, that “uncomfortable” escalated to “extremely uncomfortable” and then to “gah! no more! enough!”. The whole shindig became way too depressing as the sensory signals from the deep recesses of my noggin screeched louder and louder, “Disconnect! Disconnect!” It got to the point that even imagining intimacy made my stomach turn with anxiety (and still does). Just knowing that being touched made my body impossible to ignore would trigger a whole slew of mopey. Every time I met someone and tried, thinking that I could handle it, I couldn’t. What would start out as something simple would be overtaken by the neurological disconnect, and my body would just entirely shut down. I’d sub...

I’ve been forewarned numerous times that “Facial hair isn’t as fun as you’d think…” by many who have grown them in the past and now I’m beginning to understand. The thicker my stubble becomes, the less fun shaving is. Even with shaving cream, as the blade rolls along my skin it snags on every hair now instead of just smoothly gliding along like it used to. There’s this snaggy scrrrrrrraping feeling that leaves me feeling absolutely amazed when I’m finished that it hasn’t left behind a landfill of bloody follicle tears. A couple of times now I’ve tried to patiently let my facial scruff situation grow out to see how it goes and what it looks like, but it’s like trying to go from bald to growing one’s hair out. I go NUTS trying to grow my hair out - especially during the whole “puff stage” where I feel like a walking, talking 5’11” Q-Tip, and then crumble and cut it all off again. This same shindig is happening in facial hair land. While I love it, it is itchy and straw-feeling. Yet,...

Just woke up about 30 minutes ago and decided to make a video of my morning injection. And NOW I’ll make coffee! And give the cats their morning wet food fix, too. Correction, btw! I said 1.6 mL as the amount I inject in the video due to morning brain not working quite right - it’s actually 0.6 mL every 2 weeks.