One here in Connecticut and one in Texas guess which one treats their transgender police officers better? The Blue state with a gender inclusive non-discrimination law or the Red state that is against anything trans?
Texas.
Texas.
Austin police has first openly transgender officerMeanwhile here in Connecticut…
KXAN
By Angie Beavin
Published: November 20, 2014
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department now has its first openly transgender officer. Senior Officer Greg Abbink has been with the force for a decade. Joining as a woman, it wasn’t until this year that he says he really started living.
“So, for about 10 years, the folks here in this department that know me have known me as Emily,” said Sr. Officer Abbink.
That all changed for him this past spring.
“I’m Greg now,” he said, “and so that’s been interesting for folks to have to make that transition.”
Outside of Austin’s city hall on Thursday, people gathered for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Each year someone from APD’s Lesbian and Gay Police Officers Association is one of the speakers. This year was the first time the department had a transgender officer be that person.
Connecticut transgender cop gets fired after long-running dispute with city hall, police departmentThis should happen here in Connecticut, if Texas hasn’t a problem with transgender police officer, why does Connecticut and I can’t help but wonder if the fact that the Texas police officer is a trans-man and the Connecticut police officer is a trans-woman has anything to do with it.
BY David Harding
New York Daily News
Sunday, June 29, 2014
A Connecticut transgender cop has been fired following a long-running dispute with officials.
[…]
The Middletown cop claims to have found her work environment hostile when she reported for duty as a woman, claiming that a lieutenant referred to her as "Frank" and "him."
Trans is trans no matter how you slice it! Just glad I don't live in Connecticut, but I don't live in Texas either!
ReplyDeleteI am a male to female.
It seems to me that Texas has a long and strong history of tolerance towards 'T' folks. There are judges and lawyers and doctors, etc who are out as 'T' people. When I was active in Tri-Ess it seemed like most of their officers and the Femme Mirror authors were out of Texas and there were always 'T' events and 'T' friendly places.
ReplyDeleteTexas has a strong libertarian ethic as evidenced by Ted Cruz, Rick Perry and others. They do not believe in the government running people's lives. You should not be so quick to equate conservative politics and economics as being anti 'T'.
Over the years when I have traveled I have felt safer when out and about as a 'non-passable' guy in a dress in Texas, Montana, Arizona and a few other deep red states than I do in the NY tri-state region. I find that if you let people react as people and behave as people that in general they will have a live and let live approach to things...more so than if you create government rules that control people.
I have been finding more acceptance in recent years when I get out and about on my home turf but in the past 30 yers when I was doing a fair amount of travel I found more tolerance in areas that are thought to be conservative. Just my thoughts and experiences.
Pat
True, you can find acceptances just about anywhere in the U.S. and conversely you can find pockets bigotry anywhere. But in general the state laws in Texas are not trans-friendly where it is changing your birth certificate, driver's license, or marriage. A number of cities in Texas have non-discrimination laws and changing your gender on your driver's license varies from judge to judge.
ReplyDeleteJust like here in CT you can find communities that do not follow the law.
While I think that our eyes are on the same finish line our approaches may differ. I like the freedom of choosing to like you as a person, thinker, writer, activist and all of the other things that you are. I am not sure I react the same way to having a large government tell me that I am legally required to like you or anyone else.
ReplyDeleteI find it more accepting and affirming if people like and support me of their own free will rather than because of a government mandate.
I concede that there are good and valid reasons for laws, rules and regulations in a civil society but for someone the accept me as an individual is something that cannot be imposed from a central government.
Pat
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI just like to point out one thing, nowhere in the anti-discrimination laws does it say anything about accepting us.
All the law say is that you must treat us equally. A restaurant owner can post all the anti-trans poster that he wants as long as he servers us.