Do you dread calling 911. Do you fear the police or EMT response? Thousands of trans people fear calling for help because for many trans people the discrimination, harassment, humiliation and possible violence that will come to their front door.
When I had an accident on the Maine Turnpike before I transitioned the state police officer did use the proper pronouns and asked the name I would like him to use.
And with all this “religious freedom” garbage coming out of Washington now-a-days it is only going to get worst.
Have you ever had to call 911?
If so what were you thinking when you called, were you afraid and how were the treated by the responder when they got there?
Transgender Chicagoans say police encounters can be dehumanizing. A new report says CPD is failing them.I have heard of so many problems with police interactions with trans persons, one story I heard was from a trans person who had their picture taken for a traffic stop because the photo on their driver license didn’t match their appearance… you want to bet that picture in hanging up on the barrack’s wall? While others say that the reason they were ticketed for minor offenses were because they are trans.
The Chicago Tribune
By Hannah LeoneContact Reporter
May 10, 2019
In her decade advocating for transgender people charged with crimes in Chicago, attorney Lark Mulligan says she has learned the patterns: “gender checks” that can feel like sexual assault. Name-calling. Feeling targeted, humiliated, dehumanized
She was not surprised by a report this week concluding Chicago and 24 other big-city police departments all fail to meet the needs of the transgender community. Even when there is a policy, little is done to train officers or make sure they follow it, advocates say.
Mulligan said the report's findings resonate throughout her work in Chicago, where the Police Department is under a federal consent decree to improve, among other things, its policy on dealing with transgender people. “The policy itself is inadequate to say the least, and harmful I think in many ways, but in my experience, the few protections that are in there are rarely if ever followed by CPD officers interacting with trans people,” she said.
Chicago police officials say the consent decree, approved in January, is evidence the department is listening. “There is room for improvement in several areas, and that is what they are striving for,” said Luis Agostini, a police spokesman.
“Being misgendered is extremely distressful for many trans people,” Mulligan said. “Being referred to properly is not just a matter of being sensitive, it’s not just a matter of someone having hurt feelings. … It’s extremely traumatizing, especially to endure something like that over and over.”The opposite happens when they use the proper pronouns.
The trauma becomes even more oppressing when inflicted by someone in a position of power, she said. It can erase a person’s sense of self. Calling people by the wrong name and gender can also out them as transgender to other detainees.
[…]
Since then, the department has implemented a policy specific to people who are transgender, intersex and gender nonconforming, including the use of pronouns as requested, according to Agostini, the police spokesman.
When I had an accident on the Maine Turnpike before I transitioned the state police officer did use the proper pronouns and asked the name I would like him to use.
And with all this “religious freedom” garbage coming out of Washington now-a-days it is only going to get worst.
Have you ever had to call 911?
If so what were you thinking when you called, were you afraid and how were the treated by the responder when they got there?
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