TDoR Report Part I: The Service

Last night, I went to the Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia.  It wasn't easy.

The church is in an office building behind a shopping centre.  My gps seemed to think it was at the other end of the street.  The street curves around a parking lot, and it's hard to see if you're on the street or in a private lot.  I parked and only found even numbers, although they were close to what I was looking for.  I walked to the odd side, which was the shopping centre.  I saw someone in a car who was looking for a church.  I also passed someone else who was slowly driving on the street and lot and obviously looking for the church.  I don't know if either found it.

It wasn't in the shopping centre.  I walked back to my car, and tried the gps on my phone.  It led me west to the nearest street, then north about a block, then east a quarter mile, then said to turn east and it was right there.  Wrong.  It was the right street, but the numbers were too low and getting lower.  So I turned west.  Now I could follow the numbers and after crossing a street into the next lot I found it.  And after all of that walking (I figure about a mile) I was maybe 50 feet from my car!

And it was after 7.

I joined the service, already in progress.  A transsexual woman was giving a long and moving talk.  I checked the program; I had missed some of the readings and I wished I had heard all of her talk.  She spoke at length about people we're probably familiar with: Tyra Hunter and Erin Vaught, both denied medical treatment because of how they presented.  The speaker told of her own experience, being told that a local hospital "wasn't sure they could treat someone with her condition."

A candle ceremony followed, commemorating the ten people who died because of how they presented.  One was 17-month-old (yes, month) Roy Jones who was beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend to "try to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl"

I can only hope next year there is no reason to light a candle.

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It's News Because?

Indiana's Ball Memorial Hospital Responds After Refusing to Treat a Trans Woman

The woman was in pain and coughing up blood and was turned away after two hours of humiliation. The original story is here. It's news because it's rare. Or at least I hope that's the reason. I've seen a handful of hospital or first responder stories like this over the years. The thing I find second scariest is that someone will not help a fellow human because they have a problem with that particular person.

[Some readers might be equating this with Charles Drew, the black doctor who invented blood transfusions. The story is, he died after being denied a blood transfusion at an all-white hospital. He did receive a transfusion; his auto accident injuries were too severe.]

Tyra Hunter bled to death after paramedics refused to treat her after an auto accident. Apparently, blood, death, broken bodies were OK but finding out that the woman they were treating was really a man was too much for them.

Amanda Milan was murdered for minding her own business. As she lay bleeding from a slit throat, cabbies cheered and applauded.

The scariest thing is, there were groups of people present who did nothing to help! Why couldn't one hospital worker, paramedic, cabdriver, have the decency to say "that's a person. We need to help".

These are people who would probably rush to save a puppy in distress, if they could.

I really hope it's news because it's rare. Stana regularly does outreach, to help people understand that they're no different from us, really. I wish we had an army to educate the masses. That's one army I'd enlist in.

Sorry for the downer today ~ I'm trying to figure out why.