MarieDelta
Apr 27, 2010, 9:50 AM
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/04/20/Six_Arrested_at_White_House_in_DADT_Protest/
Six Arrested at White House in DADT Protest
By Julie Bolcer
Six U.S. military veterans chained themselves to the White House fence Tuesday afternoon in order to protest the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Participants, who were removed from the fence and arrested around 1 p.m., included Lt. Dan Choi (pictured) and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, who were arrested in a similar action last month.
The Advocate's Washington correspondent Kerry Eleveld tweeted from the scene around noon Tuesday:
"6 vets just handcuffed themselves to the WH gates again protesting."
By 1 p.m., according to Eleveld, all the activists had been removed from the fence and placed in a police vehicle about to leave the scene.
According to Autumn Sandeen, She was treated horridly.
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15940/president-obama-a-transgender-veteran-is-not-impersonator-it-or-shim
When we arrived at the DC Superior Courthouse, Officer Carr of the Park Police also represented you poorly. Specifically, when he was identifying the make-up of the prisoners to the corrections officer who was going to be processing us, he identified the six of us in the following manner (emphasis added):
There are two women, and three men -- Well, really four men, and one of them is an impersonator.
My peer female protesters -- Cadet Mara Boyd, and Cpl. Evelyn Thomas -- were in a holding cell behind the U.S. Marshal's station. They heard that same U.S. Marshal in the fuchsia blouse state the following to one of her peer officers (emphasis added):
"Did you see it? The nerve of it to be wearing a Navy uniform. Did you see the shim in the Navy Uniform?"
Calling transgender people "it" is clearly a way of dehumanizing transgender people. "Shim" -- a term relative to "she-male" -- is also a dehumanizing term to identify transgender people. President Obama, your U.S. Marshal calling me "it" and "the shim" is the equivalent to calling an African-American by the n-word, or calling a Gay-American by the antigay f-word, it is absolutely unacceptable.
I believe the behavior of your U.S. Marshal's sent the message to the prisoners that your representatives wouldn't protect me if these prisoners had sought to physically harm me -- because I was a less than human, a "shim." At no time did any officer correct or dissuade any of the other officers from such offensive behaviors. In fact, they seemed to feel comfortable in doing so around each other, even in front of other prisoners.
President Obama, you should be able to identify the U.S. Marshal who raised her fist and yelled "Go Navy" several times, and called me "it" and "shim" because there is a fixed camera facing the U.S. Marshal Station. I've asked Jeff Lynch of the DC Trans Coalition to help me file a Freedom Of Information Act request for that segment of video -- because I too would like to see the video, and I'm sure too that many others would like to see it as well...
Now I have no problem with transgender folks being arrested, if they are doing something that requires it. However we all have the right to be treated as humans when we are arrested. This type of treatment, is absolutely wrong.
It should be noted that at no time did Autumn intentionally mislead these federal marshals.
In addition as a military veteran, I would like to say "thank you " to these vets for standing up. Especially thank you to Autumn.
Six Arrested at White House in DADT Protest
By Julie Bolcer
Six U.S. military veterans chained themselves to the White House fence Tuesday afternoon in order to protest the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Participants, who were removed from the fence and arrested around 1 p.m., included Lt. Dan Choi (pictured) and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, who were arrested in a similar action last month.
The Advocate's Washington correspondent Kerry Eleveld tweeted from the scene around noon Tuesday:
"6 vets just handcuffed themselves to the WH gates again protesting."
By 1 p.m., according to Eleveld, all the activists had been removed from the fence and placed in a police vehicle about to leave the scene.
According to Autumn Sandeen, She was treated horridly.
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15940/president-obama-a-transgender-veteran-is-not-impersonator-it-or-shim
When we arrived at the DC Superior Courthouse, Officer Carr of the Park Police also represented you poorly. Specifically, when he was identifying the make-up of the prisoners to the corrections officer who was going to be processing us, he identified the six of us in the following manner (emphasis added):
There are two women, and three men -- Well, really four men, and one of them is an impersonator.
My peer female protesters -- Cadet Mara Boyd, and Cpl. Evelyn Thomas -- were in a holding cell behind the U.S. Marshal's station. They heard that same U.S. Marshal in the fuchsia blouse state the following to one of her peer officers (emphasis added):
"Did you see it? The nerve of it to be wearing a Navy uniform. Did you see the shim in the Navy Uniform?"
Calling transgender people "it" is clearly a way of dehumanizing transgender people. "Shim" -- a term relative to "she-male" -- is also a dehumanizing term to identify transgender people. President Obama, your U.S. Marshal calling me "it" and "the shim" is the equivalent to calling an African-American by the n-word, or calling a Gay-American by the antigay f-word, it is absolutely unacceptable.
I believe the behavior of your U.S. Marshal's sent the message to the prisoners that your representatives wouldn't protect me if these prisoners had sought to physically harm me -- because I was a less than human, a "shim." At no time did any officer correct or dissuade any of the other officers from such offensive behaviors. In fact, they seemed to feel comfortable in doing so around each other, even in front of other prisoners.
President Obama, you should be able to identify the U.S. Marshal who raised her fist and yelled "Go Navy" several times, and called me "it" and "shim" because there is a fixed camera facing the U.S. Marshal Station. I've asked Jeff Lynch of the DC Trans Coalition to help me file a Freedom Of Information Act request for that segment of video -- because I too would like to see the video, and I'm sure too that many others would like to see it as well...
Now I have no problem with transgender folks being arrested, if they are doing something that requires it. However we all have the right to be treated as humans when we are arrested. This type of treatment, is absolutely wrong.
It should be noted that at no time did Autumn intentionally mislead these federal marshals.
In addition as a military veteran, I would like to say "thank you " to these vets for standing up. Especially thank you to Autumn.