Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Chase Culpepper as himself
It hasn’t been a good week for those folks who are pushing the transgender agenda in the U.S. with the family of a gender “non-conforming” teen upset that he couldn’t get a photo ID while wearing women’s makeup while another man who changed his gender twice got sacked from his job at ABC News due to performance problems.
The Daily Mail is reporting on the case of Chase Culpepper, 16, who showed up at the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office in South Carolina wearing women’s makeup.
The 16 year-old who wears androgynous clothing and makeup, claims DMV staffers insisted that he remove his makeup because it’s against the law to create a photo idea in a “disguise”.
“This is who I am and my clothing and make-up reflect that,” Chase said. “The Department of Motor Vehicles should not have forced me to remove my make-up simply because my appearance does not meet their expectations of what a boy should look like.”
Chase as a woman
Chase’s mother, Teresa Culpepper, agrees, and told WYFF4: “They said he was wearing a disguise. It was very hurtful. He was absolutely devastated. That’s who he is 24/7.”
However, the law is not on his side. According to Beth Parks of the DMV, state policy stipulates that: “At no time will an applicant be photographed when it appears that he or she is purposely altering his or her appearance so that the photo would misrepresent his or her identity.”
It should go without saying that a person’s photo ID, which is used to identify them at security checkpoints in airports, in voting precincts, etc. should represent what he or she really looks like, not who they make themselves up to be.
But that’s not how the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund sees it. They’ve sent a formal letter to the South Carolina office, claiming that Chase’s freedom to express gender was “restricted” and that forcing him to remove his makeup was in violation of state and federal constitutional protections.” They are requesting that Chase be allowed to have a new photo taken of him dressed as a girl.
Public response to this story has not been favorable to transgenders with most folks saying it makes sense for a person’s photo ID to represent who they really are, not who they pretend to be later.
The Mail is also reporting on another story involving a man named Don Ennis, an ABC news producer who made news of his own last year when he suddenly came to work dressed in a black dress and wearing an auburn wig. He asked employees to call him Dawn and received great support from everyone.
Don Ennis as Dawn
Ennis claimed his long-standing gender mix-up occurred as a result of being given estrogen as a child in order to prolong his acting career. It caused him to grow breasts and to think like a woman.
Just three months after this very public “coming out”, during which time he left his wife of 17 years, Ennis came to work one day dressed as his old self. He told coworkers he was suffering from “transient global amnesia” and thought it was 1999. He believed his wife had tricked him into dressing up as a woman.
He explained that his memories of 14 years had returned, but his female identity did not. As a result, he was back to being Don Ennis and thanked his coworkers for being so supportive.
But his saga was not yet over. Last month, Ennis once again showed up at work dressed as Dawn, and was fired soon afterward.
The company claims that his termination had nothing to do with his gender-identity issues but was related to performance problems. The news organization has refused to comment on the story.
Ennis is obviously a very troubled individual who is in need of much prayer as well as professional help in order to sort out his wildly conflicting gender issues.
Most of the people commenting on this story found it to be very disturbing, “creepy” and “beyond weird.”
Needless to say, this has not been a good week for transgender folks who want to be considered normal.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
