I'm sharing a Community Members' Status, because it's important for folks to hear. She was treated unfairly, there's no two ways about it.
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(To be mailed out today)
Dear Ms. Elizabeth Warren and Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz:
Hello. My name is Stephanie Bonvissuto. I am a resident of a small neighborhood just outside of metropolitan Boston. Today is Tuesday, November 6th, Election Day. The time is 7:45 a.m. and I have just left my designated polling place. As a firm believer in the sanctity of the voting booth I will not reveal who I voted for. All I will say is, You’re Welcome.
One little detail I left out is that I am a woman in gender transition. In case you were wondering what this means, I regularly take hormones (just as many women who are not transitioning do), I live and express who I am as a woman every minute of every hour of every day of the year (and have done so for many years).
Importantly for the sake of this letter, I have also had my name legally changed to reflect this. I have gone through the courts, have had to have this change publicly announced in local newspapers, and have changed all that government and personal documents that I am allowed to by law. This includes, but is not limited to, my Social Security card, academic records, medical records, bank accounts, and my driver’s license.
I would like to reiterate this for sake of clarity: my driver’s license, which includes my photo and address and name, and which as a government issued document identifies me as female. (Of course, I do not need the government to validate who I am. Please do not take that personally.)
So imagine my surprise – along with my mortification, my humiliation, my fear and my hurt – when an election official at my designated polling place by the name of Oscar said that I needed to provide proof of identification. Just outside of Boston, in the state of Massachusetts, on Election Day morning, on a voting line five feet from the voting booth.
Speaking of that line - no one else on my queue was asked to provide identification. Other voters were dutifully logged in and given ballots as Oscar hung onto my license. He did not explain to me why I had been called out. He did not say what he intended to do with my license. After a few busy minutes he took it to another election official to discuss what he should do next – and in the course of that conversation proceeded to repeatedly misgender me, all the while holding onto my license which clearly stated my correct gender. He finally returned to the check-in table and, still not speaking to me, continued to check in other voters. Concerned neighbors and curious strangers moved around us. I had to finally ask Oscar for my license back. Only then was I given my ballots, allowing me to vote.
Ms. Warren and Senator Chang-Diaz, you should know that one of the reasons I moved from New York to The Bay State was because of what I saw were a passion for progressive politics and courageous stances taken in the name of civil rights issues in the present day. The passage of the Massachusetts Trans Equality Bill earlier this year, and the passage of the far-reaching Marriage Equality Bill in 2004 clearly indicate I made the right decision.
Whether you are victorious at the end of this day or not, I hope that you in your capacities as state leaders with a national voice continue this trend towards basic human rights for all – including having all election officials in Massachusetts trained to sensitivity so that no other voter will ever have to undergo what I did this morning just to be able to exercise her constitutional right as a proud citizen of this great state.
Thank you.
Stephanie Bonvissuto, Student Coordinator
Queer Student Center
University of Massachusetts Boston
QSC@umb.edu
617 287-7983