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01/07/2009
'Savaging' a transman: Anon smear campaign waged against SF officer
Fact: Stephan Thorne (formerly Stephanie Thorne) has been with the San Francisco Police Department since 1984 (and a police officer for four years prior to that). That's more than two decades of service.
Fact: Stephan Thorne spells his name with an "e" on the end.
Fact: Thorne transitioned in 1994, and has received much publicity over the years in both the gay and mainstream press. Here's a Harper's Bazaar piece that ran back in the day. Also, Stephan took part in the 2005 documentary film, Call Me Malcolm. Clearly he is not trying to hide who he is.
Fact: Stephan Thorne was recently promoted to lieutenant. By all available accounts, this was solely based on merit. We cannot find on blot on his 24 year record with the SFPD, and every media quote we can find speaks of a highly qualified leader.
Now that we've said all that, check out the following. It's a memo than an anonymous SFPD staffer has sent to extreme conservative radio host Michael Savage. He or she is upset over Thorne's promotion (laughably stating that he has "little experience"), as well as a Transgender Community Awareness Training session that inspectors are required to attend:
(*first part is a memo sent out by the SFPD, second page is the letter from the person who wrote to Michael Savage)
Conveniently chocking a promotion up to political correctness simply because the person is trans? Constantly referring to him as "he/she"? Possessing an inability to even spell Mr. Thorne's name correctly? Referring to him as inexperienced, even though his record is verifiably long and seemingly up above par?
You'll have to forgive us if we don't believe the claims about low test scores or improper procedure. And also need to forgive us if we see this measure as less of a repudiation and more of a validation of the transgender awareness training!
**Original document can be found on Michael Savage's site. If you are having problems reading it here, you can download it there
**UPDATE, 1/8: Hear the the Michael Savage radio show that alerted us to this in the first place: Audio: He chopped his own Weiner yet still Savages trans community [G-A-Y]
Your thoughts
You expect any less from Mr. Weiner? He thinks he's cutting edge when in fact he's repeating the same old hateful garbage as he's always done.
Posted by: Theo | Jan 8, 2009 7:13:50 AM
The letter to Mr. Savage sounded like sour grapes to me. It would be interesting to find out if the writer was also on that promotion list. It really doesn't matter, because I doubt that Mr. Savage is much interested in the facts.
Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Jan 8, 2009 9:02:11 AM
Mike: Yes, it totally sounds like sour grapes. I'm certainly going to continue digging.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jan 8, 2009 10:16:02 AM
The Savage Weiner is indeed a suspect source for anything, so I'm not even going to waste the energy to peck about their negative attitude toward trans stuff.
I have one issue about this, though. The memo makes a very specific claim about Thorne's rank on the exam list: 49th. (1) That seems specific enough to be verifiable or disproven (unlike general gripes like 'his grade sucked' or 'he tanked it'). (2) By my math, even the highest ranking of the 18 who allegedly scored above Thorne would have had only the 31st highest score. (3) Even assuming all other claims by this clown have some merit, I'd like to know what the grade spread was between 31 and 49 (as well as over all). For example: On a 100 point scale, did the 31st ranked one get an 90 and Thorne a 50? Or did the 31st ranked one get an 90 and Thorne a 85, meaning everyone did well and there was very little differential between any two (or 18) cops?
Posted by: Kat | Jan 8, 2009 1:45:09 PM
Kat (and others): I've written some officials to get answers to these questions. We'll see if they care to comment publicly. I actually totally understand if they don't want to give credence to this.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Jan 8, 2009 1:48:10 PM
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