DMV Worker Sends Transgender Woman Hate Mail, Warns Her Of Hell

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When San Francisco resident Amber Yust went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to change the sex designation on her license from “M” to “F,” she didn’t have any problems. It wasn’t until a few days later that she says she got a letter from the DMV clerk who handled her forms — a letter warning her that she’d be damned to hell.

Homosexuality, he wrote, is “an abomination that leads to hell,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, apparently violating privacy laws. She also received a DVD from a church which promised damnation for those “possessed by demons.”

Yust, who is 23, plans to sue for damages and a court order that would instruct the DMV to enforce privacy laws. The Transgender Law Center, which is helping on her case, says the same clerk once berated another woman coming in to change the sex on her license and refused to process her application.

The DMV apologized after that incident, according to the center, in the summer of 2009.

As for the clerk’s future at the DMV, the agency refused to comment to the Chronicle, citing personnel matters.

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