The man who officials are blaming for Friday’s crash of a Boston trolley while texting his girlfriend on his cell phone is one of our own. ABC News: “Aiden Quinn, 24, received the three speeding tickets in his private vehicle, two in New Hampshire in April 2007, and one in Massachusetts in 2002, sources told ABC News. Quinn, who was hired as a minority because of his transgendered ‘female-to-male’ status, was born Georgia Quinn and boasts on an Internet networking site that he was one of the first transgender hires by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, sources said. The trolley driver lists his sexual orientation as ‘FTM’ and was hired as a minority using his transgender status, two sources told ABC News. ‘[Quinn] was initially hired as a minority and used her transgender status,” an MBTA source said today. MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told ABC News today that there was ‘nothing unusual about Quinn’s hire, and that he was picked out of a lottery that he entered in 2004.” Joe My God points out this isn’t the first time a transgender person allegedly caused a transit accident.
Boston
The Trolley Driving Texter? A FTM
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Brianna
Ummm…it’s FTM. Not MTF.
And he refers to his gender identity as his sexual orientation? I don’t believe that.
jake
yeah when did gender identity have a direct correlation with sexuality. such a long way to go
1.sex
2.gender
3.orientation
thatguyfromboston
I would posit that the true cause of most vehicular accidents, be they in a train, a car, a bus, boat or what have you is having a girlfriend. I know this must be true, because I’ve never had either.
blake
Why should this man’s gender matter? So what if he’s FTM? How did his transition have any impact on the accident? Shocking news: the guy got 3 speeding tickets over a 5 year period! How terrible. If it was so terrible, why was he hired? Is it unusual for trolley drivers to have 3 speeding tickets in a 5 year period?
Now, look at how this story is being positioned as a “minority” hire who screwed up. That’s crap. The man screwed up because he was acting like a million other people irresponsibly do every day: multitask while driving a vehicle. I just read about a woman who painted her fingernails while driving and killed a young mother.
Making an issue of Mr. Quinn’s gender seems wrong unless it specifically ties into his actions.
j.d.
@blake: We regularly cover the good and bad among members of our community. That Quinn is a transgender person puts him on our radar—that he was involved in a high profile accident makes him worth covering.
Qjersey
@jake:
As an academic myself, I can tell you that the entire sex, gender, and orientation definitions as discrete categories has been perpetuated by academics and mostly white academics. In the real world, individuals tend to mix them together or collapse them all the time. Many trans women of color will still tell you they are “gay.”
niles
I don’t claim “him”.
Adam
@thatguyfromboston: that’s true. i can vouch for that.