MESSED UP

Salvation Army Denies Shelter to Trans Woman Who Fled Hometown Over Death Threats

168701_117768574961321_1194237_nIt’s getting kind of hard to tell whether the Salvation Army is good or evil. We know that they had some pretty terrible attitudes about LGBTs in the past, but then they tried to turn over a new leaf, but it didn’t go very well, so they’re still kind of working through their issues even as they deny that they ever even had issues to begin with.

But the organization also does a lot of good work for disadvantaged people! So they’re clearly not all bad. Except sometimes they run into problems, such as a recent fuss in Dallas in which staffers started quizzing a housing applicant about her genitals.

Dallas Voice reports Jodielynn Wiley needed housing, and applied for a two-year program with the Salvation Army. She had fled Paris, Texas due to death threats and needed a place to live.

During an interview process, someone (either a counselor or a case worker) asked her if she’d had surgery to correct her gender. She hadn’t, and so they turned her down.

It seems like the Salvation Army is once again villainous here. But there’s a promising twist: a director at the Salvation Army’s Carr P. Collins Social Service Center told reporters that it was a mistake to ask questions about a client’s surgery, and that placement is based on self-identified gender.

For her part, Wiley has filed a complaint with the Fair Housing Office, so one way or another the matter will hopefully be cleared up soon. And hopefully no one else will have to undergo the same sort of inappropriate questioning.

Photo credit: Facebook

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