Earlier this year San Diego sanitation workers threw a homeless man in a garbage truck, mistaking him for refuse. When you are indistinguishable from garbage, maybe it’s time you reassess your life. Another thing that should cause some self-reflection is if you are a biological woman and medical professionals think you are a man. A grandma in Florida was examined by both a doctor and nurse and they were convinced that she was really a he, so she was placed in a men’s jail. This ain’t much of a self-esteem builder, but she did get a lawsuit out of it so it’s not a total loss.
Judging by her picture, I say it’s a toss up, and her name didn’t really help the cause either. Fior Pichardo de Veloz, which sounds like a drag queen stage name, is an attorney and some kind of elected official in the Dominican Republic. In November of 2013 she was arrested at Miami International Airport on drug charges, so I guess that’s what kind of elected official she is.
It’s unclear why Pichardo was taken to the hospital before jail, but presumably it was because the cops didn’t know what she was. Maybe Miami police use the hospitals as a Hogwarts-style sorting hat, I don’t know.
The Miami Herald reports that Pichardo was taking hormones, which got Dr. Fredesvindo Rodriguez-Garcia thinking she was a man pretending to be a woman. In fact, the doctor classified her as a man on the medical chart. Nurse Fatu Kamara Harris even wrote “Transgender, male parts, female tendencies,” on the chart. Hey, at least these medical professionals acknowledge that she kind of acted like a woman, so she’s got that going for her.
Pichardo had been strip-searched at the jail by a female officer, who “did not notice anything abnormal” but the nurse reported an exam revealed “everything fell out” meaning her supposed male genitals were discovered.
When the cops asked the hospital staff what they came up with, Nurse Harris did her best Austin Powers impersonation and replied, “She’s a man.” She left out the “baby” part but that was close enough.
After the doctor and nurse determined she was a man, police placed Pichardo in a men’s holding facility for 10 hours where she was definitely not sexually assaulted. In addition to the ego-crush of being misgendered, it had to put her further down in the dumps knowing that a bunch of perverted scumbag criminals didn’t find her in the least bit desirable.
Eventually, Pichardo’s family showed up to jail and pleaded with authorities to reexamine her. A second examination determined she was in fact a woman. This is kind of like the opposite of The Crying Game. Spoiler alert: it’s a woman!
Pichardo tried to sue the Miami-Dade police, the county, and the jail staff but a judge threw that out. He did however allow her to file a suit against the doctor and nurse who determined she was a man.
“Every reasonable prison officer and medical personnel would have known that wrongfully misclassifying a biological female as a male inmate and placing that female in the male population of a detention facility was unlawful,” said the judge.
Define “reasonable.” Jail staff strip-searched Pichardo and they weren’t 100% convinced she was a she. After getting a second opinion a trained medical doctor and nurse thought they saw some bits and pieces that didn’t belong. Clearly her gender falls into a gray area.
Pichardo will probably make bank with this lawsuit, but as a final indignity, she is going to have to prove in a court of law that she is actually a woman because it’s not as obvious as it should be.
