Law Enforcement Week!

I just got back from another visit with local law enforcement. Here in Colorado, you have to get fingerprint background checks from both the FBI and CBI and bring them to the name change hearing. To get the prints taken, you have to go to the county sheriff office. I went a few weeks ago, and the deputy sheriff/fingerprint technician was as nice and respectful as could be. Fully aware of why I was there and what my ID says, he seemed to take special care to get the pronouns right. When he took the prints on the machine (its all electronic these days), he pointed out lots of white lines running through them. "Are those the result of dry skin I asked?", after all, that is the bane of Colorado. His answer was a rather disheartening, "No, those are wrinkles".

Well, after mailing them in and waiting three weeks, that set of prints was rejected by the FBI as unreadable. Bad whorls and ridges or some such thing. (This check typically takes 8 - 12 weeks!). So today, I went back in. The same guy was much less respectful this time. I counted 6 "sirs" to only one "mam". I think he was out of joint because the precision of his work was called into question. A tech person was just finishing installing a brand-spanking new machine, so I was the first set of prints run on it. It didn't make me feel special though ...

So, off go the prints to Washington (Clarksburg, WV actually)...again.

This whole experience makes me ponder the invasiveness of the whole process. One doesn't have to visit the sheriff and have prints taken to come out gay. Well, at least they didn't insist on a retina scan. (that's retina, as in eyeball identification, not any other body part)

All inked up and nowhere to go...
CiCi