A MUSLIM husband threatened to sue an all-female driving school after discovering that his wife’s driving instructor was once a man.
According to ReligionNewsBlog, Joanne Dixon, owner of the Laugh ‘n’ Pass driving school which operates throughout Yorkshire, was called by the ignorant bigot who complained after his wife’s first lesson with 42-year-old Emma Sherdley – formerly a married father of two called Andrew but now legally a woman.
Mrs Dixon said that the man asked her to send a “proper woman” instructor and, later, she received a further call asking for compensation and threatening to sue, saying that she “should have known” not to send Miss Sherdley.
Mrs Dixon, who set up Laugh ‘n’ Pass with all-female teachers 10 years ago, designed to put women learners at their ease, said:
Emma is a popular and very well-respected instructor. The husband insisted said his wife had been out with a male. I replied, No, she’s been with a female. Then he said, ‘Just send a proper female.’
In my eyes we’ve done nothing wrong.
Miss Sherdley has a birth certificate and a “gender recognition certificate” to prove her legal status as a woman, although she is still waiting for final surgery to make her transition from male to female physically complete.
The Laugh ‘n’ Pass website devotes a section to “One special lady by the name of Emma”
Emma is a transgender. She has worked for our driving school for 12 months we are proud of her, everyone loves her. She is sensitive and professional in her work.
Here we accept everyone. We do not discriminate. Life is too short.
Unfortunate in today’s society some others are not as accepting and dislike others for not being like them and we can only feel saddened by this.
Miss Sherdley says that none of her other pupils has had a problem with her sex change and she found the man’s complaints ‘hurtful, offensive and deeply upsetting’.
For that man to threaten to sue me and the driving school is totally and utterly wrong.
At present Laugh ‘n’ Pass employs 20 female instructors, who teach women throughout South and West Yorkshire, and Mrs Dixon said:
Emma’s done really well. She’s so bubbly and gets on with everybody – she’s just one of the girls.
6 Comments
“Here we accept everyone. We do not discriminate. Life is too short.”
Well, actually that is false. They do discriminate. That is the basis of their business, hiring only women (whether genetically or legally female).
While I feel the man who instigated the lawsuit is is the wrong, I’m not sure if one should even have “women only” driving instructors in the first place. But, I also don’t know of the intricacies of UK discrimination laws.
Unless you cut it off, you could still stick it in, and that’s not cool man, not cool at all.
“MILLINERE wrote:
Unless you cut it off, you could still stick it in, and that’s not cool man, not cool at all.”
You seem to be equating a means with motive and presuming guilt. The paranoid ravings of the husband in this instance not withstanding, having a penis does not equal attraction to the man’s wife. Likewise, not having a penis does not equal a lack of attraction for his wife. And, penises are not required to have sexual relations with a woman.
The husband should drop his ridiculous, paranoid lawsuit.
Its really horrible when religious people chose only to acept those aspects on the law that fits with their personal worldview. What right do they have to practice their own lifestyle choices if they will not allow others their own? They are clearly stuck in the medievial mindset. This should not surprise us about fundamentalists of any colour. At least by causing this sort of incident their religion will be shown to the thinking person to be what it is.
On a completely different note, the notion of a female only driving school seems fundamentally discriminatory to me! Would we be so happy to feel this way about an all male driving school? Wouldn’t that be thought of as discrimatory in employment terms?
I presume that this brilliant husband don’t except also a lesbian driving instructor???
So what happens when his wife goes for her driving test… if she refuses to be tested by a male tester and the DSA complies he could sue them for discrimination!
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