Changing of names

[Diane Elizabeth]

  With a court order in hand I went down to the SSA office to do my name and gender change.  The name change was no problem but they refused to do a gender change without a letter from my Dr saying that I had SRS.  That is according to federal rules they go by.  I guess I will live with that, for now.  Still waiting on my new Dr Lic.

[Catherine Sarah]

Congratulations Diane,

Another 'brick' in the wall, another milestone reached. And such a lovely name as well. Hope you are really proud of yourself.

I'm headed the same way next month. It must seem somewhat surreal to actually have it legalised, does it?

I can't wait, but I have to be patient. It's one of those "Rites of Passage", and it should be done right. Even a little party afterwards.     

Enjoy your life.

Huggs
Catherine

[Miharu Barbie]

That sounds goofy to me, Diane.  Unless rules have changed quite a bit since 1999 (which is certainly possible), I changed my name and gender both at my local social security office with nothing more than the court order issued by Los Angeles Superior Court.  I simply filled out the form and handed over a certified copy of the court order.  No eyebrows were raised.  No questions were asked.  Within minutes the deed was done. 

If you have options where you live, you might consider trying a different Social Security Office.  Sometimes the resistance we meet when dealing with petty bureaucrates has more to do with the attitude problems of the individual than with the system, per se.

Best of luck with it.
Miharu

[Miharu Barbie]

And by the way, I was also able to change the name AND GENDER on my US passport and California birth certificate both with nothing more than the court order.  The only person who ever saw the letter from my doctor was the judge who signed the court ordered name and gender change documents in LA superior court.

I hope this helps.

[Miharu Barbie]

One thing I learned in the process of legally changing my name: The left hand has absolutely no idea what the right hand is doing. For every office I went to and every person I spoke to, no one gave me a consistent answer. You just have to work through the process and deal with many incompetent idiots, bigoted morons and dumb schmucks. BUT you will run across a minority that are actually capable of performing their jobs. It's just a maze of red tape and lack of mental abilities that one must navigate in order to do this.

Truer words were never spoken.  Even though I was able to change my birth certificate with the court order, I should add that the process took 18 months....  Yeah, a year-and-a-half!  That's 18 months of phone calls, resubmitting forms, calling one office after another, documenting every phone call, every conversation, every letter, being transferred here and there and trying to educate one office on proper procedure based on what I'd learned from another office.  It was a fiasco!  But, after 18 months, all of my hard work paid off when I received a brand new birth certificate in the mail with my correct name and gender.

Don't be too quick to take "No" for an answer, Diane.  There's more than one way to skin a bureaucrate.