My year of bureaucratic changes in gender
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Commentary: Trans Progressive
by Autumn Sandeen
Nov. 2 2012 I received a letter from the California Department of Public Health, Vital Records. In that letter came proof that I was "born again." I was born female.
You see, the gender listed on my original birth certificate was male, and my name was my given, male name. The gender listed on the birth certificate I received in November was female, and the name was the female name I'd changed my legal name to in 2003: Autumn Violet Sandeen.
The new birth certificate isn't a revised version of my birth certificate; my new birth certificate in no way indicates it's a revised birth certificate as revised birth certificates in a number of other states do. There is no difference in document style between the birth certificate issued when I was born and the new birth certificate issued by the California Department of Public Health, Vital Records in late October and delivered to me in early November.
