Civil Identity Change

[Donna Elvira]

As those who read absolutely everything on this forum know, I filed for my Civil Identity Change in September. In France, this is still something of a lottery as the judges in the adminstrative courts who handle such procedures have considerable discretionary powers in deciding to grant the change or not. There was even a recent case where a person who had undergone GRS was refused the change on the basis that the medical certificates provided by a foreign surgeon were not considered valid by the judge.

The law simply stipulates that "irreversible changes" have to have been made and in many, if not most jurisdictions, the judges consider that this means proving that you have done GRS.

I have not done GRS and given my professional situation, I really didn't see how I could possibly do it any time in the immediate future. I just couldn't free up the time required for recovery, typically 2 to 3 months if there are no complications.

So the only irreversible change I could invoke was my FFS, both very radical and very irreversible. That ,plus some really fanatastic testimonial letters from family and friends did the trick. Today I got a message from my lawyer with a letter from the court accepting the principle of my CIC which means change to gender identity on all my legal documents , birth certificate, mariage license, ID, passport, drivers license, social security N° etc. etc..

I was at work when I got the news and have been trying to digest it every since. It has been a very long and at times very bumpy and painful journey but this feels so unbelievably good. The procedure won't be finalized until March or thereabouts but I hope that the letter from the court will be enough for my employers to allow me to transition on the job before that, for example when we come back from the Christmas holiday.

No matter what, it is now just a question of a few months at most so after all that I have gone through over the last few years, a few months more is manageable one way or another. Yaaaay!!! 
Donna     

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Awesome news, Donna.

[LordKAT]

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music.




OK, OK, I know I can't sing, I'm just happy for you.

[Donna Elvira]

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music.




OK, OK, I know I can't sing, I'm just happy for you.

Ms O'B, LK Thanks to both of you. I'm listening to music right now as it happens, a Verdi opera called "Il Corsaro" that I had never heard before. Not exactly dance music but still very enjoyable and my soul is dancing without any doubt   

Given much of the jursiprudence in France I wasn't confident at all about the outcome of my filing and neither did I expect such a quick decision so I almost fell off my chair this aftenoon when I received the mail from my attorney, a young woman who is something of a TG militant.

My happiness at this decision is all the greater as it adds to the jurisprudence where GRS was not insisted on as a pre-condition for a Civil Identity Change so not only have I removed a huge weight from my own shoulders, every single judgement like this will make things that much easier for others.
Hugs
Donna
   

[kira21 ♡♡♡]

Yaaay! :-) Go Donna :-)

I can't wait till I can have my birth certificate reissued. I have my passport and driver licence changed. I thought it was odd that I could have an F marker in my passport but can't change my birth certificate without a lot lot more hoop jumping.

Anyways.... Very good news :-)

Akira x

[Robin Mack]

Congratulations!  That must be a tremendous relief!

*happy dance*

*hug*

[Megumi]

Congrats

[MaryXYX]

Congratulations Donna!

Keep up the struggle for trans-rights - I applaud your precedent.

[Jessica Merriman]

TOPIC PARTY!!! 

[Donna Elvira]

Thank you all for your kind words. It has been an interesting week digesting the fact that I will shortly be recognized by society as a woman. One very perceptible evolution is that I feel more comfortable than ever with my female identity, as if this recognition already helped me to validate my choice to myself.
An added twist to the week's events is that one of my two sisters has been here for a visit since yesterday evening. We hadn't seen each other since May 2009 but she was obviously aware of all changes that I announced and had seen recent photos of me. She still got a bit of a shock when she saw me though and even more, over dinner we got into some interesting discussions about what being a real woman meant with all the usual stuff about child birth, periods etc.. It stayed good humoured though and well trained from prior experience and reading here, I was quickly able to close out the subject by asking her if a cis-woman who had never had children was thus not a woman (like my wife for example.. )  and same thing for a menopaused woman.
Better again, we went out together this afternoon and she couldn't but acknowledge both how comfortable I appeared and the obvious fact that nobody we interacted with took me for anything other than a woman.
Something of an eye opener for her as she had no prior experience of anything like this and I expect that many of her preconceptions have taken a bit of a battering over the last 24 hours. For me that too is very positive as I know this will get back to my other siblings and should help them move forward from a rather grudging acceptance to a better level of understanding and enough acceptance for them to feel genuinely OK about me coming to family events etc. as me.
Voilà! Quite an emotion filled week but all very positive.
Hugs
Donna
       

[MaryXYX]

It's very encouraging when a family member comes with all their preconceptions but is open to learning.  Specially when they see just how comfortable and normal you are in your real life.