To clarify, I grew up in the Commonwealth of Dominica, not the DR. Common mistake, and the post office has made it enough times, as well. My undergrad diploma went to the DR for quite some time before eventually being redirected to the correct nation.
iKate, you may be correct in a general sense about tides turning in Trinidad, but this is not the case in Dominica. Jowelle is a beacon I look to, and I think she can definitely effect inter-island change if her story gets broadcast properly. But, at the same time, it is not at all unusual for one island to say that 'we are not them' and to stick to their own reductive religious principles; Dominica has more than once has its pundits describe it as if it is a 'special' nation for Christianity, a unique place, and this kind of rhetoric of exceptionalism means a story like Jowelle's will not create sea change unless something can change in the general populace's anti-LGBTQIA views.
Thanks for bringing up the Hague Convention. I don't know enough about this to comment on it as yet; do you know any examples of a legal name in one nation change being facilitated via it in another nation? I understand that Jowelle got both name and ID changed, but, again, that is her special case, and she, moreover, had family support to help her along, which I do not. Honestly, Dominica is so explicitly homophobic and implicitly transphobic that I find it difficult to believe a court case for changing my legal name and gender (as I have done in the U. S.) there would go through, since there is so much religious bias and corruption in the courts as is. But I do not know for certain.
I suppose one of my bigger related concerns is the idea that you are, at least in the U. S., treated as if you are a 'new' person once you change both your gender and name on your passport. I had to apply for a new U. S. passport as if I were a first-time applicant, using a DS-11, in order to change the gender and name simultaneously on my passport; I was told by an official I could not renew my passport (using a renewal form) if the gender was changing because I was considered a 'new' individual under the law. There's a paper trail linking my old legal self to my new legal self, sure, but I guess there's a kind of legal sense to this--I am, in a sense, a new person now that I'm becoming truer to myself both internally and on paper.
But this makes me wonder if I am also a 'new' person to the other nation of my citizenship. If I can somehow legally change my gender and name in Dominica, that is one thing, but since this is unlikely, I am left wondering about the legal limbo--I love the image of limbo you brought up, Jessical--I am in. Can I inherit things by 'pretending' to be male? What happens when my Dominican passport expires if I wish to renew it? etc. I know these are not questions to be specifically answered here, necessarily, but because I am still not 'out' to most people back home, I have not been able to ask a legal representative from the island what to do.
I'd be happy to hear from any other dual citizens out there who have managed to change name and gender marker on one set of documents and are trying to update or have already updated those from the other nation they have citizenship in. It's an interesting, strange legal conundrum of sorts.
