Yes, for peace of mind, practical purposes and two important points first, 'this is me' or even better still I'm proud of what I have done and finally Closure. For practical purposes you will never know when you may need to present a document for some purpose. For example, I changed all of my documents along time ago and within a very short space of time and this has created the least amount of hassle and humiliation for me.
Currently I'm in the process of enrolling to do my Masters by Research and the forms ask for information on the High School that I attended (yes I know why are they asking for the name of my high school that I attended, when I already have a degree) I have the transcripts of my High School education with my name on them (and this document will be submitted with my application, this is the practical part of having the correct name), but not the school I attended. I will fudge the forms as necessary to get around the name of my school. You can imagine the hassles I would have had now, had I not corrected the necessary document changes at the time, hence peace of mind for me.
As for the 'diploma', there was no such thing as High School diplomas when I was going to school. I would love one , but hey that's the way things are. If you are starting out in life you do not have much evidence to say what you have done, so presenting the few documents you do have informs the employer or the organization that you are prepared to see things through, however after a while your resume will list your school diploma, but no one will really ask you for it, except in very special circumstances.
Closure, as I have said, I changed all of my documents that I could have within a short period of time of when I first started, except for a couple of documents, passport and citizenship certificate being the only two that I could have done at the same time, but I did not, until after I had my surgery and these documents were changed within two and half years of when I started.
The final document which needs to be changed and which I am currently pursuing is my birth certificate. At the time, when I started out it was impossible for me to obtain my birth certificate because I was born in England and corbett vs corbett prevented me from getting that document. However, I did not need it as I had my passports and citizenship papers with the correct gender marker (I work and live in another country). I could have got it in 2004 when things changed (it would have been a lot simpler then) I did not and I should have and now I am having problems obtaining it along with the hassles and humiliation (actually one case of humiliation, which was a result of the other person seeing and verifying some very personal documents. I will get over it, but I hate it, just the same).
To have my Birth Certificate is not really necessary, in fact I have used my current Birth Certificate only once and that was to apply for my British passport. However, having my original Birth Certificate with the correct gender (girl) would bring me immense joy, a smile to my face, make my mum happy and finally bring closure on my past life.
So my advice is to go and get the diploma with your correct name on it for peace of mind, prevent hassles and humiliation later on in life, bring closure on your past life and finally be able to say to yourself. This is ME!
Kind Regards
Sarah B
Be who you want to be.
