National Center for Transgender Equality
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Social Security Administration No Longer Notifying Employers About Gender
Obama administration ends practice that led to job loss and outing of transgender workers
Washington, D.C. - The Social Security Administration (SSA) has confirmed that it has ended the practice of allowing gender to be matched in its Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS). This will result in the immediate cessation of SSA sending notifications that alert employers when the gender marker on an employee's W-2 does not match Social Security records.
The extent of the problem was made crystal clear when NCTE's Freedom of Information Act request was answered showing 711,488 gender no-match letters were sent in 2010 alone. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality says, "Ending this practice, which has endangered transgender people and our jobs, has been a priority for NCTE and we are pleased that the SSA has updated its policy."
MORE <http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Victory--Gender-No-Match-Letters-End.html?soid=1100409733839&aid=Nq4-dpwODDE>
Wow this is huge!!!! Changing Soc. Security cards has been a nightmare for many of my clients. Glad to see times are changing
I got lucky at SSA. The clerk who did my name change ended up changing my gender marker without me saying a single word about it. Not sure if that's how she normally operated under these circumstances or if she did it because of a gaffe she made at the start of the process (looking at my license and saying "but this is <boy name>'s license"). She was embarrassed but I thought it was hysterical. So we spent several minutes laughing about stuff and then, to my surprise, she changed my marker after she noticed it still said "M" on the receipt she gave me to confirm that her changes were correct.
That was some serious luck, and I knew it. Good to know that others won't have to rely on luck so that they don't have to out themselves to potential employers!