Hi, Everybody!
I've lived about half my life in the US and half in Ireland. I'm currently in Ireland because I like it over here, although one thing you can say about the Irish is that they, unlike some other peoples who tend to be a bit boastful, actually tend to be somewhat self-denigrating. One of my favorite expressions over here is "this country that God made last" as a reference to Ireland.
One thing about the Irish that I find annoying is that they tend to change things that don't need to be changed because (as far as I can tell) they simply get bored with them. E.g., the supermarket manager might get tired of having the Frozen over here and the Veg over there, and so on, so he puts his staff to considerable trouble to move things around—which doesn't actually make things better and only requires customers to learn the new layout of the store.
Or you'll have a number of Regional Technical Colleges (RTC's) around the country, then all of a sudden they're being called Institutes of Technology (IT's) even though they're the same damn thing. The Department of Social Welfare was re-baptized the Department of Social Welfare and Family Affairs not terribly long ago, and then recently was re-re-baptized the Department of Social Protection (or at least I think that's what it is this week). Over in the US your Social Security number has always been your Social Security number. Over here it used to be your PRSI number (and no telling what it was before then) and now it's your PPS number.
Which leads me to the subject of this rant: I got a letter today informing me that I'm going to have to go into my local office to hand in my Social Services Card and exchange it for a BRAND NEW, INNOVATIVE AND NO DOUBT MUCH, MUCH BETTER Public Services Card.
This is a bother because, as everybody knows, when you're trans, legal documents are a problem. And I happen to be happy with my current Social Services Card because it simply shows my (new legal) name and my PPS number without indicating my gender—an advantage to me given that the laws of this country don't currently recognize my real gender.
Will this new Public Services Card indicate my gender? It would be a problem if it did. But I phoned up the local office and they told me that it won't. Excellent! And another bonus is that it will also have my photo on it.
This will be a step forward for me because recently a government office was asking me for photo ID and I had to explain to them that I didn't actually have any. I don't drive, so I don't have a driver's license, and the only other possibility would be a passport, which I'm currently without—the reason being that when I changed my name that made my old passport invalid and I've declined to apply for a new one since the only one the law would permit me to have would misgender me. I'm not too thrilled with the idea of having a document that's supposed to identify me but actually misidentifies me.
So if the state is now going to issue me an ID card with my photo on it, that will certainly help. But in order to get that card I'm going to have to present four things to the official concerned:
(1) my current passport or driver's licence;
(2) my full birth certificate;
(3) proof of address;
(4) my current Social Services Card.
Now (3) and (4) are no problem for me, but as I've already explained (1) is impossible—as is (2) since I was actually born in Virginia, which state will issue me a new birth cert with my new name but not with the correct gender—i.e., another bit of ID that would actually misidentify me.
Now the purpose of (1) and (2) is to establish that I am an Irish citizen, and I'm out of luck there. The only other proof I have is my "Certificate of Naturalization", which is of course in my old name. So I suppose what I'm going to have to do is present perhaps my old invalid passport, my invalid birth cert and my presumably invalid Certificate of Naturalization, along with my "deed poll", i.e., the document that attests to my legal change of name and that will hopefully satisfy the official in question that my now invalid documents were once upon a time hunky-dory.
And then I will get my BRAND NEW, INNOVATIVE AND NO DOUBT MUCH, MUCH BETTER Public Services Card. Yippee!
Another thing that came to mind is how our enemies often claim that we "choose to be transgender". Of course I chose to be transgender! It is so much fun running around in circles chasing documents that other citizens get as a matter of course, only to find that once I've got them more than likely they'll insult me by misgendering me—unless of course I decide to see if I can live without them altogether. I mean, what do I need a passport for?
Now in theory within a few months legislation will be passed by the Irish parliament that will recognize transpeople's gender, thereby allowing me to get a passport. If this bill is passed, though, I've been told that one transperson at least is planning to challenge it as unconstitutional, if in fact the President of Ireland decides to sign it in the first place, which he might decline to do. He's a lefty who normally wouldn't have any problem signing a bill that recognizes transgender rights, except that there is a serious question about this bill's constitutionality.
Given that there's no same-sex marriage in this country, if a married transperson (with the approval of their spouse) wants to get their gender recognized, then first of all they'll have to get divorced. And it's not easy to get divorced in this country. The first requirement is that you have to have been living separately for at least four of the previous five years.
So you split up for at least four years, get divorced, get your gender recognized, then get remarried as a same-sex couple, assuming that same-sex marriage is allowed by that time (and in theory there'll be a referendum on that next year). The reason that all this might be unconstitutional is that the Irish constitution does vow to protect the family. And this transgender rights legislation would break up a few families.
I think that everyone can now see why this expression "this country that God made last" came to mind this morning. Apart from that, this post is without significance. I'm simply venting a bit out of frustration. But I thought if anybody else wants to mention some things that are an on-going source of frustration to them, particularly in the way of legalities, here's an opportunity. Though I don't know what the rest of us can do except commiserate with you.
Hmm I can somehow relate, the Irelands way of dealing with transgender seams very annoying to me.
there not alone and some of the issues you decribe are simular around. I do not have to deal with the marrige thing but I know its a typical problem that people despite having "same sex marrige" still are to get divorced first before they can remarrige.
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I think the documentation is very important and you should be really carefull. I heard bad histories of people who imigrated to ireland and then could not travel back because there ID did not match up with them anymore.
my advice would be to try find other transgender in simular situations as you in Iraland to ask for advice with the Document problems.
im currently also having struggle with my ID since I dont have citizianship for the country I live in, So I would need to erase my past citizianship to change this, and I somehow dont feel like doing that for various reasons.
Quote from: Foxglove on October 20, 2014, 07:17:06 AM
One thing about the Irish that I find annoying is that they tend to change things that don't need to be changed because (as far as I can tell) they simply get bored with them. E.g., the supermarket manager might get tired of having the Frozen over here and the Veg over there, and so on, so he puts his staff to considerable trouble to move things around—which doesn't actually make things better and only requires customers to learn the new layout of the store.
haha yeah this happents all the time... I think its a sale trick, where you force people to stay longer in the shop seaching for the things they want, and by that making them buy more
Fortunately, marriage isn't a question for me, either, and it never will be. I do have various bits of ID--Social Services Card, credit card, etc. And recently I got my university diploma switched over to my new name. That was a biggie. But I'm still lacking a passport and a birth cert. I might get the passport sorted out fairly soon, but the birth cert may not be taken care of for a long time.