Just curious if states legally recognize you as the gender you transitioned to. and do you have all the rights such as marriage and adoption.

I think the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. U

For me, my birth certificate is in a state that STRICTLY will not change your birth gender until you've had SRS.
However, I was able to go to the DMV and get my license changed to the gender I wanted (albeit it was a long process) and I only did it because I pass well enough. Otherwise, you have to have SRS in my state to have it changed (very strict state).

However, in places like California or Massachusetts, once you change your birth certificate and all your documents, on paper, you're that gender. So, in theory, yes, you should have the same rights.

I will say; however, if you have a prejudice adoption agency and they do a background check YOUR OLD NAME WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU. Unfortunately, a lot of your old information will stay on a background check and again, if that adoption agency thinks transgender is wrong, they could just reject you simply on that alone.

Many do, including California. The US Dept of Justice and EEOC does. Look at Macy v Holder

Near as I can tell, in our state there is no such thing as being "legally male" or "legally female". Each agency has different requirements for listing your gender on their documents.

The short answer is "it depends."  There is no uniform criteria for changing documents.  It depends on the jurisdiction, and it depends on the specific document.  Some jurisdictions and some documents are not allowed to be changed at all.

Even if you change your documents, some states' law is that you are still not actually a legal member of the sex stated on the changed document for at least some purposes (notably marriage).  So for those states, the fact that all your identity documents have been changed to say "male", for example, would not mean that you are always considered legally male

In most states, there is a huge amount if grey area where these issues simply are undecided.

In short, it's a mess.

I know if your pre op mtf, and you go to jail, they will throw you in with the men. Same way for ftm. They get stuck with women. You'd have to be post op, with a corrected birth certificate,  to get placed correctly. If not, they can stick a pre or post op in seperate 'housing.' I would assume this applies universally and not just for jail. So, to answer the question, yes if you're post op. But, sometimes they still discriminate. I would imagine they would be weary to let a transgender adopt a child, because gays have the same issue with the state. They clump transgender in the same wagon as lesbian, gay, bisexual, because some politicians get a kick out of demeaning us. They go around and try to tell the state that we're out to raise queers.

Until I'm post op I don't have any intention to change the gender on my documents. Even though I basically live full time and have been for the last 5 years I haven't really had anyone question my ID (drivers license) as most just look at the age, not the gender. My first & middle names won't need changing cause they can be either boy or girl names so I have that part covered.

It depends upon the jurisdiction.

I live in California and have filed the paperwork to legally change my name and gender. After it is approved I will be able to change my Social Security Card and Driver's License, which will then allow me to change it on other things such as bank accounts and credit cards.

If I had been born in California they would also issue a new Birth Certificate reflecting the proper gender and seal the original one so that it can never be accessed by anyone. Unfortunately, I was not born in California so the Court has no jurisdiction to order another state to issue a new Birth Certificate. The state where I was born requires detailed surgical notes from GRS to issue a new Birth Certificate.

So, while most of the documents anyone would ever see will reflect the proper gender, there will still be that Birth Certificate lingering out there somewhere. The only concern I have at the moment is changing my Passport. I have done some research on it and have found that a lot of the information online is confusing and contradictory. While I have had a passport for nearly ten years, I have never actually used it. I'd like to some day, and for obvious reasons I don't want it showing my old name or gender. I'm stumped by this one.

Surprisingly enough, Miami also does. They have the paperwork for legal name changes and gender changes. Adoption and marriage are also non-issue in Miami, yet Gay marriage is still taboo.... interesting if you ask me (sounds more like a registered gender technicality)

I hear that California's transgender law/rights system is based on Miami's. At least, thats what a friend told me. I find it incredibly mind-blowing that transgender law down here is so liberal..... yet ENDA didn't pass.... so I can change my name, change my gender, get HRT and SRS with little to no gate-keeping.... but I can be refused a job for being trans lol. Idk, sounds counterproductive to me.

There is an interesting patchwork of laws out there, what I find rather progressive though is this DMV form: http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/pdf/dl17.pdf It clearly shows that at least for Drivers licenses in Virginia (a place were some still say President Jefferson Davis was our first and only president...) you don't necessarily need SRS which is very nice IMO. While I certainly want SRS, I don't think that anyone should be required to have it just to have their gender recognized. All you need is a licensed psychologist, nurse, etc; a vast improvement over some states.

Unfortunately for VA, you still need SRS to get an actual new Birth Certificate with your new gender but, basically you just need to take a notarized letter from the physician to the court and request it changed. So not quite as progressive as our DMV, but now that the state is becoming much more LGBT friendly (our new AG is siding with people challenging our constitutional ban on SSM) we might see the requirement for SRS (or technically any irreversible medical procedure so an Orchie or hysto could probably count.) be dropped.

If you are interested in comparing the states Lambda Legal has a big list on their site about all the various rules.

Quote from: LittleEmily24 on January 28, 2014, 02:47:44 PM
Surprisingly enough, Miami also does. They have the paperwork for legal name changes and gender changes. Adoption and marriage are also non-issue in Miami, yet Gay marriage is still taboo.... interesting if you ask me (sounds more like a registered gender technicality)

I hear that California's transgender law/rights system is based on Miami's. At least, thats what a friend told me. I find it incredibly mind-blowing that transgender law down here is so liberal..... yet ENDA didn't pass.... so I can change my name, change my gender, get HRT and SRS with little to no gate-keeping.... but I can be refused a job for being trans lol. Idk, sounds counterproductive to me.

Hi Emily, I too am a Florida girl and thought I'd congratulate you on beginning life as who you are. Don't worry about the age, I'm 50 and just started my hrt. I finally got tired of being miserable just to keep others happy so 5 years ago when I was 45 I bought my own home here in Floral City (1 hr, 45 min north of Tampa on I-75) and decided it was time for me to be happy. Being originally from California I am a little familiar with their laws, and also those here in Fl. We do have the ID and gender change a little easier than many states Va. and W. Va. both come to mind especially W.Va. (I bought property there once and ended up selling it because of their laws concerning trans people). As for the job thing I think it would depend on the job type or career field.

Depends on the state, as others have said. MA and CT, which I know personally, both allow for legal gender change with just a doctor's letter. Both also have legal same-sex marriage, so although trans people are recognized as their transitioned gender for marriage purposes, it doesn't actually matter.  I don't know offhand about adoption, but given that the state laws otherwise recognize and respect transition, it's probably OK...

I got my driver's license changed after about a year on HRT; there was no waiting period, that's just how long it took me to get around to name change. My birth certificate, on the other hand, is from a state that requires GRS to change it. However, since neither the state I live in nor the one where I work *cares* about my BC - they consider me legally female from that day at the DMV on - it hasn't been a priority.

I plan to change the gender on my driver's license, in the social security system (it's in there just not on your card), and to obtain a passport with my new gender shortly thereafter. That should be sufficient for work and most other activities.

I was born in a state that allows birth certificates to be amended but only with SRS. However, I've been told that for my particular state if I just ask to amend the name, it will be a "corrected" document and if I just ask later to amend the gender, it will again be "corrected" but that if I wait and ask for both at the same time, the certificate will be completely re-issued with both fields corrected. So on the birth certificate, I plan to wait until after SRS.

The wiki here at Susan's contains lots of nice little points like the above that can help you in planning.