Quote from: jonjon on September 19, 2014, 02:22:47 AM
Good luck with the name change!

I have to say, from over the pond, you guys really seem to have a complicated, expensive and very unnecessary process for name changing is there any particular reason it's that way? Here in UK you just hop online, fill in a form and select your desired name and pay like £30 or something. Job done and paperwork in the post about a week or two later! In fact, you even get a discount if you decide to change it again!! Crazy XD I just don't understand why the US have made it so complicated for you

Not entirely true. It can be done that way, or it can be done for free. There's no reason to use one of the sites you pay for, they're all as legal as each other, so as long as you have the curvy wording (and there's free sites which give you that) might as well print it off for free!

I didn't think you needed anything besides the court order for your birth certificate, license, and SS in NYS? Where did you hear that you did (I'm curious)? I know the process is different between Upstate and NYC/the five boroughs so I don't know if that's the case at hand here or not (because to be honest I don't know the process for NYC/the five boroughs).

Quote from: Noah G. on September 21, 2014, 11:54:26 AM
I didn't think you needed anything besides the court order for your birth certificate, license, and SS in NYS? Where did you hear that you did (I'm curious)? I know the process is different between Upstate and NYC/the five boroughs so I don't know if that's the case at hand here or not (because to be honest I don't know the process for NYC/the five boroughs).

Talking about the gender change, not the name change; I'm good on that part. The gender part needs professional diagnosis or proof of surgery, multiple diagnoses in the case of BC, which can be used for SS (DL gender marker cannot, AFAIK, be used to change the gender in the SSA's systems).

Okay, that makes more sense. I misunderstood and didn't realize you had meant gender marker change in the paragraph (that would explain it not making much sense to me).

Is NYS now accepting diagnoses in place of surgery for changing one's gender on their BC? That's news to me, last I knew they were requiring double mastectomy and a full hysterectomy (I know, not the proper, technical/medical term but we all know what it means). I'll have to look into that and see whether I might be able to get that changed sooner than anticipated..

I believe you're right that you need your birth certificate changed to change it with SS. That was how I had always understood it, that a driver's license wasn't enough. Of course, with how much it seems things may have changed since I last looked into this who knows, haha

Yeah, they just changed it in NYS in June, but NYC has their own rules. Afaik, NYC hasn't changed their rules yet

Sweet, I live in upstate NY so that's good news for me. I'll have to refresh myself on the gender marker change process and figure out when to get that done.

Thanks for the info, Ben; and I should have already said this, but, congratulations on your name change and how smooth the process was for you! The ladies at your office sound fantastic.

No prob, and thanks! They seriously are. I feel like I should get them flowers lolhttp://www.lambdalegal.org/publications/changing-birth-certificate-sex-designations-state-by-state-guidelines#O that's the link for the bc info (scroll up a bit). Apparently a PA can write the letter and it's just one letter needed! Good stuff.