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I thought of writing my book to this topic. Naw. I have written plenty of my details at other topics here at 'Susan's'. If someone wants to find them, they will.
My very open feminine protesting to family from age three into my teen years led to my entire process that began in stealth in 1974:
- I kept my contacts with Stanford and Janus mum from family throughout 1977 and 1978.
- I kept my counsellor and doctor appointments stealth from work and family (1978 - 1985).
- I changed my SSA file to Sharon and female (1978) yet I would endure more than six years of workplace gossip when the Social Security discrepancy list outed me at work (I worked as Nick and male until May 1985).
- I kept my prescription ERT stealth from family. I actually challenged my mother multiple times about my ERT (1979, 1989, 1983, and 1984); I showed them to her, but she went in denial and told me that she thought they were candy novelties.
- I filed my first legal name change to Sharon and female (1980) and promptly got my new MVD licence all under stealth.
- I kept my exploratory confirming inter-sex female (November 1982) and correction (May 1983) procedures stealth. I fabricated excuses for work and to my family and friends to explain my hospital stays, recoveries, and absences.
- I was a volunteer for the county hospital as a pharmacy tech and licenced psych tech for a year (1985 - 1986) without them knowing.
- I worked a series of temp agency assignments in stealth; I was later employed at a major Tucson hospital and their health insurance program nearly three years (1986 - 1989) in stealth.
- I worked a side career at the local community TV station; I crewed many shows (1986 - 2014), including a special episode of one show with transgender as the topic, and I produced two shows of my own (1983 - 2001) - all under stealth.
- I was hired and employed by the State of Arizona beginning 1990 and remained in stealth.
With all that stealth experience I thought that I was set for a lifetime of peacefull, private anonymity living post-op full-time forever female minding my own business for three decades.
My stealth came crashing down on me in 2005.
A manager summoned me to her office and demanded that I explain my name on that now-familiar SSA discrepancy list that suddenly showed me reverted as Nick and male. She ended our conversation telling me that she suspected me of being a male working as a female and she could not have it. It was 1983 all over again - in reverse.
I went to Social Security Administration. An agent told me that post-'9 - 11' caused panic throughout the federal government and auditors pulled people with a questionable history wherever that may be. He explained that SSA decided my name and sex change from 1978 was questionable, they reverted my file, and they demanded that I present new legal papers to restore my file as Sharon and female. So it came to pass that it was that SSA action that outed me again, this time where I was employed in stealth by the State of Arizona.
I remained as private and anonymous as possible despite SSA outing me in 2005. That ended for good last year. I was in deep depression, was absent from home for a short duration, and returned to find it burglarised and ransacked. It took from September through December to clean up the mess, assess my losses, and move on. I went to SSA to report the crime and put an alert on my file to watch for identity theft (the crooks stole my personal papers that included my SSAN). Guess what? SSA again reverted my file to Nick and male; SSA agents refused to tell me why despite my latest 2007 civil papers documenting my legal name change and sex change. SSA demanded that I re-submit that same court document or a new one to restore me to Sharon and female. The crooks stole my legal papers including that 2007 court paper so my endo agreed to write her statement. SSA rejected her first statement. She wrote a second statement; SSA accepted that and my new certified copy of my 2007 court order.
That was not the end of SSA. Nope. I went to SSA several times during July alone to find my file continually reverted to Nick and male yet no SSA agent would 'splain how and why they were doing this. As of 17 Jul 15, it remains so far so good but I am not holding my breath.
Meanwhile, I came to the realisation that my stealth was no longer important. Right on, Obfuskatie! While I do not wear a lapel emblem or blurt out my medical history to everyone on the street, I decided I no longer had any fear of being out. I found comfort at this site and other sites; I created my own web-site to control my outed self and story.
Kittykat, I too enjoy that nicety of my clinic screeners asking for my LMP and G&P status. It sets me in a good mental mood.
MsGrace, you are so correct. With Internet searches of court records, there is my legal paper that documents my legitimacy.
The strange thing is that perhaps all my past three decades of worry was unfounded. I now realise that people do not suppose me as a M-F transsexual; nope, they accept me as a woman because that is who I am. I am still wearing a smile from when I recently conducted business at a local school. The proctor asked me if I was a mom with my daughter there at the school to attend their mother-daughter event.
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