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I began a long time ago (1978). I merely wrote about my beginning transition circumstance to SSA and explained that I was under medical care. A few weeks later or so I got a surprise in the mail - my new SSA card.
SSA accepted me and changed my file; SSA showed me as Sharon and female though I was still employed as my male predecessor Nick. SSA reports this in their periodic discrepancy list to each employer. That caused immediate trouble where I worked at a personnel office for a federal agency (1978 - 1985). One day early in my tenure I came back to my desk overhearing my supervisor, the agency office's Personnel Director, and another office supervisor in the discussion of 'She's a he.', 'No, he's a she.' They were trying to figure me out unaware of my presence nearby.
I eventually endured nearly six years of harassment and bullying; I still don't know why I stayed. But where was I to go? Such discrimination was likely elsewhere during the early 1980s.
The worst of this work situation was when a subsequent supervisor summoned me to her office and outright told me she was initiating action to fire me on the charge that I was a female working there as a male; she told me, 'We can't have you doing that here.' Apparently neither she nor other managers recognised my direction was male to female. I regret not returning to work the next day as Sharon and putting the issue back in her court. Instead I fought the separation action for two futile years until it wore me down. I achieved vindication; I filed my Unemployment Insurance claim as Sharon / female. UI agreed with my case and ruled in my favorur that the employer subjected me to nearly six years of a hostile work environment.
SSA roared again a decade ago. For an as yet unexplained reason, SSA reverted my record to my long ago former predecessor Nick and male. That brought about my name to my state agency employer again with the same dangerous issues. Here we go again.
The state agency manager summoned me to her office and asked me why my SSAN changed from Sharon and female to Nick and male. I refused to answer - it was none of their business. I went to SSA to determine how to fix it; they told me to go back to court and get a new Name / Sex change court order and they will restore me to Sharon and female. Done. My state agency employer fired me anyway for being a transsexual. I sought recovery to my job through my state's process and won but my agency still refused to restore me to my position. I went back to UI and won again for the same reason as two decades earlier - my employer enacted an intolerable work environment against me.
Oh no, we're not finished with SSA. My home was burglarised and ransacked last year; the thieves stole my medical files and payroll files containing my intimate information and SSAN. I went to SSA to report this to thwart identity theft. Oh no, not again! I made numerous trips back and forth to SSA from January through July this year getting them to correct their latest reversions - yes, multiple times this year alone they repeatedly flipt my file between one and the other. In fact, I departed SSA on a Wednesday with their own document in my hands declaring they corrected their error once and for all back to Sharon and female. I returned to SSA two days later on Friday to verify my file and again they had reverted it to Nick and male and refused to tell me why.
My file is supposedly now still Sharon and female - but I'm not holding my breath.
Through all this, SSA refuses to explain their actions.
The definitive authority is SSA Regulation 'RM 10212.200′ rather than what the SSA web-site posts. (I have a copy of that SSA regulation at my personal web-site.) Notary is NOT required per SSA's own requirement.
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