Sample U.S. Social Security card.
Recently, Transman had some difficulties signing up for basic utility services with his new LEGAL name and Social Security number. Transman wrote the details of the incident to the city leaders along with some suggestions for improving the training for employees who deal with the public; the letter follows this introduction.
“Dear Mayor XXXXX, City Manager XXXXXX, and members of the City Commission:
My name is XXXXXXX and I am writing to you concerning a recent experience I had with the City Utilities and with suggestions to implement better training for handling transgender customers.
Part one of the story:
I recently signed up for service online and received a call that my Social Security number was attached to a different name in the system. I explained to the representative that I had had a name change and he said I would have to come in person to the office and bring my driver’s license. I did so, and was told by the customer service representative at the counter that my driver’s license and Social Security card with the correct information were not enough and that I needed to bring in a copy of the court order. I went home and got the court order.
As the customer service representative put in the information, she stopped and said the information still does not match. She pointed to the gender marker on my ID, which was still “F” at the time; she also showed the paper and information on her computer screen to the customer service representative next to her. I explained that I had a private medical issue that I would be happy to discuss with a supervisor—for safety reasons and privacy, I do not like to disclose my status as a transgender person in public and there were several people in line behind me as well as several others in hearing range at the customer service area.
The customer service representative went to another area of the office to speak to someone and then came back and changed my information.
Why this is problematic for the transgender customer:
- Transgender people are regular targets of ridicule, violence, or hate crimes, often by strangers. For that reason, most of us do not like to share our status with others. Being transgender is a private medical issue and should be treated as such whenever possible. It is important that people working with the public understand the need for discretion in this situation. In this case, two other people besides the customer service representative were shown my private information.
- The whole point of having a legal name change and updating our information with Social Security and the DMV is to avoid having to continually “out” ourselves in public. Having to still provide a court ordered name change document after getting new government-issued ID puts us in a position that is humiliating at best and possibly dangerous if our information is broadcast to others.
Part two of the story:
After the visit to the office, I received my first electronic bill and it was issued to the old name and a prior email address despite my having to fill out the account form online and again in the office when I went to show the proper ID. I phoned the office to have the information corrected, and again, had to explain that I had had a name change and had already provided my ID, Social Security Card, and a court ordered name change. The customer service representative changed the information after speaking with another supervisor, but I am baffled as to why the old information was still in the system. She also said she would make my old name an alias in the system.
Why this is problematic for the LGBT customer:
- A legal name change should allow a customer to have their information updated throughout the system; there should be no “alias” as that implies more than one identity. Unless this is the same policy applied to anyone who has a name change through marriage or adoption, then it is a practice that encourages prejudice.
- Again, safety and privacy are a major concern. Transgender people who have legally changed their name usually do not want their birth name still attached to them and that information available to others. While public records searches may not be a concern with the City Utilities, one can understand how maintaining a transgender person’s old name alongside the new name increases the chance of the person being “outed” against their will.
- Having the old name still associated with the account leaves room for error when it comes to billing and payments being credited correctly.
Suggestions to improve the system:
- Work on sensitivity training specifically centered on the LGBT client.
- Make sure that the policy for name changes is applied in the same way to all customers.
- Improve the system for changing a person’s name in the system so that former names are no longer associated with the account or Social Security Number.
- Accept federal and state-issued ID as proof of a name change for all customers.
- While these guidelines are for federal employees’ records, it may provide a model for the city to use in its own record keeping practices:
Finally, I want to add that the various customer service representatives I spoke to were very polite, but seemed completely unsure of how to handle the situation. We may not have a huge LGBT population (especially the transgender part of that umbrella) in XXXXXX, but there are enough of us currently living in XXXX County that city employees should be more adequately prepared for interacting with us.
I have lived in XXXXXX for a decade and feel it is one of the best places in the state to raise a family; my children enjoy the cultural and educational opportunities in the city. The sense of community is much deeper than what I’ve experienced in other parts of the state and a lot of that is due to your leadership and involvement. I am writing this letter not so much for myself or to be overly critical, but I am writing it for others with similar situations who might be new to our city and not realize what a great place it is; I wouldn’t want a similar experience to sour their impression of the city before they get a chance to see what a wonderful place it is.
Thank you all for your time and consideration of my concerns. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like more information.”
State or government-issued ID and a Social Security card in a new name can’t be issued without a court ordered name change.
Throughout the process, Transman kept asking to speak to a supervisor and was ignored; this is one reason he addressed his concerns to the city manager and commission members who are over the local utilities department.
In many places of the county where Transman lives, one cannot rent an apartment or house without proof of having a utilities account; had the worker not finally relented and turned on his account, Transman would have been in a position of being unable to move into his new place where he had already paid his deposit.
The city policy is probably designed to protect against identity theft and as part of the changes put in place after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which Transman understands is important, but transgender people have the same right to housing and privacy as the non-trans population. There must be some kind of happy medium when it comes to the name change process and protecting the privacy of transgender people in these situations. When Transman had changed his name after marriage and divorce, he never had to produce the court ordered name change paperwork once he had a Social Security card and new driver’s license with the new legal name.
The sticking point for the customer service rep in the visit to the city utilities office seemed to be the gender marker on Transman’s driver’s license; in his state, that can’t be changed without documentation from a doctor that the transgender person has taken permanent steps to change genders; in some states, surgery is required before the doctor can write the letter–and many transgender people don’t want, can’t afford, or have medical reasons that prevent them from having surgery. Without consistent policies, it can be difficult for everyone involved.
If you’re a transgender person, be your own advocate–steps you take now might help the next generation. Whether you are transgender or not, if you’re interested in getting involved in transgender advocacy, here is a link with contact information for different U.S. organizations. Even if you don’t want to get involved in an organization, you can help by speaking up and trying to educate others about gender issues.
Transman will return to regularly scheduled snark in the next post.
January 30th, 2013 at 9:40 am
When I had a steady newspaper job I did a lot of writing in support of the transgender community. And I’ll definitely check out that link to get more involved.
January 30th, 2013 at 11:19 am
Thanks!
The difficulty of changing names can happen to anyone, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/29/us-florida-driving-license-idUSBRE90R15320130129
January 30th, 2013 at 2:23 pm
I can imagine. I got married a year ago and chose to hyphenate my name using both maiden and married. While I’ve changed on my Social Security, I’ve been holding off going to Motor Vehicle to change because it’s always a mob scene there and people aren’t very nice.
January 30th, 2013 at 10:42 am
I cannot begin to express my frustration and rage toward this, and other discriminatory practices. While not transgender myself, I have gender issues, and have dated transgenders. I have been getting my feet wet in education and advocacy; I will discuss this incident at the next Fairness meeting I attend. Transman has a completely sound vision of what needs to happen in order for the discrimination to end.
January 30th, 2013 at 11:19 am
Cool. Thanks for always being supportive and understanding.
January 30th, 2013 at 10:47 am
Hey Transman,
It is, in the opinion of this fluidly gendered individual, a ridiculous situation. From my occasionally monochrome perspective, it should not even be a problem to have transgendered people change their names legally in the first place. The shenanigans involved with requiring an official document and the behavior of the government’s officials is downright depressing.
Politeness is cool, it’s always good not to have people scream obscenities at you. No one likes having obscenities screamed at them. (usually)
It should still be a matter of situational awareness: knowing what a particular situation calls for, knowing why it’s a good idea to keep someone’s ‘true’ sex secret, that sort of thing. To that end, your suggestions/ideas are excellent and I honestly hope they go through SOMEONE’S ear without zipping on through the other right away.
Speaking from a personal standpoint, I hate all of this bureaucratic silliness. Well, dislike it strongly, at any rate. I suppose I should join the club and cry a river, but it really does seem arbitrary and pointless to require the government’s aid to CHANGE A NAME. It also seems irritating at BEST, to me, one who prides he/rself on being able to shift easily and comfortably between any and all gender lines, to need DOCTOR’S proof when changing the letter on your driver’s license. (I would try to change mine to N/A. or possibly ‘S’)
It is no one’s business what sex or gender I am. Why should I tell anyone at all? Why is it something that’s REQUIRED? The only people who should care about what sex I am are the people I take to my bed, and anyone I take to my bed DARN WELL BETTER not care about it, because I know I’d never PICK anyone based on it. Who I like, how I am and where I go should be my business. We all have duties to the country that protects our freedoms, and I’m not saying I should be allowed to do whatever I want, but when it comes to the private details of my life, I would very much prefer not to share it with everyone who happens to see my license or ask for proof that I really AM Jane Mike Dumbledore Junior.
Then, on a visceral and completely sympathetic level, I know how hard it is to deal with that sort of thing, how no one wants to look the fool, how we try to label everything we can whenever and however we can to make things easier, and that identity theft is a real thing and is terrible. I’m torn between feelings of the brain and feelings of the heart, as it were.
In this particular case, I rather think I’m going to go with my heart. It’s not fair. Something needs to change, and lately I’ve been putting my mind to work figuring out what exactly that is and how I’ll go about setting it in motion.
As they say, ‘Where life exists, hope exists also.’
-Eris
January 30th, 2013 at 11:25 am
I’m always glad when you stop by and leave a response.
I understand there are reasons for making sure people aren’t trying to get away with fraud or identity theft, but there have to be more reasonable ways to handle the name change process.
As far as gender markers on IDs go, it really is telling how hung up society is on categorizing people.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:16 pm
[...] a follow-up to the post on 1/30/2013 about privacy and transgender customers, Transman is happy to report that city officials have been quick to respond and supportive in their [...]
January 30th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
The worst part is, I always freeze up when something like this happens, even though we’ve mentally expected it and ran through the scenario in our heads a million times.
I think we all have one of these stories. For me, it’s been my CA driver’s license / ID, and it has nothing to do with being trans and everything to do with being an immigrant. It’s been 2 years and counting, still no ID for me.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:56 pm
I can’t imagine having both issues to deal with at once. I think it is natural to freeze up; obviously, I had to write this down to present it to people who might be be able to do anything about the policy at the utility office. Even though I asked to speak to a manager, I’m not sure I would have presented things as clearly when speaking as when writing.
January 30th, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Were they planning on charging you the female utility rate or the male utility rate? Once you have your new Social Security card and DL or State ID there should be no other proof required. Great letter, and I like the way they followed up.
Believe it or not the biggest problem I had in my name change was getting my work place to update my work email address. Three phone calls to India and several follow-up emails were required (they claimed they only changed it if your last name changed but no one could find a written policy).
January 30th, 2013 at 10:21 pm
I know … I was thinking, “Do you want my money or not?” much of the time I stood at the counter.
I think having such a distinctly feminine old name with a decidedly masculine new name attached to the same SSN is what made the rep ask for the court paperwork. That’s the first time I’ve had anyone ask since getting the new license.
Re: work. I was the first person in my workplace to transition and there was no real policy in place. Luckily, the head of HR and my supervisors were supportive and willing to learn. Some things still took a while to make happen, though.
Good luck with your journey.
January 30th, 2013 at 8:38 pm
I think you handled it brilliantly Transman! You haven’t been to law school by any chance have you? Your letter is calm, rational and polite, and it speaks in a tone and language that I think will be well-received by bureaucrats. I hope other people who experience something similar are able to find your post; I think it could help someone else in fighting the good fight to get better, more equal treatment in their own counties/states/countries.
January 30th, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Thank you. I’ve never been to law school, but my mother did make me sit through episodes of Perry Mason.
It seems like the biggest problem was simply a lack of experience and training about the issue. When you put it in the realm of medical issues people usually get the need for privacy. The customer service rep was very polite the whole time, but unprepared.
January 31st, 2013 at 12:39 am
Perry-mason! Ha! I used to read the books, also upon the suggestion of my mother
You see, when I was growing up in India, we had a closed economy, so we didn’t have foreign products of any kind, including tv shows 
My father used to bring back kit-kat, lindt and other such divine goodies when he traveled abroad, and I used to jealously guard them and refuse to share them with ANYONE 
January 31st, 2013 at 10:06 pm
Mothers do know best.
Shows how little I know about the rest of the world–I didn’t realize India had had a closed economy. Thanks for sharing the glimpse of your childhood. (I still jealously guard kit-kat bars.)
February 3rd, 2013 at 12:58 am
Yeah, post-colonial India was heavily influenced by the Soviet Union and Fabian Socialism. We had what was actually a ‘mixed economy’ combining features of both capitalism and socialism. In the 1990s however, the economy was ‘liberalized’ and ever since then, we have been opening our doors to more and more foreign investment and reducing import restrictions on imported goods. We still have fairly heavy government regulation, which generally speaking I am fan of, but in the specific context of India, I think is unhelpful because there is rampant corruption and not too much transparency and accountability. But that is a whole other discussion
January 31st, 2013 at 1:14 pm
There is something to be said about not taking a reasonable mistake as a personal affront, because people are more likely to cooperate when you don’t make your problem, their problem.
As an example, I recently had a problem with a local utility company when I submitted a judge’s change of name order to a Customer Rep to update my old name on the account to my new name. I was not required to show anything other than the court order and my new ID which was required to show that I was one and the same person as indicated on the court order. The question of my change of gender marker was never brought up because my gender was irrelevant information not required to prove my identity. Still she was not aware of the correct procedure and instead of just changing my name, she closed my old account and opened a new one under my new name at the same service address. This resulted not only in a new account number for the same service address it added an extra $25 surcharge for setting up the new account. When I received the new bill I noticed the extra charge and was able, after politely asking why I was charged for simply updating a legal name change, to have the matter corrected and I was issued a credit to my account for the fee on my next billing cycle. I was told at the time by the rep that I could pay only the current balance, less the surcharge and wait for the credit to show up on my next bill without incurring any penalty.
January 31st, 2013 at 10:09 pm
I try to keep in mind that I may be the first trans person most people deal with, and, like or not, am an ambassador of sorts by default. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my initial reaction in check.
Glad you got your account straightened out.
February 1st, 2013 at 12:12 am
This is so well articulated that I think it needs to be published nationally . . . . People need to “speak up,” as you say in the post that follows this one, but some aren’t gifted in that way. This post is so impressive and so very necessary.
February 6th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
[...] Transman whinged to “City Hall” and the City actually listened. Several city officials have emailed or [...]
February 28th, 2013 at 9:52 pm
Sadly, I’m not surprised by incidents like these anymore. Just disheartened. *sigh*