Social Security Administration (SSA) No Longer Requiring Surgery or BC for Gender Marker Change!

I went to the Texas SSA office on a hot Friday August afternoon in 2007 on a mission. My terminal manager was getting pressure from the main office to correct a discrepancy in an employees records. My record. I am a MTF whose gender was unrecognized by the SSA. Within a month his requests had turned into a demand. I had to get the SSA to stop sending the payroll department gender"no match" letters or risk losing my job.

I had been able to change everything except my birth state, Ohio, does not amend or reissue birth certificates for transsexuals. Since I was pre op and couldn't produce proof of SRS I was left with only one option. A friend had told me I might be able to get the change through on the QT, as she did, if I did it as directed. So I passively, submissively  approached the SSA window after a short 3 hour wait, smiling in my most pleasant feminine way and explained what I wanted.

Well long story short the clerk produced the regulation denying my gender marker change a couple of hours later and I left unsuccessful and soon to be unemployed. A couple of years later after Obama was elected he directed the SSA to stop sending out those no match letters, but that was too late for me. I lost a $900 a week job because of that bureaucratic bullshit.

And I know I'm only one among thousands of trans people who have had their jobs put in jeopardy thanks to a government which seemed to not care.

I have great news! My brothers and sisters, you will not have to become unemployed and homeless as I did to satisfy that antiquated bureaucratic rule.

According to The National Center For Transgender Equality as of June:

Social Security will accept any of the following forms of evidence for a gender marker change:

• A U.S. passport showing the correct gender,
• A birth certificate showing the correct gender,
• A court order recognizing the correct gender, or
• A signed letter from a [provider] confirming that you have had appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition

You can view the official SSA regulation here.