Changing Legal Documents
After Orchiectomy?
Many
transitioners will disagree with the facts I have
written in this essay. Please keep in
mind that these are not my rules, and that I did not make these rules. I myself dislike these rules and the difficulties
they have caused in my life. These rules
were created by government agencies.
My
experience is limited to the United States, so if you live in any other
country, your laws might be different from those of my country and I would not
know whether or not you could change the sex marker in your records, or what
you would need to do to effect the changes in your record.
In
the United States, you can generally change your name on almost all records and
documents when you begin your RLE, whether or not you have had an orchiectomy. But
most government agencies will not change the sex marker until your sexual
reassignment surgery is completed.
Drivers licenses and state IDs
Some
states will grant you an F sex marker on your drivers’ license or state ID when
you change your name and begin transitioning, even before any genital
surgery. Other states require you to
have genital surgery before they will change the sex marker on your license. Some states, which do require the genital
surgery, will specify that you had completed the sex reassignment
surgery, while some of the other states might not specify the exact genital
surgery necessary. I don’t know if orchiectomy alone would permit you to have your sex marker
changed in your state. I have personally
applied for a license in one state where I had disclosed my orchiectomy,
yet they would not grant me an F sex marker until I had the whole SRS. So in most states, having an orchiectomy will not matter because they will either change
your sex marker anyway, or not change it at all until your SRS is completed.
As
of 2005, more and more states are synchronizing
their data with the Social Security Administration. So those states that now change the sex
marker for pre-ops might discontinue doing so within the next several
years. There are even reports of state
DMVs requiring pre-ops who have already obtained new licenses with an F marker
to exchange them for licenses with an M marker.
SSA
(Social Security Administration) records
Prior
to 2002, some pre-ops were able to change the sex marker on their Social
Security record. Having an orchiectomy seemed to improve the odds that the clerks
would be willing to change the sex marker, and some were even lucky enough to
encounter a clerk who was kind enough to change the sex marker without any
surgery at all.
But
on October 3rd, 2002, the Social Security
Administration changed their rules and now refuses to change the sex marker
until you have had the complete SRS surgery. Some pre-ops who managed to change their sex
markers before October 2002 have even reported that the SSA changed those
markers back to M.
The
SSA spells out their policy for changing data in their records at:
http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/0/cc131541aa8b691685256e410011e5d9?OpenDocument
and specifies that sex reassignment surgery must have
been completed before changing the sex marker. Although this policy states that only a
physician’s letter stating completed sex reassignment surgery is
required, some recent post-ops have reported needing a court order for gender
marker change or an amended birth certificate.
While
your Social Security card does not list your sex (it displays only your name
and Social Security number), the SSA does keep other data on record including
sex and your birth date. Unfortunately,
they can and sometimes do disclose your sex to your workplace, and they did do this to me in 2004.
Does
the SSA change the sex marker after having only an orchiectomy? I have found out for myself that the answer
is no. I began my RLE in December 2002,
only two months after SSA implemented the new policy, and I did let the clerk
know I had the orchiectomy, but the SSA still won’t
change my records until I have my SRS.
Passports
Generally,
you will need to have SRS before obtaining a permanent US passport with the sex
marker changed to F.
However,
the US State Department has proven to be a little more considerate than many
other government agencies for those of us who need to travel to Thailand or
another country outside the United States for our SRS. It is not necessary to have an orchiectomy before obtaining this temporary passport. After SRS, a surgeons
letter stating that your sex reassignment surgery was completed will be
sufficient for obtaining a permanent ten-year passport with the sex marker
changed to female.
For
more information on obtaining this temporary passport, I have composed a
separate page which describes the process and lists everything which I think
you will need:
Passports for
Transsexuals Traveling to Thailand for SRS
To
obtain the temporary passport, you will need a letter from your surgeon
specifying that you will have sex reassignment surgery to completely change
your sex, and the date of the surgery.
It might help if you also have one or two therapist letters recommending
SRS, your flight itinerary, court order for your name change, and proof that
you’ve been on HRT.
One
word of caution: some countries, especially in southeastern Asia, will not
admit a traveler whose passport will expire in less than six months. For this reason, you should probably wait
until your SRS date is less than six months away before you apply for your temporary
passport.
Birth
Certificates
Most
states will change the sex marker on your birth certificate, but none will do
so before you have completed your sex reassignment surgery. Some states, including the one I was born in,
will require a court order for sex change along with the doctor’s or surgeon’s
letter stating that sex change surgery has been completed. As of 2005, several states will not change
your sex marker on your birth certificate even after SRS. As far as I know, at least most states do not
consider an orchiectomy to be equal to sex
reassignment surgery.
For
more information about the requirements for changing your sex marker on your
birth certificate in the specific state you were born in, refer to these two
sites:
Birth Record on Kindred Spirit
Lakeside.
Changing Birth
Certificate by Dr. Becky Allison.
So
in summary, an orchiectomy alone will probably not
enable you to change the sex marker on any of your records before SRS. Generally, if an agency would not change the
sex marker on your record when you first began RLE, you won’t be able to change
the sex marker with that agency until you’ve had the complete SRS.
Some
pre-ops have claimed that they were able to change the sex marker on all of
their records and documents after they had their orchiectomy.
I
have read many of these claims myself, and several of these people have even
implored me to change the sex marker on my records based only on my orchiectomy. Some
pre-ops claim that after an orchiectomy, you can have
your orchiectomy surgeon or even your GP write a
letter stating that you have completed sex reassignment surgery. One person who claimed to have changed her
documents before SRS recommended that I see a specific doctor for the purpose
of obtaining this letter. I did see this
doctor and asked as recommended, but was told that she could not write the
letter until I had my SRS, and that my orchiectomy
was insufficient for this letter.
Most government agencies on
the state and federal levels, especially the SSA, require that you have completed
your sex reassignment surgery and present a surgeon’s or doctor’s letter
stating that sex reassignment surgery has been completed. Unfortunately, the orchiectomy
procedure alone does not complete sex reassignment surgery in the eyes of the
law. The phallus remains after orchiectomy, therefore a doctor could not even state that
you’re not male anymore. As far as
government agencies are concerned, phallus = male and vaginoplasty
= female. If a doctor did write a letter
claiming completed sex reassignment surgery after you’ve only had the orchiectomy, he or she would be committing fraud. If I were a doctor, I myself would not risk
fraud by composing a letter claiming completed sex reassignment surgery for a
patient who had not yet had SRS.
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