Saturday, June 29, 2013

QUESTION #11 from the Interview of my life

My name is Amber Dunham. I am part of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender) group. I am straight but do believe in LGBT due to my beliefs such as 'do what you want as long as you are not harming anyone else.’ I am interviewing one my mother's friends that had a complete sex change under the category of transgender of the LGBT essay that I am writing.

I will be interviewing Alexis. Alexis is from the Iowa City area and the questions I will ask, she will hopefully be willing to answer. If she feels uncomfortable with any of my questions, I will allow her not to answer them.


So, if you've been curious how this interview even got momentum, this is where....

11) How complicated was the name and sex gender change?

This is, of course, tied in with the above question…..and I guess I have covered the name change fairly well. I am not totally sure what you mean by "sex gender change" but I am assuming it is in relationship to legal documents such as birth certificate and driver’s license and so on. Iowa is very kind to those who wish to change their legal sex. After the SRS I actually had no idea what to do about this, but I continued to research the issue on the internet. I found a website that had an email address for someone in Des Moines who worked for the State of Iowa. I contacted her and found out what I needed to do----which basically was to submit my legal name change document, and a letter from the doctor who performed the surgery, describing in detail what he had surgically done, and send it to her.  I requested a letter from my SRS surgeon, and he sent me a very detailed letter explaining all of the physical alterations he had done.  I sent the letter.  And a few weeks later I received a ‘new’ birth certificate with my new sex clearly showing, and with only the new name on the document.  I was ecstatic, and even to this day I still carry a copy of it with me in case there are ever any issues that might arise.  I was then able to take that to the Driver’s License Bureau and get a new driver’s license with my correct gender on it. I was also told that my birth records from the county I was born in had been sealed, and any future inquiries would have to go though that particular State department. I still have to have one major government record changed, as with the Social Security Administration I am still listed a male, which I know will cause some issues in the future if not taken care of. Must make a note to get that done sooner rather than later.  Aside from that, as far as I know, all major legal documents, insurance policies and licenses have me correctly identified as a female.


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