Gender Designation Change 1.0

Yesterday was my transman social group.  We meet the first and third Tuesday of each month.  Kyle (a friend and co-facilitator for the group) and I had some time to kill waiting for other folks to show up, so we decided to go online and see what was involved in getting my gender designation changed in Washington.  Kyle's from California, so his process in terms of paperwork was a bit different from what mine will be.  We were both please to note that the process in Washington is actually fairly easy and straight forward.

Changine your official gender designation is much easier in WA than CA. According to the Ingersoll Gender Center (www.ingersollcenter.org), all that's required is to have a licensed professional write a letter stating that you are undergoing "appropriate clinical treatment" for Gender Identity Disorder.  The professional who writes the letter can be a medical professional or mental health professional, depending on the treatment to which they're referring (hormones, counseling, and/or surgery).  Besides, this letter all that is required is the expected documents verifying that you are who you say you are (birth certificate, etc.)  Additionally, you can apply for a name change at the same time as changing your gender designation, saving money and time.

Just a quick note about "appropriate clinical treatment" for Gender Identity Disorder or Gender Identity Dysphoria (either way GID).  Being slapped with a mental disorder is a spot of a fair amount of contention (understandably) in the trans community.  There are many pros and cons to being labeled with GID which I won't go into at the moment.  I will say that I don't regard myself as having a mental disorder.  I don't think there is anything wrong with me, nor do many mental health professionals who provide counseling for GID.