real name
Yesterday, I finally received my first piece of official mail with my real name on it! It contained my provincial Photo ID which I have instead of a Driver's license because I’m too anxious to drive right now and public transportation is much cheaper anyway. Anyways, I'm so excited to finally be officially recognized by my real name! For those who are curious, I live in Ontario and this was how the whole ordeal went for me:
On February 6th, I sent the mail containing my name change forms to the government. I visited a local queer organization and asked them to double check my work beforehand which I appreciated a lot. I fortunately didn’t make any errors with the forms but they did notice that I wrote the address at the wrong spot. I was provided a new folder and they showed me how to correctly address the mail. After that was done, I searched up a nearby post office on my phone, walked there and gave my mail to the clerk. I actually enjoyed that interaction too because he was also Filipino. He did misgender me but I was in a good mood that day and wasn’t very dysphoric about it. It helped that he was very cheerful and I could tell that he didn’t mean to offend me.
After a few months of waiting, I received mail from the government on May 20th. I wasn’t expecting to receive anything else so I figured it was regarding my name change. I was worried that I had made an error though because it was still addressed to the wrong name. This was confirmed when I opened it: they couldn’t charge my card with the information I wrote down. I was pretty annoyed with myself for not having done everything perfectly because it meant more waiting than necessary. They did give me instructions in that mail to pay the fee online, which was very easy to do. I also reminded myself that I at least only had to fix my payment information instead of having to redo the forms entirely.
A few more weeks of waiting and finally on June 11th I received my very own official certificate of name change! This date was coincidentally also exactly my 6 months HRT-versary because I took my first shot on December 11th last year. The certificate does say June 3rd on it but it’s still a fun coincidence that I received the mail on a milestone date. My next steps are now to use this certificate to correct the name on my IDs, bank information, certificates, etc. It’s a bit overwhelming so I’ve decided to not rush myself through it.
A week after that, on June 19th, I journeyed on to the nearest Service Ontario with my name change certificate to update the name of my Photo ID and Health Card. They even took new photos of me for both! I was informed that they would take about 4-6 weeks to arrive in the mail. Afterwards, I took the train to a popup queer market to celebrate. I bought myself a very pretty bracelet with ombre black-purple beads and a baseball hat with a nonbinary flag coloured heart patched onto it. I also visited a local cafe that’s owned by a trans couple. I treated myself with an iced latte and a yummy blueberry muffin!
Finally, I received my Photo ID card on July 6th, which was actually only a 2-3 week wait. I am a little worried that my health card still isn’t her though because they were supposed to arrive in the mail at the same time. I hope that it didn’t get lost and will arrive soon because I have to see my doctor to check my T levels soon. Aside from that hiccup, I'm so relieved to now be legally recognized as myself. I always felt a disconnect whenever I saw my deadname or had to write it down. It's so strange to now look at my name on an official document and not suddenly feel the desire to claw out of my skin. I read my name now and I'm just like, yup that's me! hi!!!
-- Max. --