Sunday, June 28, 2009

Which Rules to Follow

This past week Kay went with me to a doctors appointment in Atlanta, the reason for the appointment was to secure a letter stating that I had my completed gender reassignment operations and was living as a female, just as the Georgia's Rules and Regulations of the Department of Drivers License stated. In fact, we called Lambda Legal to get the correct wording for the letter; we had to wait until the next day so that the nurse could verify the wording for the letter. Since we were in Atlanta we took time to visit the Fernbank Museum, where they have a great exhibit on dinosaurs and other timely exhibits.
The next day we picked up the letter and spent a few hours at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and saw some of Monet's Water Lilies painting, quite exquisite and wonderful. We had lunch at Mary Mac's Tea Room, a wonderful Atlanta landmark, that has had quite a few visitors of the rich and famous; wonderful homemade cooking. The Tea Room is on Ponce de Leon Ave, you need to stop in whenever you get the chance. That was Kay's request as she has wanted to eat there for a long time.
I took my letter to the DDS the next day to change the gender on my drivers license and was immediatly questioned about what kind of surgery I had had and who did what. Then she shows me a page from her manuel of Law, Rules and Regulations for Transsexual Applicants and what wording should be in the letter, tell me that the wording is wrong in my letter because it did have the word 'surgical' and that they would not change my drivers license. I try to explain that my doctor use the text dictated by my lawyer from Lambda Legal but she refused to listen and check other resources.
I send lambda legal copies of the doctor's letter and the copy of the page from the manuel the supervisor used to deny my request and we called the doctor to get an ammended letter. So we will see what happens when I submit my new letter. Stay tuned folks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so stupid. I can only imagine your frustration. Government can be so ridiculously dumb. But, at least it can be done, if you follow all the rules and maybe dance a jig under a full moon or something.

Göran Koch-Swahne said...

Kafka-esque.