Trans History 101

No matter how hard one tries, you can never completely erase one’s prior personal data. My old name is on every notice I receive from the military’s retirement section, it will always be MSG J.. R****, because when I retired, it was under my old name. The Government will not change Official Documents. I don’t know why but, I get mail addressed to my ex at my address, you would think people would know where she lived. Why is that? And once in a while I get mail from people I dealt with a LOOONNNG time ago address to a person who doesn’t exist anymore; I should start marking them return to sender, person dead.

Today, I converted my life insurance policy that I took out in my old name to a Universal Life Policy, the reasons I took out a term policy were very complicated at the time. I noticed they had my new name but the policy stated that I was ‘male’, I asked the young lady about that, and she said that the policy was written for a ‘male’ life expectancy, and they would not change the sex identifier.

The young lady was very emphatic that she had always known my particular history, and it didn’t bother her in the least. I told her I’m glad I didn’t bother her; she just laughed.

I have to give pause when I am asked to show my ID to someone, until I remember that I was lucky enough to change my gender marker. One can never completely erase or delete links to one’s past; somewhere when you least expect it, someone or something will jump out and say, “Hi I’m from your past.”