Information collection made by and for the trans community.
Legal Transition
Legal transition is sometimes the longest and most tedious aspect of transitioning. It involves things like, legal name changes, gender marker changes, and generally updating legal and government documents to reflect a person's true gender identity.
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The tricky part of legal transition is the lack of uniformity across the country. Some states require proof of transition to change legal gender markers, some require court appearances for name change, sometimes you can easily change names and gender markers on state IDs but have to go through a whole different process to change federal ID.
Definitions
I think the best place to start is by clarifying common terms that you'll find when navigating legal transition.
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Name Change: Pretty simple, changing one's birth name to their preferred name.
Gender/Sex Marker: This is what shows up on documents under "sex". Typically it is either M for male or F for female, but lately more and more places are including X as a category for people that prefer not to specify their gender, or for people that identify outside of the gender binary.
Legal Processes
My job on this page is made very easy by the National Center of Transgender Equality on their ID Documents Center. They have done the hard work of laying out the different policies for Driver's Licenses and Birth Certificate changes in each state/territory as well as how to make changes on Federal IDs and Records.
In addition to this great resource, you can also find required documents on your state government's website.