This is the third of three parts on referring to what California calls my legal change of gender. This is an exercise in cathartic writing for me explaining not only why my change of gender, but also explaining why I haven’t been as prolific in my writing since last summer, nor as active in civil [...]

“I respect trans women as women, but I do not believe they are female.” “Females have a right to set a boundary and have it be respected.” “…Females have a right to be free of Males if they so choose. Trans women are male.” ~Cathy Brennan Today on May 22, 2012, I woke up here [...]

Since I recently received the post-gender-affirmation-surgery letter that states “[Autumn Sandeen] has had appropriate surgical treatment and has completed her transition to be female,” I have, in process, experiences of changing my M to F (male to female) at various government agencies and businesses. So, I’m going to document many of these change as I [...]

Here’s the text of a super-kewl, notarized letter I received in the mail on Saturday afternoon (birthdate redacted): GENDER TRANSITION AND CHANGE RE: Autumn V. Sandeen DOB: XX-XX-XXXX I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the forgoing is true and correct: I am the attending physician and have [...]

Hey! Where was my mandated, “ObamaCare” sex-change operation? Genital reconstruction surgery (GRS). Sex reassignment surgery (SRS). Gender affirmation surgery (GAS). Vaginoplasty. Bilateral orchiectomy (orchi). These are all terms associated with genital surgeries on transsexual people. For those who don’t know, I’m a male-to-female transsexual. The term transsexual is a term referring to a medical condition [...]

Well, “Ow.” And by that, I actually mean physical pain in my genital area due to gender affirmation surgery. Seriously, my scheduled bilateral orchiectomy (“orchi”) with Dr. Tuan Nguyen was accomplished on August 17th. And, the surgery went well, and essentially to plan. The surgery itself was an uncomfortable experience — somewhat on par with [...]

There are women of color and there are disabled women; there are lesbians and there are women of faith; there are mothers and there are servicewomen; there are women veterans and bisexual women — and that’s hardly an exhaustive list of the subcategories of women. Women’s experience intersects with multiple labels and multiple identities; each [...]