Here’s a log of all the steps I went through in performing a full legal name and gender transition in Washington state. Things are improving, and I try to note where I know that’s the case.

Step 0: Check out transequality.org since they have amazing info.

Step 1: Get a name change in Washington State. For me, I had to look up the county I live in and find out their procedures. In Spokane county, I could fill out the form in the court office and set a date for my appointment in front of the judge.

Step 1.5: Show up to your name change court hearing. In Spokane county, the judge I had was really awesome. There were a number of us applying for name changes (such as cis people who had their names changed through immigration, people who went by their middle names, and at least one trans gal (sup?)). The judge was friendly and, as best I can recall, only asked us a few hard questions:

What is your current name? (for me, the hardest question. I don’t like saying my deadname)

What name do you want to change to?

Why do you want to change your name? (I said “I’m transgender and this is the other name my parents were considering before I was born.” The judge smiled and seemed happy for me on a human level for making this transition)

Step 1.9: Make sure you get multiple copies of your name change order. I haven’t had any employers, agencies, or people need to take a court-certified copy of my name change, but I figure this is the most important document in my life.

Step 2: Go to the Social Security office and update your name. In order to update your driver’s license in Washington (let alone your passport) you need to have your name updated with the Social Security Administration.

Step 3: Go to the Department of Licensing to get your driver’s license updated. Apparently, as of November 13 2019, you should be able to update your gender on your driver’s license (to M, F, or X) without needing any documentation from a medical provider. Hey, progress is happening!

You need to have updated your info with SSA before updating it with DOL. I don’t know how long is needed between these two, but I was told that doing it wrong could lead to a delay of a week or two.

Step 4: I was born in a stupid state that doesn’t believe in updating birth certificates (yet). If you live in any state other than Ohio or Tennessee, it’s probably worth updating your birth certificate as long as your birth state has sane requirements for updating it. If it doesn’t, don’t worry, you can still get everything else corrected no matter how stupid your birth state was.

Step 5: There are steps 5a and 5b, both of which can be done at the same time, and neither of which need to happen before the other.

Step 5a: Update your gender with the Social Security Administration. In order to update your gender with the SSA, you need to fulfill one of the following (quoting directly from transequality.org’s SSA page:

Social Security will accept any of the following forms of evidence for a gender marker change:

A full-validity 10-year U.S. passport showing the correct gender,

A state-issued birth certificate showing the correct gender,

A court order recognizing the correct gender, or

A signed letter from a provider confirming you have had appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition

For me, my only option was to get the letter from a medical provider. Luckily, I was getting hormone therapy from Planned Parenthood (please donate!) and I was able to get a letter from a physician meeting the guidelines transequality.org suggests (and I’ve been advised that directly copying from the letter is suggested to ensure it meets the arbitrary requirements that SSA has). Shout out to the Lavendar Rights Project for helping me make sure I was doing all of this right and had the right language.

Step 5b: Update/Get a passport. I don’t trust the current administration and believe that I’ll have much better luck renewing a passport in the future as opposed to getting a new one issued. I had a previous passport issued under my deadname, so all that I needed was my name change order, letter from my physician, updated driver’s license, and my passport under my deadname. I don’t know what is required to get a passport without a previous one, so I won’t pretend to give advice. Similarly, if you were able to update your birth certificate, I don’t know how this process will change.

I hope this helps. If it does, please consider donating to the Lavendar Rights Project or to your local Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood were the first advocates for me during my transition and helped me with hormones, letters, and other support that I needed during the start of my transition process.

And if you can’t give money, please support any non-cishet people you know. And if you’re non-cishet, please give yourself the kindness you gave me reading this post. You all matter..’