Imagine, married folks, how it would feel if you got a cheery email from your university or from the state you live in telling you that due to some clerical reorganization, you and your spouse, and all married people in the state, had been re-set in their files to SINGLE and that, in order to be reclassified again as married, you had to provide documentation of your marriage as well as scientific evidence, say DNA, to prove you aren’t related.
IMAGINE.
That’s exactly what the state of Wisconsin is currently doing to trans state employees: reverting their gender markers to the gender they were assigned at birth and asking for “additional documentation” to change the gender marker back.
This is happening to people who have ALREADY transitioned, who have legally been their gender for years, and who had been entirely accepted as that gender legally, professionally, and medically. ETF is requiring them to do three things:
1 – The employee must notify ETF (Employee Trust Fund, the state’s administrative board) directly, providing their old and new names, old and new gender markers, ETF ID number, and a declaration that they are gender transitioning. (Previously, employees notified HR at their place of employment, and employer HR staff changed the gender marker directly in the benefits system. But now ETF will centralize control over implementing transitions, and maintain a database of gender transitioners. In essence, we are being required to register with the state.)
2 – Trans people are required to provide “proof of identity,” such as a driver’s license or military ID showing the new name and gender marker. (This is the easiest one for people who have already transitioned.)
3 – Trans people must produce “proof of gender.” These options include (a) a correctly gendered passport, (b) a court order – often requiring proof of genital surgery, such as in WI, or (c) a birth certificate which is correctly gendered.
THIS IS NUTS, folks. It’s creepy, it’s the worst governmental intrusion, and it’s turning the clock back on trans rights and identity a decade.
Please stay informed. As I know more, you will too.
I think it’s time we made it our business that we throw scott walker out of office.
First, we need to know who made this cockamamie order, and on what authority? Then, one or more of the victims needs to go to court to allege discrimination, and demand that the state produce a justification for it. It seems they are denying the validity of prior court orders. Even in the current lunatic environment I can’t imagine what the justification could possibly be. Someone may be grossly exceeding their authority here: it would seem they are just begging to get whacked by the Wisconsin courts no matter what reactionary measures they might be planning for the future.
** added 9PM 3/5**
Here is the original text of the email and the link that was provided:
Hello!
As of 1/1/2017 ETF changed their policy on gender changes. In order to change gender or to maintain a current change, documentation is needed.
Below is the link that outlines the policy and what is needed in order to keep your information current.
Please submit this information for you and [your wife] ASAP.
I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
http://etf.wi.gov/members/gender_change.htm
” In order to . . . maintain a current gender change . . . ” WTF???!!!! Is there any other example of a law requiring one to legally justify again one’s civil status years after it has been validly determined??? They are disallowing the validity of their own legal proceedings! I find it hard to believe any court would be willing to accept a bureaucratic rule change (this wasn’t an act of the legislature) which invalidated court orders. Someone has lost their marbles.