What's in a name? Chapter the Second

A few weeks back I posted about why I'm choosing the names I do for the me I'm about to make real.

Today, my children, I am going to teach you about how the Swedish state decides what name I can or can not have. Irrespective of what I want to be called. As you may or may not know (Tuuli and Jessicasideways you can put down your hands, Mistress Caisa knows that you know) it have now been decided that a grown up person can make her/his decision on what to be called. It's an important, but partial, victory for us transpeople in Sweden. What the decision means is that you can add a new name to the one(s) you already have even if that new name traditionally belongs to the gender that is opposite the gender the state decided you were when you were born. So say a child  at birth was determined to be of the gender girl and was subsequently name Anna Lisa. As she grow up she becomes aware that she really is a boy. With the decision yesterday it is now possible for her to add say Anders to her other names. What she can not do is change it to just Anders. Well, she can eventually, after a lengthy and complicate journey of which I will tell you shortly.

The Swedish state have always believed that it knows what's best for us. No, that's not because we've had a social democrat government for so long. It have more to do with Sweden's close ties with Prussian Germany from the midle 1800s up until the end of WW2. The strong state in our case based on the concern of the citizens well being. But, being an old anarchist I will not go deeper into those murky waters.

One of the results of this "concern" is that there are restriction on what names you can give yourself or your children. The name have to be congruent with the birth gender and it may not be of a kind that will heap shame and/or ridicule on the bearer. I believe the name most often rejected is Rullgardinia. Rullgardin is Swedish for the blinds that you, not me, pull down at night. And Rullgardinia is one of many names that our beloved Astrid Lindgren bestowed on Pippi Långstrump, maybe known to you as Pippi Longstocking. (Astrid lived three blocks from where I'm writing this) In this case I think they are right to refuse parents to name a child Rullgardinia. And it might also be a bit awkward for a boy to be named Sue.

But when an adult wants to change her/his name it's another story. If it's inappropriate for  my gender or if it's ridiculous I should be able chose any damn name I want to. Yes it's a step forward that I  add a name, but as a transwoman I want to change my name not to add a new.  And I can, there are two alternatives. The first and more complicated and slightly costly, about 500 SEK, presupposes that you are very close to applying to the state to have your gender corrected and that the doctor that handles your case writes an affidavit that you if all goes as planned will undergo the SRS in a not to distant future. This procedure will take up to six months and you will still have yout social security number (födelsenummer) which consists of your birth date plus four more numbers the third of which denotes male or female, in my case it's 490119-xx7x.

When you reach the stage that I have, all the papers have gone in to the proper authorities for the final decision it's more or less just a waiting game. Less than 1% are refused on this stage. And with that it's  all ready in one fell swoop: everything needed for the SRS, new name and new social security number. All that is left is to crawl up on the operating table. (My plastic surgeon looks like a young and cuter Dr House, now if I wasn't a lesbian....) The crux of the matter is that the change of name and number wont  happen until after the SRS is completed.

For me that's all good and dandy I can't get it fast enough. But what if I for some reason couldn't have the SRS, bad heart or whatever, I would still be a transwoman and in need of a new name and number. No matter that I still have a cock and not a cunt. And the situation is worse for transmen as many of them opt not to have the final genital SRS.

So even if the decision yesterday was a step forward it's still a long way to go before this old cougar is satisfied. (No, not satisfied like that! It will hopefully happen sooner.)

Oh, You're missing the usual picture of my beautiful self? Well . here's a pic taken by my dermatoligist after she had tortured me for two hours with electro needles to burn away facial hair. I asked her to take a full length one to show off my black leather skirt. But life would be rather dull if we all got what we wanted all the time. Right?

Love, hugs, kisses and muff munches till next time, your Mistress
Caisa