Dorit
03-19-2018, 10:03 AM
Today is a special day for me. I have legally changed my name in the Israel Ministry of Interior. My new name is Dorit, (pronounced door-eat), it is an obvious Hebrew female name and it means "generation." The process also includes a photo taken by the clerk and the issuance of a new identity card and passport with the new photo! Gender is another issue, to be addressed in the future.
Like life for us transgender women, it did not come easy. I wrote the story of my day:
I woke up this morning (we get up at 4:00 am), the day of my appointment with the Ministry of Interior in Tiberias, with a combination of doubt and anxiety. I felt the doubt was normal and not overwhelming, I was not going to change my mind. Esther, my therapist, had actually helped me with this last time we met in saying it was OK to have doubts, especially in the light of all the negativity I have received. The anxiety was that something would go wrong at the Ministry. I had talked with someone at Mavarim, the transgender support organization in Tel Aviv, hoping I could use them as a backup. They said no one would be available to answer a call at 8:15 am, the time of my appointment, but there was absolutely no reason they could refuse my request.
I am in the waiting room of the Ministry with my wife. My number is called and I enter a room with a youngish, secular woman at the desk. She looks over my documents, pauses, and then announces that she cannot fulfill my request! This will have to be referred to her superiors, they will make a decision and I will have to come back some other day for their answer.
I was devastated at first, but I was not going to accept her answer. I explained to her that I had been in contact with a transgender rights organization and they told me that the Ministry would not refuse my request. She replied that she didn't care what any organization told me, this was the way she was going to operate. I then told that I was not going to leave, I had waited two months for this appointment, and that I wanted to speak to her supervisor. She then acquiesced that she would now get in contact with her superiors, and that I could wait outside. I went out to the waiting room, she closed the door. About 10 minutes passed and she called me back in. Without a word of apology, she then began to process my request!!
After all the photos, forms, payments, and fingerprints were done before I left the room I thanked her from the depth of my heart!❤
I am now legally Dorit Greenberg!!🙋
Like life for us transgender women, it did not come easy. I wrote the story of my day:
I woke up this morning (we get up at 4:00 am), the day of my appointment with the Ministry of Interior in Tiberias, with a combination of doubt and anxiety. I felt the doubt was normal and not overwhelming, I was not going to change my mind. Esther, my therapist, had actually helped me with this last time we met in saying it was OK to have doubts, especially in the light of all the negativity I have received. The anxiety was that something would go wrong at the Ministry. I had talked with someone at Mavarim, the transgender support organization in Tel Aviv, hoping I could use them as a backup. They said no one would be available to answer a call at 8:15 am, the time of my appointment, but there was absolutely no reason they could refuse my request.
I am in the waiting room of the Ministry with my wife. My number is called and I enter a room with a youngish, secular woman at the desk. She looks over my documents, pauses, and then announces that she cannot fulfill my request! This will have to be referred to her superiors, they will make a decision and I will have to come back some other day for their answer.
I was devastated at first, but I was not going to accept her answer. I explained to her that I had been in contact with a transgender rights organization and they told me that the Ministry would not refuse my request. She replied that she didn't care what any organization told me, this was the way she was going to operate. I then told that I was not going to leave, I had waited two months for this appointment, and that I wanted to speak to her supervisor. She then acquiesced that she would now get in contact with her superiors, and that I could wait outside. I went out to the waiting room, she closed the door. About 10 minutes passed and she called me back in. Without a word of apology, she then began to process my request!!
After all the photos, forms, payments, and fingerprints were done before I left the room I thanked her from the depth of my heart!❤
I am now legally Dorit Greenberg!!🙋