Jul 28 2008

Back in England :(

After a long and tortuous trip I’m now back in England in one piece … well, physically anyway.

I’ve left heart and my home in Olympia. I miss Miya and Sarah so much, I’m trying to put a strong face on things but inside I’m screaming. I’ve not been able to get more than a few hours sleep at any time, if I don’t cry myself to sleep I wake racked with grief. I keep expecting to see them just walk in or when I look up from my laptop, and when I don’t it breaks my heart.

I don’t know how long I have to live in exile, I don’t know when I will see them again and its killing me.

Following my encounter with Garcia when I first landed in the US, I was worried he had put stuff in my file that would make future trips much harder than they should be. On the way back my fears were realised. My checked luggage was searched at every airport in the US I passed through, seems the TSA have me on their lists. I’m terrified I will try to go back to the US and find I’ve been red flagged, get taken for an interview only to be turned away and flown home. All because I’m trans and Garcia doesn’t like trans.

Being back in the village I grew up isn’t comfortable for me. Went out to the pub for a meal to celebrate my Dad’s birthday,feeling shattered and jet lagged I decided to walk home before everyone else. Big mistake. Walking the familiar streets home I felt more afraid for my own safety than I have in many years, more terrified than I have ever been at any time during my transition.

When I was a teenager I was beaten frequently for having long hair and looking girly, several times it happened as little as 50 metres from my front door. I remember being so scared that I wouldn’t leave the house on foot, and walking home has brought all those memories flooding back.

I know most of the people responsible will have moved on years ago, I know I shouldn’t be as afraid as I am, but I don’t feel safe here out alone. Don’t think I ever will.


Jul 19 2008

US Trans Immigration Help!

We’re in desperate need of any help and advice, if anyone knows of similar cases can you please get in touch (trinity.deja at googlemail.com), via Trinity Dejavu in Secondlife or trinity0002d on YIM.

I’m a uk cit, pre-op male to female transexual, I have had no surgery at this point and have been living full time for the last 2 years.

I changed my name and title in the UK 2 years ago by deed poll then when applied for a passport the UK office asked for a letter concerning my op status. My GP wrote me a letter saying “to the best of my knowledge, this person intends to transition fully” this got me a F gender marker on my passport.

My birth certificate stills says M.

I wish to marry my US born female partner and immigrate to live together in the US.

Can we do this? (as im still M everywhere except passprt)

Will I be treated as M or F for marriage and immigration purposes? Will I be seen as M for one and F for the other?

I really need all the help I can get on this, were tearing our hair out not knowing if we can stay together. We dont want to live in the UK (even though that would be simpler).

Update : To Rachel who commented below, Please get in touch – We really need to talk to the people involved as there case could really help us.

rachel
July 20th, 2008 01:11 e

long story short, according to my friend Nikki who did the same. You’re still federally considered male as your birth cert says so. You can legally marry her due to the above. Nikki did the same.

Likewise, we need contact information for people with similar cases, this would be an amazing help!


Jun 24 2008

Brrrr!!! It’s FREEZING :D

Ok, so this update is a little late but I wanted to get my pictures up to go with it and I’ve been bogged down with SL5B (more on that in another post).

We left Pheonix about 10pm Sunday for Olympia, the car was packed to the gills and we still had to leave quite a lot of stuff behind. The route was very simple, west to the I5 and then North.

The intention to get through the worst of the desert during the night. It was boiling anyway, I am so glad we didn’t do that during the day when it’s over 120F. We split the driving into shifts, one drove while the other slept, my job was to make sure they were always awake at the wheel!

Dreams
California is a boring place. Its flat and mostly made of yellow.

We ran over a plastic cup or something on the freeway and it fley up into the engine bay and ripped through some wires. After one stop to replace blown fuses (that promptly blew again) we pulled up besides a Texaco gas station for a rest. I couldn’t sleep in the car so got out and put a blanket on the ground and it was a good job I did! Spotted wires hanging from under the car!
Dreams
Had to pop the hood and tape the broken wires off. Fixed the short so the fuses didnt blow again, thankfully it was just the front side indicator and screen wash pump that was affected. Just as we were finishing a state trouper swung by (seems those inside had called the cops), he was happy enough that we were finished and about to leave :)

Dreams

We arrived in Olmypia in the early morning. 30 hours driving total with only a few hours stopped when we had to. Went to Walmart, Sarah’s parents house, sleep.. sleeeeep …. sleeeeeeeep.


May 31 2008

Miyabina Ann Susanti

Today we went to the courts for a name change hearing for Miya. We had to wait a while for the commissioner to get to name changes. Interesting (if not a little voyeristic) sitting in the court room listening to other people request restraining orders, typically against abusive men, or in one case a woman wanting a restraining order because she had argued that morning with her husband and suspected he was getting one against her.

Eventually Miya went up, said her old name for the last time, the judge asked a couple of the usual questions, pronounced her new name correctly and all done. Subway veggie delite after to celibrate (omg yum!!).

YAY !!!!!

BTW, it’s pronounced mee-ya-bee-na :)