I am legally Ryan now. My name change paperwork came in the post on Friday, but I had to go to the post office this morning to collect it. We are a little suburb, so our Newsagency doubles as a Post Office. I wandered in and handed over my collection card, and the guy behind the counter took it, and pulled out his book delivery details.
He scanned the list.
And again.
And again.
Looked at my card, which had R. S**** printed on it.
Looked at me.
I point at the bottom entry in the delivery book: [Girly girl name starting with R] Josephine S****
He looks at it, looks at the card, looks at me.
“That you is it?”
I nod.
He looks at me doubtfully.
“You sure?”
“Yeah…”
“I’ll have to see ID.”
I pull out my bright pink 18+ card… some joker in state government decided that colour coding photo ID by gender was a great idea. He takes the ID, and gives me the doubtful look that I am used to from being carded in clubs and pubs. “That you, eh?”
“Yeah”
“Ok, write your name down, and sign here.”
He then had me sign absolutely every piece of paper that had anything to do with the paperwork he was handing over to me, just to cover his arse. It was in an officially official government envelope after all.
I bought the 10 ride bus pass I buy every Monday morning from him, and noted with amusement that he looked closer at the front of my credit card this time, and sees that it has the girly name there too.

I got to work this morning, and showed my boss, and one of the other guys my paperwork. My boss is looking doubtful as to the reason for my excitement and says “So you changed it from Rhian to Ryan…” (they are pronounced the same).
My other colleague points to the paperwork and says ‘No, look closer’
“[[GIRLNAME]]!!???!” My boss exclaims staring at me wide eyed.
“Yeah, that is why I don’t use that name.”

I wandered up to HR after that, and asked who to talk to about changing personal details. The girl behind the counter tells me I can do it myself via HR online. I say ‘What about name?’ and she says “Did you get married!??”
I explain that no, I have just officially changed my first name to the name I am known by anyway. She pulls out a bunch of paperwork, and I start filling it in, explaining that I need Ms changed to Mr, and F to M in the system too, cos its incorrect.
She said to me “Oh, no! Thats terrible!” and got me to highlight the changes I needed on the form in yellow marker. She asked me if the paperwork I had was correct, cos it says Female too, and I explained that would be changed, but I had to go through a few more processes before that would happen, but that it is legal to be registered male at work.
She then started asking me questions about my right to marry, and what if I want to marry a girl before they let me change my gender legally.

Over all, the response so far has been respectful, and helpful. I think that I need to send out an email tomorrow with a brief discussion of the what and why. I hear that its causing a slight stir, but the people with details don’t want to gossip, and the people without details are afraid of asking me directly for fear of offending me.