Naming update
Jul. 28th, 2006 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiriasGraham, as our lovely JP suggested, went to the DMV yesterday without Social Security paperwork to get the license. He got most of the way through the process without question... until it came to the point where they needed to put the new name actually in the system.
Graham: "Just confirming -- I want to be GLast, First Middle ELast."
"What? Oh, we have you down as ELast GLast, First Middle."
"That's not right."
"OK, hang on." *tries some stuff*
"Not working." *tries some stuff again*
"Have you been to the Social Security Administration yet?" Uh-oh. Graham tells the story.
Guy is sympathetic, but: "I wonder whether this software checks their database and requires a match in order to do this?" Gives up; Graham comes home with a license in what is patently the wrong name. Now what?
On Monday he will have a car and he will try to go to the SSA and work it out again, but I fear that the problem will only be worse, because now he's going to want to change to a name that's very clearly not on his driver's license. And now he thinks he's going to be on a bunch of watch lists for rapid-fire name changes. I say that's malarkey because a quick glance at the substance will make it clear that it's a bureaucratic screwup, but then again common sense is a whole lot less common than malarkey when dealing with watch lists.
Sigh. The whole thing is stupid and wouldn't have happened without a sexist infrastructure. I so rarely encounter such obvious sexism that it always takes me by surprise, even though I know other people's experiences are different.
I also think that the DMV dude's explanation for why it wasn't working was just plain wrong. There was also no entry for ELast Glast, First Middle -- and yet that worked out just fine. I think "a DMV database made on the cheap way too long ago and implemented without adequate staff training" probably has more to do with it...
Graham: "Just confirming -- I want to be GLast, First Middle ELast."
"What? Oh, we have you down as ELast GLast, First Middle."
"That's not right."
"OK, hang on." *tries some stuff*
"Not working." *tries some stuff again*
"Have you been to the Social Security Administration yet?" Uh-oh. Graham tells the story.
Guy is sympathetic, but: "I wonder whether this software checks their database and requires a match in order to do this?" Gives up; Graham comes home with a license in what is patently the wrong name. Now what?
On Monday he will have a car and he will try to go to the SSA and work it out again, but I fear that the problem will only be worse, because now he's going to want to change to a name that's very clearly not on his driver's license. And now he thinks he's going to be on a bunch of watch lists for rapid-fire name changes. I say that's malarkey because a quick glance at the substance will make it clear that it's a bureaucratic screwup, but then again common sense is a whole lot less common than malarkey when dealing with watch lists.
Sigh. The whole thing is stupid and wouldn't have happened without a sexist infrastructure. I so rarely encounter such obvious sexism that it always takes me by surprise, even though I know other people's experiences are different.
I also think that the DMV dude's explanation for why it wasn't working was just plain wrong. There was also no entry for ELast Glast, First Middle -- and yet that worked out just fine. I think "a DMV database made on the cheap way too long ago and implemented without adequate staff training" probably has more to do with it...
