In both New York and Michigan, I was denied the 'F' gender marker, yet got it at another Motor Vehicle office. Here in Arizona, I didn't even have to bring my birth certificate. I had it stowed away in a folder just in case (along with the court document for my name change), but ALL they needed was a copy of my Michigan license and my social security card. I was sure they were going to see my old name or the gender marker under the Social Security Administration, but nope. I was told to walk to the other side of the lobby to get my photo taken. My name was called before I even got a chance to cross the lobby. I got a FULL driver license, none of that temporary ID nonsense, where you wait for the actual license with photo to arrive in the mail. They made it up right there and handed it to me. And it's good for 25 years! I was amazed, and I told the worker behind the counter that, "Wow, this license lasts forever." He chuckled. I was so glad and relieved that it passed without a hitch. Tucson doesn't have Motor Vehicle offices every five miles like in Michigan and New York. There's only three or four here, and they're spread pretty far out.
So in short, if you're transsexual and moving to Tucson, changing your license over is a snap. For now, anyway. They're always changing the rules, it seems. And I have no idea if this applies to Arizona outside of Tucson. Tucson is pretty LGBT-friendly, so it may be easier here than in Phoenix, for example.
Here's some pictures of my various driver licenses through the years. Now I just need a passport. Passports with one's "preferred" gender have have recently been made much easier to obtain.
Unfortunately, that's really the only thing that seems to have come easily in Tucson. Our car died on us again. Let's see. Due to the numerous speeding tickets I've obtained since getting here (see my last entry), we haven't paid our rent or phone bill as of yet. We got an eviction notice a few days ago. The phone service was canceled a day later. Nikki had paid the past due balance about an hour ago, but they hadn't turned the phone back on yet. I wanted the car to shop around to see if we could get any rental assistance. We hate asking for help like that, but the alternative is bye-bye apartment and hello street! I was driving Nikki to work so I could use the car. I noticed that the temperature gauge was all the way up on "hot." We stopped to put some coolant in. There was immediately a puddle on the ground under the car. It had all poured out!
Nikki had just gotten this job the week before and she didn't want to get fired, so we drove part of the way there and bought more coolant, since now the needle was sticking straight up, way past the final line. It poured out. Nikki had some bottles of water for lunch, so she poured those in there. About a mile from her employer, the car died. At a light, in the middle of the road. There we were, with two kids in the car, no working phone, and stuck in the middle of the road. The only number we could call was 911. I called them, and a car had soon arrived. He pushed the car off to the side of the road with his car, and he called a tow truck and a taxi for us. Nikki was able to charge the towing on her debit card. We didn't have enough for the taxi, or so I thought. I still had the money order for my defensive driving class, and it wasn't filled out, meaning I could cash it back in and retrieve the money I spent for it (minus a dollar or however much they charge for the service).
So, after having the taxi driver take us down to Nikki's employer so she could explain why she had to take off work today, we had him drive us to a post office near our home. I ran in with the money order, and was told that they just opened and didn't have enough cash in their drawers yet. Aggghhh! The taxi was waiting outside, with no other way to pay him! But then some man came in and bought a money order himself, for some large sum of money. Now they had enough cash to give me. I cashed the money order, he drove us home, and we paid him. $40 plus tip for the taxi, $53 for the towing, and oh yes, $22 on two gallons of coolant that spilled out as fast as we could put it in.
I walked down to the auto shop that we had the car towed to (since the phones were still not on!). It was a good four mile walk in 100 degree heat. I made a lot of stops to drink water, or pour it on my head. I'm sure steam rose up off my noggin! I got some Gatorade on the way back too, for energy and electrolytes. That stuff works! I haven't had it for over ten years, but wow they made it tastier, and it rejuvenated me quite a bit. Oh, and the auto shop let me use their phone to call AT&T and get our service turned back on.
The repair cost us a pretty penny (all we had left plus some help from my mother - again, ugh, I hate bothering and inconveniencing her), since it was some metal part of the line that feeds the coolant from one part of the engine to the other. It had been rubbing against the bottom of the car since it made, apparently, and eventually a hole formed. Great engineering there, Mercury makers! The way the piece is jammed against the bottom, well, it just jacked the labor up sky high. Unfortunately, I have to take them at their word, since I know jack about cars.
The moral of the story: This car is killing us! Okay, that's not really a moral, but we really need a break here.
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