LGBTQ+ Perspectives

Reflections on Tax Day, Financial Gender Transitions, and Grifters

It’s our first time submitting tax forms in our chosen names

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In the United States, April 15 is the last day to submit tax forms. We waited until the last minute this year because time has lost all meaning in the whirlwind of things that are always happening around us.

This Tax Day represents a milestone I never would have thought of in our gender transitions. It’s our first time finally submitting tax forms in our chosen names. It turns out that everything doesn’t magically fall into place the minute you change your legal name. There are endless little steps to financially transitioning.

Speaking of finances, a funny thing happened earlier this year. Some poor identity thief picked the wrong person to impersonate at the wrong time in a futile effort to get a free credit card in my name. I got a letter from some random place in Missouri letting me know that I didn’t have sufficient credit. An application I’d never submitted for a credit card was denied.

My wife and I then learned we had credit scores of zero because we didn’t know we needed to report our name change to all three credit reporting agencies after getting our new social security cards. I changed…