General

Self-Attestation is the Right Step for the Social Security Administration

November 14, 2022 • By

Reading Time: 2 Minutes

Last Updated: December 28, 2022

Social Security Administration LogoThe two most important parts of transition for many transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people are changing their name and correcting their gender marker on official records. This process often required jumping through many legal, medical and bureaucratic hoops.

Medical certification created unnecessary barriers for trans, nonbinary or gender diverse persons. These included:

  • Incurring monetary costs for a doctor to provide a medical certification.
  • Incurring wait time to process, review, and accept the medical certification document (i.e., ensuring the correct wording, spelling, and color of ink signature).

Previously, this administrative process caused trans persons to submit multiple versions of a doctor’s letter before they received one that was accepted.

Social Security’s new policy on Self-Attestation eliminates what can often be the most frustrating of those hoops. Under this new policy, Social Security no longer requires legal or a medical documentation to certify a person’s gender before it can be changed on their record. When the information that someone reports on a document does not need verification by a secondary source, that is called self-attestation. Self-attestation is the standard we use for information on most forms that we fill out. For instance, nobody is called upon to prove their height or weight on their driver’s license application.

Here are the steps to follow to update their sex marker in SSN records:

  1. Find your Local SSA Field Office
  2. Apply for a replacement SSN card
  3. Show a current document to prove your identity (i.e., U.S. passport, U.S. driver’s license, or State-issued non-driver identification card)

The agency will accept the applicant’s self-identified sex designation of either male or female, even if it is different from the sex designation shown on identity documents.

  1. Your SSN record will be updated.
    1. You may choose to have your SSN card be reissued if it was lost.
    2. Or, you can keep your current card. SSN cards do not include sex markers.

Having the correct name and gender marker on IDs and records is about more than convenience. It’s also a matter of dignity and safety. The National Center for Transgender Equality learned, through a U.S. Transgender Survey conducted nationwide in 2015, that having incorrect documentation was a significant cause for much of the discrimination and violence trans individuals face daily.

Social Security has modernized their processes to decrease administrative burdens and ensure gender equity in the Social Security Number card application process. Now, millions of transgender, nonbinary, or gender diverse people can update their most common ID documents and records without providing medical documentation. Help us spread the word. Please share this information with friends and family who need it.

We look forward to providing feedback as the agency explores future policy and systems updates to support an “X” sex designation for the SSN card application process.

Our posting of this blog does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of any non-Social Security organization, author, or webpages.

Did you find this Information helpful?

Yes
No
Thanks for your feedback!

Tags: ,

See Comments

About the Author

Olivia Hunt, Policy Director, National Center for Transgender Equality

Related Articles

Will Remarrying Affect My Social Security Benefits?

Lend a Helping Hand and You Can Make a Difference

Financial Literacy Month, A Perfect Time to Plan for Your Future

Social Security 2021 Trustees Report

Comments

  1. joe g.

    Barvo to the Social Security Administration. : ]

  2. Jesse S.

    The money spent on all this non sense could be better used in benefits. Wasteful spending to appease a tiny segment of the population.

    • Laura

      I agree.

      • old p.

        I agree

  3. Roxanne M.

    Again with the ridiculous!

  4. Chris G.

    What percent of the population is being served by all this effort surrounding gender changes? Seems to me that it should be a higher priority to solve the difficulty the agency is having in providing timely and accessible service to the vast majority of citizens. Time for a sanity check.

  5. Loreal

    Oh, please! Stop.

  6. Fred A.

    Stop with this nonsense, please!

    • Rosa W.

      Agree

  7. Tim T.

    I am so relieved. This is , without a doubt, the most pressing issue of our day. I can sleep so much better now that the “woke” have completely confounded the most basic of identifying markers for our citizens.

    • joseph g.

      You are correct Tim T. : ]

    • old p.

      well said!!!

    • KC

      Agree!

  8. Robin W.

    I disagree with the self proclaiming of sex when it disagrees with other required documents as it makes identity theft that much easier

  9. Fred B.

    I was born a male, I still am a male and will remain a male the rest of my living years. Would it still be better if I get this Self-Attestation for my Social Security Card?

  10. Jane A.

    I feel nauseous

    • Dave T.

      Me too. More woke B$ from the government. So sad how we as a nation are being destroyed.

      • Unwoke

        I absolutely agree. The “Woke” needs to go back asleep. This is so unnecessary for such a small part of our society.

        • Carletta J.

          I like that…The woke needs to go back asleep.

          Agreed!!

Comments are closed.