🏳️‍⚧️ Unofficial Gender Affirmation/Transition Guide for Curtin Technical Systems

March 2, 2023  

1: First Steps of Transition

First of all, are reading this and just transitioned, I want to say a huge congratulations. This is an awesome journey you have embarked on, well done. If you also happen to actually be working at Curtin, please do reach out to me 😊. I would also encourage you to reach out to Staff Diversity and Inclusion staffdiversity@curtin.edu.au who will be able to support you on your journey.

The reason this post exists is because the Gender Transition Guide for Curtin is currently under review, and does not contain the information you need to know. This contains many of the things I wish I knew, but didn’t, particularly relating to the administrative and IT systems.

Please note that nothing in this guide is official, nor is this mean to reflect on Curtin, these are my own personal opinions/experiences, waivers, blah blah blah, you get the bloody point. I’m just trying to help, so if a legal team is reading this—bugger off.

This guide may contain information generally useful to anyone affirming gender in academia, and I will likely separate out that information into another post in the coming week (stated on 2023-02-28 16:27).

2: Internal Systems: Preferred or Legal Name Change

The sections below are things that apply irrespective of whether your name change is legally binding or not.

Changing Preferred Name and Gender

Updating Telephone Directory Display, WebEx, and Email.

Outlook Crap

Printer name

New business cards and name badge

Changing Outlook/Teams Display Name

Staff Profile

Other Systems

The systems below are ones I’ve yet to do myself but just pointing them out:

Microsoft Word // Office

3: Internal and External Systems After Legal Name Change Only

The process following your legal name change is similar to the process above, but there are some added steps worth mentioning below.

Replacement ID Card

Elements

Espace records

I am currently in discussions with the Espace team and Elements team to work this one out. Stay tuned. However, it appears you will need to at minimum email the following mailboxes:

Academic Publishing

Reissue your Degree Certificates

Most of the major universities state explicitly that they only require a change of name certificate to reissue your degree (e.g., PhD certificate, Testamur). UNSW, UQ, USyd, UniSA, Monash, and UniMelb all do not require any evidence or requirement to show change of Gender (ANU unspecified). UWA does require you to show evidence of affirmed gender. The evidence is just the standard Aus. Government requirements with a simple statement any GP can produce being sufficient. I suggest ignoring the poor choice of words on the form, or use my edited version of the form to induce less political dysphoria 😁. No guarantees they will accept this.

Updating name in Old Journals

Almost all major publishers allow you to update your name on old papers without corrections. Please see the following articles for more information:

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/resources/policy-author-name-changes

https://perspectivesblog.sagepub.com/blog/author-services/our-post-publication-name-change-policy-explained

https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/inclusive-author-name-changes

https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/author-name-changes-for-published-articles/

Allow 3-4 weeks for most publishers to execute the changes (I found Springer and SAGE the fastest).

Notes on Reindexing

Google Scholar

Conclusion