SSA Verification Service Invades Privacy of Transsexual Employees...

Beginning January 2003, the Social Security Administration [SSA] began the Social Security Number Verification Service [SSNVS] for employers.  On the surface such a service would seem to be a simple verification of ones SSN.  However, for transsexuals it becomes much more than this - an invasion of their privacy.

A Connecticut Transwoman and member of CTAC recently received an official email from her Corporate HR Payroll Department.  The following is an excerpt from this email:

Social Security Administration has reviewed the information that we have
on file for you and they have indicated that your gender does not match
the record that they have... Please contact us to correct this in our employee records.

Clearly, this person was both shocked and concerned as to the ramifications of such an email.  She was hired as female and all corporate records, insurance and domestic partnership records were listed as female.  The SSA will not change the gender marker on a persons records unless they have undergone complete and comprehensive Sexual Reassignment Surgery.  This person did not, and probably will never have the money for such an expensive Surgical Procedure.  Was she now doomed to have her employee records and status at her company to be in her birth sex Male?

After several days of panic and crying, she braved herself to deal with this issue.  She contacted both Maureen Murphy and Jennifer Levi for guidance and suggestions.  They got back to her within a day to offer whatever suggestions and ideas they had, as well as to better understand the issue.

After composing herself she planned a two phase strategy to this issue.  The first stage was to ascertain what the position of her company would be regarding requiring her to change her employee records to match the SSA and therefore birth assigned sex.  With this stage done, she could then tackle the SSA, hopefully knowing that her position within her company was secure.

She decided to arrange a meeting with the President [who we will call P1] of her division within this large company.  At this meeting she relayed the email and her concern and distraught over the issue.  At first P1 simply stated that she should contact the SSA and correct the issue.  The answer to this question could be tricky.  If she said she was pre-operative this could be looked upon negatively and raise the bathroom issue as well as many other issues pre-operative transsexuals encounter in the workplace.  So all she said was that was not a simple endeavor.  Her main concern was that no matter what position the SSA took, would the company make her change her gender status on her employee records?  P1 was very understanding and said she would hope that would not occur, though HR would need to give a final answer.  After about a 45 minute conversation, P1 personally walked her to the head of HR in her division and point blank stated to HR, "I want you to resolve this issue."  By this she meant, I want you to make sure our employee's gender status is secure as female.  When P1 left, she and the HR person chatted for a brief time to discuss this issue.  The HR person then said she felt the company should not require a gender change marker on her records.  However, Corporate HR would need to be involved.  HR said this would take a few days and that they would be in touch as quickly as possible.  The employee waited about a week and then received a phone call, stating that Corporate HR would not require any change in the gender marker status of the employee records. That she was hired female and will stay female as far as the company was concerned.  However, payroll indicated that a loss of benefits with SSA would result unless this discrepancy was fixed.

So to summarize, the transwoman received positive feedback from her company.  However, the questions remain:  What does gender have to do with SSN verification?, Why should benefits be impacted by a gender mismatch? And the most important question is that this procedure by the SSA will OUT any pre or non-operative transsexuals whose company uses the SSNVS verification system.

CTAC and this transwoman are now working on part two of this issue -- Opening discussion with the SSA on why gender is being used as part of the SSNVS employee verification system.  There are a number of privacy issues regarding usage of this system that have gone uncontested.  A critical one is that gender is an optional verification check in this system yet the SSA encourages its use by employers.  And why would anyone's benefits be dependent upon gender?  Unless you are specifically looking to weed out same sex marriages or transsexuals.  Think about it folks, this and a number of federal changes impacting the trans community have been quietly introduced by the Bush Administration over the last two years.

CTAC is working with several national trans organizations to pursue both the documentation of this issue and a procedure for trans employees who may encounter this issue.  Additionally, CTAC has initiated discussions with the SSA regarding the legality and implementation of this verification.

Stay tuned to future issues of the CTAC eNews for details.

Return To Top