The Adventures of Jessica Sideways

Well, I had to go deposit my small (1 day of pay) cheque from Telefund into my Wells Fargo chequing account. And no, I could not deposit the cheque because of the type of account I have (Opportunity Chequing Account, because of the fact that I had my identity stolen in the past). And I decided that just for a lark, I would attempt to change my name with the Verified Petition for Name Change that I have. So, I walk into the downtown Wells Fargo branch and then decide to bring the people at the customer service counter my name change petition, in hopes that they would change it. One of them called me ’sir’ and while that did make me sigh, I did tell them that I did not want to be called that nor addressed by male pronouns. So, I waited at the Customer Service counter and they said that it could not be done. Very well, it was worth a try, eh? I was about to put the envelope in my backpack and head to the teller’s window to deposit my meager pay cheque when they proceeded to call me sir. And this is where it begins.

I told them that I would like to speak to their manager, because they continuously refused to respect who I am and I suspected that their bigotry and hate may very well be blocking my attempts to change my name. So, I waited for them to summon the branch manager and she came down within a few minutes. I stated that I was trying to change my name at the customer service counter, I told them not to call me sir, that they refused to respect me and chose to disrespect me by calling me sir yet again. So, I told the manager that I wanted her to help me with the name change. She wasted no time in telling me that her employee’s actions were in the right and were just. So, I started to get understandably upset and I started to get worried that even if I had the order today, I would so be unable to change my name.

I asked about the branch manager’s supervisor, the regional manager. I tried to get the branch manager to give me the regional manager’s office location and she completely refused to allow me to talk to her. I then proceeded to ask about getting a copy of the policies and procedures as to changing my name, because this would be helpful in case some sort of bigotry like this would arise again. She told me that she could not give the policies and procedures to the public, despite the fact that the policies and procedures affect the public. By now, the slurs against my transsexuality started to slow down so I decided to head to the teller’s window and deposit my pay cheque. And then one of the other customer service representatives called to me “Sir, you left your notebook here!” I broke down.

I went back up to the Customer Service counter because, of course, I was pissed. I couldn’t care less about the notebook right now. I put my fist down into the desk and told them that I wanted to see the Regional Manager now. I said “I have nothing to do today that is more important than this”. I started to cause a scene to try to get them to attempt to summon the Regional Manager. And with enough … enthusiasm, the Regional manager finally came down, talked me down and we talked about what we could do once I do get the name change documentation.