"What's in a Name?" (New York Times)

jessiehl
Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:18:03 +0000

My full name is pretty unambiguous, but the shortening of it that I have gone by all my life is gender-neutral.

When I was 10 or 11, I wrote a letter to the editor of the paper, countering a previous letter that had dismissed people’s concerns about conditions in the state prison system. My age was included after the letter. Apparently the combination of topic and young age caused the state Chairman of the Department of Corrections to decide that he should send me a personal letter reassuring me that the problems with the system were all media hype, and saying how excellent it was that I was interested in social issues at my age. He addressed it to “Mr. Jessie [lastname]”. I was very amused.