Most of you will know me as Marten, however, I am now happy to introduce myself to you as Morgan. I thought I would take the time to give an explanation of my name change for those of you who were curious and wondered where I went.

I have never identified as male (since I was 5) and always thought I was a trans woman. This was kept a well-guarded secret within me. Fast forward to last year when I started seeing the Gender Identity clinic in Exeter and through work with their therapists and psychiatrist, I have been determined as Non Binary instead, as I don't display any dominant male or female markers. This determination feels so right and I am now a lot happier than I was and feel a lot more whole. I am no longer Mr Marten Richens and am now Mx Morgan Gosling. The best analogy I can come up with to describe Non Binary is using colour; Purple is half way between Red and Blue but isn’t either of them and has its own place in the spectrum.

I chose my new name for two reasons; I have always liked the name Morgan as it doesn't have a gender bias, and my surname, Gosling, was the surname of my maternal grandparents. My old surname, Richens, was the name of the person I called my dad (Mick Richens) who adopted me and my elder brother when he married my mum, so I have never been a Richens by blood (and I know he won't object to the change as he died in 1988). The rest of his family never really accepted me or my brother so I never felt a strong connection to the name. I thought about using my biological father's name but again, there is no familial connection as I have never met him, hence going for Gosling.

There are a few changes that you will need to be aware of but most notably my new name (obviously!) and the pronoun usage. I no longer use 'He/His' and now use the accepted 'They/Their', also I don't fall into either Sir or Madam and there is no replacement here. If this does feel a bit odd (I do appreciate that it can) using Morgan will work in any situation! I am open to questions so if you are unsure of something, or just curious, please feel free to ask.

I have set a forwarding on my email but mrichens@visionict.com will cease to function at the end of August 2018, so please update your address books to use mgosling@visionict.com instead.

~ Morgan Gosling