Problem

Some people don't understand that Leslie is a gender neutral name.  This has led to no small amount of annoyance with people who expect to interact with a woman.  For example, I had an appointment to see an optometrist one week.  The woman who called to confirm the appointment heard a male voice and didn't understand that she was actually speaking to the correct person.  She also came across as being dumb in general.  The appointment itself was another CF altogether.  I waited thirty one minutes after the specified time of the visit before I walked out without being seen by the optometrist.  This is inexcusable.

One of the effects of having a gender neutral primary name is that I'd receive telephone calls from people who assume that I'm a woman.  Just after I returned from a multiple hour road trip someone made a cold call to my phone number.  An obviously young African-American woman asked me if she could speak to Miss Bates.

I said, "who?"

She immediately hung up.

This is clearly incorrect.

While my is voice clearly male in origin the caller apparently didn't think about what she was doing.  I could have been honestly asking to correctly state the name of the person she sought to speak to.  Furthermore she didn't give any thought to the possibility that a husband, son or other male guest may have answered the phone.

But then it really doesn't take any thought to be an African-American.