Time: The Roadblocks to Name Change

[Carolyn Marie]

http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/10/identity-crisis-changing-documents-no-easy-task-for-transgender-individuals/

Carolyn Marie

[Cyndee]

Makes me grateful reading this Carolyn, having my ID documents mostly done now. This area is good, other parts of the country are struggling, definately makes a difference what state you live in.

Cynthia -

[Guest KimberlyF]

What prevented this woman from changing her name? The way this is written it kinda says the actual name change part isn't usually the difficult part from a legal stand point. That would help a whole lot with her name being called in public places.

Thr piece is not accurate at least as far as Illinois goes. If you get married, and change your marker, your marriage is not invalidated.

The annoying thing about Illinois protection is just more confusion and branding of trans as gay 2.0.

"Sexual orientation. "Sexual orientation" means

actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality,

bisexuality, or gender-related identity, whether or not

traditionally associated with the person's designated sex at

birth. "

So for many here when asked about their sexual orientation in Illinois, be sure to answer TG.

[Guest Carla_Davis]

http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/10/identity-crisis-changing-documents-no-easy-task-for-transgender-individuals/

Carolyn Marie

Hi Carolyn,

I can relate slightly to this article.

I DO have a LEGAL COURT ORDERD Name Change since 2008.

My Health Insurance ID Card also has my Legal Name Change Name on it.

Unfortunately, My Health Insurance WILL NOT change my sex marker until AFTER GRS.

I live and dress 24/7 as a female.

On a recent visit to my Doctors Office, while waiting in the waiting room to be called, The Medical Assistant came to the waiting room and even though I dressed and appeared FEMALE she called out my name in front of all the other patients as MR. _________________.

I was REALY HUMILIATED. I had to tell her that in the future I would like to be called CARLA.

Hugs,

Carla

[Charlize]

Carla i have had similar experiences at the Dr's office. It can be vey humiliating so i ask when i sign in to be called Charlie rather than an even more male version of my name. It works sometimes but not if a nurse runs out with a chart and yells..."Charles". Oh well they all needed to meet a trans person i guess but did it have to be me?

[KathrynJulia]

While paying for lunch with a credit card I had to show ID while dressed feminine. It was embarrassing. Now my new drivers license has a female sex listed and my name is changed now. I presented a letter from my doctor that I had drawn up for my passport and DMV took that letter and changed my Gender based on that letter even though I haven't had GRS surgery yet.

The ACLU filed suit in Utah over the gender surgery requirement recently and Utah changed their rules no longer requiring surgery prior to changing the person's gender on a drivers license. They do require a doctors letter. which is being recommended by the Federal Government. Whose state will be the last to adopt this change in regulation and adopt the Federal Standard of letting a private physician certify the gender is anybody's guess. My own state of Missouri is pretty backward about changing due to common sense. We ought to be in the final 10 states.

Care to nominate your home state into the final 10 most ignorant states to not change gender with a doctor's letter? I nominate Missouri!!!

Kathryn

[Guest LizMarie]

What prevented this woman from changing her name? The way this is written it kinda says the actual name change part isn't usually the difficult part from a legal stand point. That would help a whole lot with her name being called in public places.

Thr piece is not accurate at least as far as Illinois goes. If you get married, and change your marker, your marriage is not invalidated.

The annoying thing about Illinois protection is just more confusion and branding of trans as gay 2.0.

"Sexual orientation. "Sexual orientation" means

actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality,

bisexuality, or gender-related identity, whether or not

traditionally associated with the person's designated sex at

birth. "

So for many here when asked about their sexual orientation in Illinois, be sure to answer TG.

Why didn't she change her documents? Possible reasons are in the article.

“We’ve had clients who transitioned 20 years ago but felt like they couldn’t afford an attorney, or the process on their own was too confusing or they were turned away by court personnel,” says Amy Nelson, the supervising attorney of legal services at Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C., which started its legal clinic a year ago last month. “[Lawyers] are just ecstatic to get involved in this issue because they recognize this is one of the newest, freshest, cutting-edge civil right issues out there.”

What took so long? Part of the reason involves the fact that there’s no one-size-fits-all way to update name and gender. Procedures vary not just from state to state, but also from county to county, and it can be difficult to know which set of rules to follow.

As for marriage invalidations, it's not even consistent within some states. I've been warned by a transgender attorney who has tackled these issues in Texas for decades that some judges do simply annul marriages on the basis of same sex marriages being not recognized in Texas. One of the reasons for hiring this particular attorney and paying the fees rather than trying to do it yourself is precisely because she knows how to navigate an unjust legal system.

As for other roadblocks, again from the article:

Silverman says some judges have even asked for proof of surgery before granting a name change — an extra, arbitrary requirement they are not legally allowed to consider just because a person is transgender. But for many transgender people, such therapy or treatment isn’t appropriate, necessary or accessible. Those treatments can be prohibitively expensive, and some patients have medical conditions that make such surgeries inadvisable and some simply don’t want them.

Some of us seem to think that if the law says X then it's settled. It's not as judges and bureaucrats inject personal biases into the system, often for no other reason than to harass someone. There have been articles in these forums about two different women in Oklahoma denied name changes (not even gender changes) by a judge and that particular judge says he'll refuse the name change request even with SRS! That comes with other judges stating clearly that the judge in question isn't legally allowed to do that, yet that judge still sits in court and those women are now burdened with additional financial expenses to update documentation and appeal an illegal and unjust decision.

And we ask why people do not or can not change documents? Really? Come on now. Just because some of us had it straightforward does not mean everyone does.

[Guest KimberlyF]

Liz,

All I can pass on is personal experience and the experiences of those I know. I never commented on marriages in other states. Ever. I said the article is wrong as far as Illinois. I live here. I know people who live here. I can show you a trans advocate site that says exactly what I am saying.

The article seems almost hyperbole. If this woman was denied a name change by a judge, I think that would have really made the points of the article. Instead I don't even know where she lives.

I do know it isn't factually 100% acurate as I mentioned above w/the Illinois part. What else is wrong or even made up? I have real issues with journalism in this country so quoting an article that is flawed doesn't prove anything to me.

I have mentioned I've been around for 25-30 years now in the community. I've met people all over the country. I knew someone a while ago who became a mod here almost two decades later. That's because while there are lots of us, the online community is not infinite. I can not recall a single case of someone I know having an issue changing their name.

There has been loss, but I have heard of a lot more stories of acceptance. Going back a while, employment wasn't a major deal because most were in the tech field when it was hot. Ironically a few in the creative arts world had some issues. This job issue has become bigger over the years.