Life Is A Little Easier For Some

In some states it is almost impossible to change your name legally or you have to publish your name change so that everyone will now you are trans, while others states like Connecticut make it easy to change your name.

Indiana appeals court rules in transgender birth certificate case
Indy Star
By Associated Press
September 2, 2017

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Court of Appeals has clarified the process transgender residents can use to legally change their names or birth certificates.

The court ruled unanimously in reversing a Tippecanoe County judge’s decision that required notices about name or gender changes to be published at least three times in a newspaper in the petitioner’s home county, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

Appellate court Judge John Baker wrote that county judges can’t add conditions to requests for gender changes to birth certificates if a good faith test is satisfied.

A 2014 ruling by the court found that gender changes to birth certificates are allowed if a judge can determine it’s not being made for an unlawful purpose.

State law requires publication when changing names, though individuals who may be endangered by the publication are exempt.

To me it seems like the original judge might have been a little biased in the ruling, other judges had no problem wavering the requirement to have the name change published.

I will always remember the comment that the judge made when I changed my name… “Where are you going to have your surgery? All the other girls went to Montreal.” I kind of mumbled something because I was still trying to digest “All the other girls went…” now you have to realize two things, one is that I come from a very small town, two I am very active in trans community and know a lot trans people and I never meet anyone else from town back then (now I do know a couple of trans people from town).