Monday, January 13, 2025

A Right Of Passage.

How many of my readers have legally changed their name? I have.
A new state bill could make court records related to gender transitions confidential
San Francisco Chronicle
By Nuala Bishari,
Jan 11, 2025


Last July, Hazel Williams started looking into the process to change her name. As a transgender woman, she wanted identification that didn’t just match her gender pronouns but also her chosen name. 

When she posted a query about it in a chat group with other trans people, however, horror stories emerged. Name change documentation, it turns out, is public and searchable. If you know the old or “dead” name of someone who is trans, it’s possible to find their new one — and vice versa. This, in the case of some people in Williams’ chat group, can lead to doxing and harassment. 

Williams was stunned.

“It feels like basic privacy and an issue of dignity,” she told me. “Why do we have to out ourselves?” 

As anti-trans rhetoric and legislative attacks surge across the country, bureaucratic loopholes such as this are ripe for abuse. From 2022 through 2023, recorded anti-trans hate crimes rose more than 10% in California. Yet to keep name and gender changes confidential, trans people in the state have to appeal on a case-by-case basis, arguing in front of a judge that a risk of violence and harassment justifies doing it.
Here in Connecticut it is straight forward, fill out a form, see the judge, pay the legal fee and get a piece of paper with your new name. You don't have to publish the name change in news papers. But it is a public record!

However, many states requires legal documents to be posted in newspaper outing trans people!

Back when I changed my name in 2007 a friend was called by reporter who wanted to do a story about people who changed their names... well she quickly found out that people change their names for personal reasons and don't want to talk about it.

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