Common law name changes were somewhat common for trans folk a few decades ago. After 911 and with RealIID it’s not really an option anymore.
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Legalized child rape. Totally cool. You go, Ohio!
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So not only couldn’t the judge say “he”, but could bear to write singular “they”? And then says “no offense”? Class act.
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Sorry, that’s completely false.
https://namechange.uslegal.com/name-changes-laws-by-state/
http://myfamilylaw.com/library/common-law-name-change/
https://depts.washington.edu/qcenter/wordpress/legal-name-change-in-wa-state/ (My state =) )
More difficult? Certainly. Impossible? Not usually, but it varies GREATLY by state, more than I realized before I went to fetch you links - lol. But yes, more often than not it’s quite doable. Remember, I’m using a “common law” name change RIGHT NOW, by choosing to use the shortened form of my name for most business, official or not.
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There are, conceivably, people relieved that no one was interested when they once expressed a desire to change their own name - perhaps to the extent that they can’t even recall having expressed such a desire.
(For some baffling reason, my mind is snagging on that episode of Full House where Stephanie Tanner wanted to change her name to Dawn when people started calling her Step-On-Me. But an issue worthy of being tackled in an American sitcom is surely of some import…?)
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Of course the are. As with any decision in life there are people who will eventually change their minds or circumstances will change and they will regret it. They may or may not choose to express this publicly. Still this doesn’t mean that legal system should prevent them from making a choice that they may eventually regret. (As long as that choice doesn’t cause harm to others) Freedom is a freedom to make even a “bad” choice.
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I am sure there are some people who change their names and later changed their minds. My question is if there is a single person who wishes that a judge had stepped in and legally blocked them from changing their names when they had the chance.
If this judge is thinking the kid in question will look back on this decision with gratitude then he is bound for disappointment.
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In NH, I had to have a hearing in order to change my name. It took all of 5 minutes- Basically, I think they just wanted me to state under oath that I wasn’t doing it for purposes of fraud or anything.
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" slow eroding of autonomy for trans youth continues apace"
I don’t think it is an eroding of autonomy, bc I don’t think the US has ever really granted much (any?) autonomy to trans youth. More like “continued bullying and hatefulness towards trans people”, or “hate continues as usual in USA.”
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Well why didn’t you just ask so?
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Even if one, for the sake of argument, accepts the possibility that this person is maybe suffering “gender confusion” (which I suspect is the new way of saying “going through a phase”) and may at some point regret their change of name, they could always CHANGE IT BACK.
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Prosecutorial discretion I.e. Govt can do whatever the f**k it wants. JSTOR didn’t want to press charges, govt pushed Aaron Swartz to the point where he committed suicide under Eric Holder, times changed, people forgot.
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I don’t understand why the judge is involved in evaluating a person’s reasons for changing their name. It’s a free country; we ought to have the right to determine this for ourselves. Whether the law requires you to go before a judge, a county clerk, or the DMV, it should be enough to say, “I’m changing my name.” Your reasons are your own.
My wife is friends with the family in question. They’re pretty upset about this. It has been a traumatic experience for all of them. They’re just trying to take care of their kid, and they didn’t expect things to go this way.
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https://transgenderlawcenter.org/resources/id/changing-legal-identity-documents-in-california
WHAT MAKES YOUR NAME “LEGAL”?
“Your legal name is the identity by which you are officially known. Your birth name is a legal name because it is on your birth certificate and is used on all of your legal documents. There are technically two ways to change your name: a common-law name change and a court-ordered name change. While common-law name changes are recognized by California law, few government agencies recognize them.”
It often leaves you unable to get a drivers license in the new name, social security card - which makes work harder and travel as you don’t have real I’d compliant id.
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Actually, quite false. You can literally use any name you like,
I’m not sure why I’m replying to someone who opens with a literal “Actually comma quite false”, but from personal experience as a hyphenate that didn’t match my birth certificate, I can say that using a name other than your legal name will rarely but decisively prevent travel, access to healthcare or use of a financial institution.
In other words, you cannot reliably function as a human without the name change. This is even without the reality that being outed as trans can be deadly.
There’s no practical reason for having anti-trans bigotry baked into our civil institutions except that bigots control them, and prefer it that way.
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[ Removed because I misread the thing I was replying to. ]
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with the very leader of the country now demonstrating on a nearly daily basis that it is perfectly okay to be as bigoted and spiteful as you want without repercussions, it’s encouraging other people with power to be far less subtle about it, leaving a trail of misery in their wake
what’s really sad is that the leader is chosen by people who feel they reflect their feelings/beliefs, so there are millions of them - it’s hard to imagine when if ever this country will ever stop trying to suppress all kinds of minorities
but what I really don’t understand about this situation is why go to the press? your medical history is your deepest privacy on an extreme level - do you really want for the rest of your life the first thing anyone to google about you to show you are transgender? is that what your life is about? especially in this case when she is so young and now it’s publicly documented forever when she just wanted to move on with the rest of her life like every other woman does
If you make a start now, it’ll seem natural in 30 years.
eta: Using Ms is no longer a RadFemLib flag, but natural and respectful.
Chairman shifted to chairwoman or better, chair without the fall of civilization.
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master-that’s all.”
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"No disrespect is meant to the child in this decision," the footnote said.
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I’m pretty sure the judge misgendered the child (and based on the comments there, i think the article originally did too).
From there:
While the teen can go by any name he wishes, his legal name still appears on school documents and other official identification.
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