NY Court Denies Transgender Man's Name Change

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A New York court has ruled that a transgender man must provide proof of transition to legally change his name. This was the second ruling against Evan (legally Sarah) Rockefeller's name change in the case by State Supreme Court Justice William P. Polito.

According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Polito denied Rockefeller's name change because it "lack[ed] any medical, psychiatric or psychological corroborative support concerning the petitioner's alleged psychological/anatomical sexual conflict."

Further, Polito has suggested that Rockefeller use his chosen name without legally changing it.

The Rochester D&C went on to state that "Denial of a name change can be made when someone is intending to commit fraud, escape criminal prosecution or evade child support. Two convicted murderers from Monroe County also were denied changing their names while in prison." None of these are alleged in this case.

Read the full story in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

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This is ridiculous...

#20 On Wed, 07/12/2006 6:01pm Transman said,

Historically, name changes don't require any justification. If you look at NY's name change law, you'll see this as the last paragraph:

Nothing in this article shall be construed to abrogate or alter the common law right of every person, whether married or single, to retain his or her name or to assume a new one so long as the new name is used consistently and without intent to defraud.

Guess that only counts if the judge actually likes the name you pick.

Evan's clearly not trying to defraud anyone. HE'S DOING IT THROUGH THE COURT SYSTEM! Completely open and documented process that requires, by statute, notification to the public of the proposed change.

Doing as the judge suggests, i.e., going by one name while his legal name is something else, sounds more like a path leading to possible fraud to me.

This guy isn't even requesting a gender change. All of his documentation is still going to indicate that he is legally female. The funny thing is that the name Evan, at least in Indiana, could as easily be a female name as a male name.

Another point to notice is that his parents could have named him Evan at birth and no one would have cared and we could have averted this whole mess. Are we going to start generating state-controlled lists of acceptable names for girls and boys and force people under penalty of law to assign only the appropriate names when their children are born? (Sorry intersex people....guess you don't get a name.)

We actually know a woman who was named George at birth and was known by that name until she was in her twenties. She then petitioned the court to change her name to Anna. Should she be required to offer up some biological evidence in order to change her name from George to Anna? Or is this only going to apply to transgender people?

The fact is that this was a highly discriminatory decision. Hopefully the ACLU will be able to do something positive with it.

--
Ask a Transman anything at:
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Fraud schmaud - NY Judge is in idiot

#22 On Fri, 07/14/2006 9:17am lorisir said,

I find it highly ironic that Judge Polito would deny the name change request based on his perception that doing so "would be fraught with danger of deception and confusion and contrary to the public interest," when he counsels Evan to just use his chosen name without making it legal. The article says: "As an alternative, Polito suggested using another name without legally changing it." WTF?

It seems to me that when a citizen petitions the court to change his identity documentation, he is not doing so to be deceptive, but precisely the opposite. He is trying to abide by the law. Changing his name legally entails a period of public disclosure where you have to announce that you are going to change your name from A to B and post this announcement in a local newspaper of record.

Plus the strategy that many trans people in Indiana and elsewhere have used successfully is to say to the courts: "Most people perceive me as male/female now. Changing my name legally to reflect this gender expression actually makes it easier for government agencies (e.g., the police) to track me down if I do something wrong. I'm just trying to be a cooperative citizen here." It's a strategy that works and actually makes sense to judges and law enforcement officials, well most anyways.

On a side note, it is quite telling that the Rochester paper refers to the FTM petitioner with male pronouns the whole way through and the court records also refer to Evan with male pronouns.

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education does not always lead away from ignorance and bigotry

#24 On Fri, 07/14/2006 5:57pm pennyjane said,

sometimes we see things like this that just absolutely blow our minds. what in the world could possibly be going on in this man's head? to see this from a justice of the new york state supreme court is almost beyond imagination. alas, this is beyond ignorance and bigotry, it's just plain stupid! i swear you'd have to add a point to have this man's iq register up in positive intigers. this has to be a terrible embarrassment to all new yorkers, of any stripe. God bless us all. pj

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Transman files appeal

#63 On Tue, 08/29/2006 4:58pm INTRAA Chair said,

The man in this article has filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court.

Read the full story on WHAM-TV.

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