Bills removing barriers for transgender Michiganders seeking name changes to be introduced soon
When a person gets married and wants to change their name on their drivers license or state ID in Michigan, they go to their local Secretary of State’s office. When a transgender Michigander wants to change their name on those documents, they go to court.
Michigan has the highest percentage in any state in the U.S. of transgender adults without a form of ID that has the correct gender listed at 77.7% of transgender adults, according to a 2015 report from the Williams Institute in the University of California Los Angeles School Of Law. Nationally, it is estimated in the report that more than half of transgender adults, or 476,000 people, lack an accurate ID.
Legislation to make the name change process for LGBTQ+ Michiganders less costly and needlessly burdensome is expected to be introduced in the fall, state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) told the Michigan Advance.
The package is poised to alter three parts of the current rules for those petitioning a court for a name change: Requirements for publishing the court appearance to change a name, mandatory court hearings and a fingerprinting requirement.
“It’s just an issue of basic humanity and not treating certain segments of our population different than everyone else,” said Pohutsky, who will be a sponsor on the legislation. “It’s remarkably easy to change your name if you get married and I don’t understand why we don’t have the same concerns about someone changing their name at the point of marriage as we do someone who is just transitioning in their life.”
https://michiganadvance.com/2023/08/15/bills-removing-barriers-for-transgender-michiganders-seeking-name-changes-to-be-introduced-soon/