Gender identity and name change in Pennsylvania

Name change can be a complex choice.

For instance, Gender identity and name were once thought to be unmoveable, unchangeable truths about a person. You were born, a name was put on your birth certificate, and it followed you the rest of your life, through all your school, employment, health and government records.

But what happens when the gender you identify yourself as no longer matches the one you were born with? This is an increasingly complex dilemma for many transgender individuals. Whether or not a person undertakes the rigors of surgical sex change, taking on a new name is very often the first step in transition to a new life, a concrete signpost that a person has begun to live in accordance with his or her gender identity.

Certainly, individuals can choose to go by whatever name they choose in their personal lives. But the legal snarls possible when one’s name or gender does not match identification documents can be colossal. Some of this is explained more thoroughly on the website of Lambda Legal, a New York-based advocacy agency for LGBT persons. Opting not to change a name might even make some individuals more at risk of violence because it reveals that they are transgender when they show ID.

Name change is a regular part of my practice, and increasingly I am seeing transgender persons step up to the legal task of matching documents to real life. I have immense respect for this process, as obtaining a Court Order for a Name Change is just the first step in a lengthy process of revising personal, health, school and employment records, as well as government identification and records. Some even go as far as changing their birth certificates.

But it all begins with a Judge’s Court Order to change your name, which in Pennsylvania involves a multi-step process that takes several months to complete. Call or email my office so we can help you with this step.