by J.P. Isbell
Democrats in Michigan want to make it easier for transgenders to change their names and are expected to present bills this fall according to media reports. Currently, if a transgender wants to change their name in the state of Michigan, it costs up to $400 for fees including a criminal background check and it can take months.
On the other hand, married Michiganders can pay a lot less and get it done faster. They have to pay for a certified copy of their marriage certificate ($15 to $30) which gets them a free updated social security card that can be taken to the Michigan Secretary of State to get a $9 updated driver’s license or an updated $10 state ID card.
A 2021 report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law says there are an estimated 476K transgender adults in the country who are without any form of identification baring their “correct” gender marker. The report also says that Michigan has the highest percentage of trans adults without a gender-accurate identification at nearly 78% or roughly 15,000 individuals.
Grand Rapids Trans Foundation Executive Director Ximón Kittok told reporter Jordyn Hermani with miive, “The trans population is statistically underemployed, discriminated against, under-housed – and a lot of these things can offer a lot of financial barriers just to existing, to survival.”
Julisa Abad, director of Transgender Outreach and Advocacy with the LGBTQ legal group Fair Michigan says, “What we should have is gender affirming documentation so that we can have the same quality of life as everybody else. We’re not asking for special privileges.”
Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, (D-Livonia) says, “The goal is to level the playing field in terms of people who are changing their names because they got married – which is very, very easy to do – and people who are changing their name because they are trying to bring their name in line with their gender presentation.” She goes on to say that the bills she’s signing on to would also change the requirement to publish a notice of a name change in a newspaper, stop physical mandated court hearings and end automatic fingerprinting.
Because of the difficult name-changing process that Michigan transgenders have to navigate, support groups have sprung up to help including the Grand Rapids Trans Foundation mentioned above – which has been offering grants to cover the costs of name changes. They have helped 165 Kent county resident change their names since 2019.
– – –
Jen Isbell has spent nearly 20 years as a journalist. She is a Michigan News Source daily contributor who prefers pets over people because they cause fewer problems.
Photo “Michigan Capitol” by Corey Seeman. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
