Just Heard Back From the Court

[Valwen]

so 5 weeks to the day after I filed for my name change I finally heard back from them, with a letter that I had to read about 25 times to make sense of it, do they realize that using a paragraph to explain what they want me to do rather than a sentence would make it much clearer and not require I double cheack what each word means in a legal sense?

so finally got it back and now I need to get it published in a news paper, which is one part WTH why dose everyone who I don't know or interact with need to know, and It will be clear to everyone that I am trans after that, I might as well just wear a sign that says "I am trans please treat me like a subhuman thing that makes you uncomfortable". Another part of me things WTH who even reads a news paper anymore!

Other other hand says I am so glad they finally got back to me I was wondering after a month went by how long this will take, now hopefully things will get worked out by september which is looking like its going to be a 1000$ transision month, between laser, starting voice lessions, and name/gender marker change costs which is about what I make in a month, yay and I thought just being a girl was expensive. :-)

[Dena]

Most of the time they don't care which paper you run the add in. In Orange County California, there was one of those paper they would leave on your door step for free and it pretty much only contained legal notices. Nobody read the thing and it cost very little to print your legal notice in it.

[Jessie Ann]

In California, you no longer have to publish a notice in the paper if you are changing your name because of gender identity.  More states will be making that change in the future I bet.

Sorry that you have to do that but find a paper that is cheap to run an ad in and no one reads and you will be ok.

Good luck and hugs girl!

[Valwen]

Actually I don't have a choice, the paperwork told me which paper it had to be in, it's a local one which makes it hard to figure out who I need to talk to just to have it run. I could fight it, the massachusetts website says I can request a exception, but I will have to talk to a judge and hope the agree  with me and don't harbour and transphobic feelings, or I can just publish the thing and wait till the end of the month to see how things turn out.

Well it's frustrating having to do this but I tend to assume that everyone who sees me knows I am trans anyways so it's not that bad telling everyone who reads a paper.

Sigh,
Serena

[Dena]

If you want to hear a funny one, my birth certificate has never been up dated and I may need to publish as well to update it. My male name was last active 33 year ago when I changed my records after surgery. Do you think anyone is going to care about anything my old male name did. The only thing this will do is associate  my history with my new name. I sure hope our lawyer knows a judge that can bypass the process.

[Valwen]

that sounds awful in my case its not like I have been useing my new name for very long, still under 2 months at this point likely only 3 when I get this done mabye 4 by time I have a new license. 33 years seems crazy. mabye you can get it published in the april 1st edition and play it as a joke :-P

[Sydney_NYC]

Actually I don't have a choice, the paperwork told me which paper it had to be in, it's a local one which makes it hard to figure out who I need to talk to just to have it run. ....

NJ is the same way where the judge specifies which paper you have to publish in. You will need to contact the "Legal Notices" department of the paper. Usually the ask you to FAX them a copy of the notice the court has sent you. In NJ, your full address and phone number is on this notice, but the paper only puts you town name in and that's it. I specified that anyway when I sent it to them and didn't have any problems. In NJ you have to publish it a 2nd time after the judge approves the name change to announce that it has been changed. Then 30 days later the judgement becomes valid.

[Jessie Ann]

All this makes me so glad I'm in California.   No publication requirement and a letter from my doctor indicating I was undergoing appropriate treatment and 6 weeks after filing I had my name and gender changed.  Hopefully the rest of the country will follow our lead and make it eaiser for transgender individuals to transition. 

[Valwen]

I don't think this paper even has a legal notices department, it a very small paper and I think they even changed there name a while back. I hope they get back to me, the name change is so very important to me, I have been uncomfortable correcting people on my name and I think I will feel better about it once I can tell them that it was legally changed.

I really should not complain I live in Massachusetts, I go to Fenway Health I have gotten the support of so many people and I recently realized that coming out has made me closer to some people that I  have ever been to anyone ever. (with one exception). But I still worry, I still beat myself up, I still cry with exaustion and terror at what is still to come, I also cry for lots of other reasons like thinking about crying, and talking about crying and it would be great if I could blame my emotional rollercoaster on the estrogen but a large part of that has always been a part of me.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a answer from the paper and by friday I will have it posted and some time next week I will bring the paperwork back to the court and then wait, I hate waiting.

Serena

[TheaP]

It maybe related to debts.  If you owe someone money, then this is their chance follow-up on the debt or note the change of name so they can recover the debt

[Cindy]

Another reason to move to Australia! $125 fill in the form with old and new name and hey presto. Done

[Dena]

It maybe related to debts.  If you owe someone money, then this is their chance follow-up on the debt or note the change of name so they can recover the debt

The publication notice is to inform anyone who might have done business with you in the past and could for any reason need to know you are using a new name. It is intended to offer protection to others should somebody change their name in order to duck out on paying a debt but in our case it has the side effect of outing us even when we have made sure all our obligations have been met. It would be better if the courts just maintained a record of the name changes and if someone needed to find a person who changed their name, they could run a trace through the courts. As it is, this could become public record and available for a few dollars on any one of a number of people trace web sites.

[Valwen]

it also seems to grant anyone who has an objection to the name change a chance to complain about and try and block it formally. So yay win for the Transaphobes.

Serena, Who still has not heard from the paper yet.

[jeni]

It's a well-intentioned requirement, for the reasons Dena describes. The purpose is to create an accessible public record of the change, though it's very much outdated since few people bother reading those sections.

There are, however, people who *do* read those things, and maintain databases of them. Some are relatively benign, using them for the intended purpose of helping to find people after name changes (since these are not intended to be used to disappear). Some are not: I have heard reports of anti-trans groups scouring these for cross-gender name changes and using these for doxxing/harrassment purposes. If you're somewhere that does publish a mailing address, I've seen it advised to take out a post office box for the purposes of that notification. (This may not work everywhere, as they may require your residential address, though.)

[Valwen]

I am not so sure how many people actually saw it, its a local small town paper that publishes only on Friday, it took me 45 minutes of driving around stopping at various stores just to find a place that carried it, I am also not really concerned about anyone fighting it or arguing against it in court.

That said the waiting is killing me, I found my paper after the 45 minutes of driving and went straight to the court house, I was in and out in 10 minutes and now I have to wait to hear back from the judge, given people have till the 27th to show up and argue it I I know I wont hear anything else till September.

Ohh it also ended up costing me 169.07 :-( and from what I read its like 20$ per copy of the name change order and I will likely need 10 of them so this whole name change in Mass is likely to cost me about 550$ and take roughly 2-3 months not counting calling every place I have a official record and fighting with them to get my information changed.

all that said I am very glad I started this the week after I started full time, its a very visible sign to those few who think this is some sorta game that I am serious, also its much easier to tell people to stop calling me that if I can show them my license and tell them that they are in every legal way simply wrong.

Serena, who should not post at 4am as she rambles more and more the later it gets.

[Valwen]

So I never get hard copy mail, most everything in my life is digital but today about 10 minutes after I got on the treadmill I got a letter which sorta ruined my chance to work out today, but I will forgive it because its the one I have been waiting for. the court sent it back and as of 9/1/15 I am legally Serena.

YAY/Snoopy happy dance/I need a cake to celebrate. Now I just need to get copies of it from the registry of vital records and send them to what feels like half the state, not exactly fun but still. YAY Stupid Labor day have to wait till tuesday to start doing that. :-)

Serena, No like legally and everything!!!

[Valwen]

Now I just have to figure out how many certified copies I need for everyone.

Serena

[iKate]

It's a well-intentioned requirement, for the reasons Dena describes. The purpose is to create an accessible public record of the change, though it's very much outdated since few people bother reading those sections.

There are, however, people who *do* read those things, and maintain databases of them. Some are relatively benign, using them for the intended purpose of helping to find people after name changes (since these are not intended to be used to disappear). Some are not: I have heard reports of anti-trans groups scouring these for cross-gender name changes and using these for doxxing/harrassment purposes. If you're somewhere that does publish a mailing address, I've seen it advised to take out a post office box for the purposes of that notification. (This may not work everywhere, as they may require your residential address, though.)

They do it primarily so you don't change your name to avoid creditors.

Even though the newspapers are outdated, the notices are online. The press associations keep it online, sadly.

Even though I'm not stealth I really did not want this published online. But it is what it is.

[iKate]

So I never get hard copy mail, most everything in my life is digital but today about 10 minutes after I got on the treadmill I got a letter which sorta ruined my chance to work out today, but I will forgive it because its the one I have been waiting for. the court sent it back and as of 9/1/15 I am legally Serena.

YAY/Snoopy happy dance/I need a cake to celebrate. Now I just need to get copies of it from the registry of vital records and send them to what feels like half the state, not exactly fun but still. YAY Stupid Labor day have to wait till tuesday to start doing that. :-)

Serena, No like legally and everything!!!

Congrats.

I need to appear in court (this Friday coming, in fact). They make you do that here.

And I also need to publish the final judgement in the paper. Joy.

[Valwen]

ya in mass you sometimes have to see a judge if they feel like it or think its unusual/out of place. I thankfully don't need to publish the results I do need to go to the court and get copies for my banks, both jobs, insurance and car insurance, registry of motor vehicles, and the social security office.

I hear the social security office is a nightmare of waiting. I also need to go to the vital records office and get a few copies of my birth record for the registry and the social security people, plus one for my records the court kept the one I brought to them which till then my mother had in a draw sense I started school decades ago.

the one painful part is in mass all these copies are 20$ each so 3 birth and like 8-9 of the name change is another 240$ at least these are one time costs and if everything goes well this will be a sleepless but productive week.

Serena