I heard somewhere that as a compromise between transgender people who don't want their name change to be published and others who are concerned that allowing such name changes to be done privately would increase fraud, someone suggested a change to a state's name change law that would allow transgender people legally changing their name to seal the record of the change - but only if they don't change their last name as well*. The proposal would also provide that if they had circumstances (such as being massively in debt or a felony record) that would result in such a last name change request to be denied if they were cisgender, the judge must still allow the first/middle name changes needed to affirm their gender identity but can deny the change to the last name*.
*Exceptions would apply if they were restoring a former last name changed due to marriage or if they can demonstrate their last name at birth would've been different had they been assigned to the opposite gender. An example of the latter would be I know of a few families where as a compromise all the boys would get the father's last name and all the girls the mother's - in that case a TG person could change to the last name they would've had if they had been assigned to the right gender at birth. In the case of publishing the name change, as an example Samuel Jones wanting to become Samantha Smith could still have a name change to Samantha Jones without the public notice and have the right to do so protected, but a notice showing a change from Samantha Jones to Samantha Smith would still have to be made public to change the last name and the last name change would be subject to the same scrutiny as a cisgender person's petition (absent the aforementioned exceptions).
What are your thoughts on this? Although some TGs, particularly those trying to be as stealth as possible and who changed their last names to make their past harder to find, may dislike this as a compromise akin to "separate but equal" I think it's a reasonable way to balance the concerns of transgender people having their birth identity exposed vs. the general population who are concerned that relaxed name change laws and a tightening of disclosure of the former name would increase fraud related to name changes. Such a rule addresses the "needs" for transgender people (having a first and middle name in line with the gender they identity with) while preserving the
status quo for name changes related to "wants" (including a transgender person's last name which normally does not have any gender identity directly attached to it). As another example, such a philosophy came out of the
recently revised I-9 form (USCIS decided that as a compromise between the transgender population's concerns between the old form asking for any other legal names used vs. the agency's desire to assist in the identification of employees filling out the form, that the new form would keep "Other Last Names Used" mandatory but not require other given names used to be disclosed).
