Wisconsin’s name-change law raises risks for transgender people
wisconsinwatch.org
A statute requires trans people to publish old and new names in a newspaper, raising worries it poses a risk amid attacks on trans rights.
  • Wisconsin law generally requires trans people, including children, to publish their legal name changes in a newspaper. Some worry the requirement poses a higher risk with the Trump administration’s anti-trans policies.
  • Lawyers working with trans people say Wisconsin’s publication requirements further endanger the trans community by creating a de facto dataset of people that some fear could be used for firing, harassment or violence.
  • “We live just in constant terror of the wrong person finding out that we have an 11-year-old trans child. … All it takes is one wrong person getting that information, and what we could end up going through, becoming a target, is horrifying.”
  • A Wisconsin law has dissuaded at least one transgender resident from going through with a legal name change. “It can put people at risk of violence and blatant discrimination simply because of who they are,” an ACLU lawyer said.
  • triptrapper@lemmy.world
    25·
    4 days ago

    Fuck this bullshit. And as usual, anti-trans laws don’t just hurt trans people. Anyone changing their name to escape abuse or domestic violence would have to broadcast their new information to the public.

    • hoanbridgetroll@midwest.social
      6·
      4 days ago

      There’s a confidential process available for those situations:

      If you would like to request a confidential name change where you won’t have to publish notice of the proposed name change, you must prove to the court that publication of the name change could endanger you and that you’re not seeking a name change in order to avoid a debt or conceal a criminal record. (§ 786.37(4), Wis. Stats.)

      I’d argue that trans people would qualify as being endangered under our current regime, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on most WI circuit court judges or the GOP-controlled legislature acknowledging it. The cruelty is the point.

      • triptrapper@lemmy.world
        5·
        4 days ago

        I guess it’s good they acknowledge the need for an exception to the law, but even in the case I described it sounds like the person in danger would be waiting even longer to have their case reviewed. That said, I don’t know how long the process normally takes anyway, or if a name change is a viable protection from domestic violence.

      • ZorsithEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        I honestly didn’t know there were states that didn’t out people when they got a name change. TIL.

      • dontpanic
        2·
        3 days ago

        Huh, I don’t know how I missed that. Happy to be wrong here, good callout.