The process of obtaining a name and gender-marker change on government identification documents is often expensive, complicated, and inaccessible. Legal and financial hurdles make changing one’s identification documents seem daunting and impossibly complex. This sometimes deters transgender people from starting the process. Unexpected hurdles can also cause transgender individuals to stop the process halfway through, leading to mismatched or incomplete documents. This process is made even more complicated by the fact that state agencies often have differing standards and require different paperwork to reflect court-ordered name and gender marker changes on their forms of identification. Further, hiring an attorney or using a for-profit legal service can make the process even more financially inaccessible.
Fortunately, law students and legal professionals across the nation have created free name and gender-marker change workshops to assist members of the transgender community with their petitions for name and gender marker changes. This work is important, and its impact is best described by AC Dumlao, Program Manager for Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), in The Root:
“Securing a legal name change can be a challenging experience, involving interaction with the court system and judges. That is foreign and intimidating to many people, in addition to costing an average of $118 out-of-pocket…. By providing people with adequate legal representation including financial assistance or applying for fee waivers, TLDEF works to ensure that people successfully complete the process and move forward with their lives.”
This resource is designed for law students who wish to provide pro bono services to members of the transgender community seeking to affirm their names and gender markers on their government identification documents. Below are suggested steps for preparing to hold – and holding – name and gender-marker change workshops.
Find a location to host your workshops and a supervising attorney experienced with name and gender marker changes
First, find an attorney to supervise your workshops and a location to host your workshops. The easiest way to accomplish this may be to partner with a local legal services organization. These organizations may have attorneys who are experienced with name and gender marker changes in your state, and who may be willing to supervise your workshops. The National LGBTQ+ Bar strongly suggests that law students interested in holding a workshop connect with either TLDEF’s Name Change Project or with the Transgender Law Center (TLC), both of which have deep expertise in this area and which have supervised similar clinics. Please also review TLC’s excellent resources on identity document changes.
If your workshop project is not initially spearheaded by transgender people at or affiliated with your school, it is very important that you seek out and support transgender leadership and participation in every aspect of the program. Cisgender allies – both LGB and straight – have an important support role to play in this work, but whenever possible, having the work led by transgender people will consistently lead to better and more inclusive processes and results for your clients.
You may be able to host your workshops at your law school. Check with your law school administration, and identify an area in your school where multiple clients can meet individually with law student volunteers in a quiet, private, and safe space. Be sure that there are gender-affirming and all-gender bathrooms readily available in any facility you choose for your workshops.
Additionally, consider hosting some of your workshops at existing community spaces such as LGBTQ+ resource centers, LGBTQ-competent medical centers, and the offices of other local legal services organizations. By hosting workshops at existing community spaces, you may be able to reach clients who use those spaces and otherwise may not have known about your workshops.
Set up your workshop’s contact information
You will need to have a phone number and an email by which clients and potential clients can contact you. Having an email address and a phone number that is exclusively used for your workshops will protect your clients’ privacy in addition to protecting the privacy of your volunteers.
Create a schedule for your workshops
Most name and gender marker change workshops host one or two workshops per month. However, depending on your capacity and the demand in your area, you may wish to have more or fewer workshops per semester. Workshops hosted on weekdays, weeknights, and weekends may all attract different clients who have different schedules; try to vary the times of your workshops in order to meet the needs of everyone in your community.
Find law student volunteers
Advertise your workshop within your law school to recruit law student volunteers. The demand in your area–in addition to your state’s name and gender marker change procedures–will determine the number of law student volunteers you will need. Some states have complicated procedures that may require more volunteers to adequately address the needs of the community.
For instance, a California-based workshop may require fewer volunteers than a similarly situated workshop in the District of Columbia because the states’ laws governing name and gender marker changes differ. In California, a person may obtain a court order for a gender marker change if they simply declare under penalty of perjury that they are changing their legal gender to conform to their gender identity. In the District of Columbia, on the other hand, a person can only obtain a gender marker change if they have a letter signed by a licensed healthcare provider stating the person has met certain treatment requirements. Due to the disparities between the two states’ laws, it may be easier and quicker for the California volunteer to assist a client than it would be for the District of Columbia volunteer. So, when determining the number of volunteers you will need for your name and gender marker change workshops, you should consider the complexity of your state’s laws in addition to the level of demand in your community.
For some states, forms may require the services of a notary. When seeking volunteers, determine which documents need to be notarized, and determine if you will be able to have a notary on-site. Some clients may find the process of finding someone to notarize their documents confusing or cost-prohibitive if there is a charge.
Train your volunteers
It’s imperative to train your volunteers to ensure that they know the correct and current affirming language to use with clients. Further, volunteers need to be familiar with your state’s specific name and gender marker change forms.
Daniel Faessler–supervising attorney for a name and gender change workshop led by Berkeley Law students–uses a training model that is a good one to replicate. This Berkeley-based workshop hosts two three-hour trainings for its volunteers. The first is a “Trans 101” training, in which a supervising attorney discusses with volunteers the correct and current language and terms that are used within the trans community (e.g., “nonbinary,” “gender nonconforming,” etc.). A training like this ensures that all volunteers are socially competent and sensitive to the clients they are serving. Do not assume that everyone is already socially aware. Daniel wrote the following about how the Berkeley-based workshop addresses the Trans 101 sensitivity training:
“I have a vocabulary exercise (this evolves along with the language) and hypothetical that I work through as part of the ‘Trans 101’ training. I usually have the participants fill out the vocabulary exercise and then have participants say their answers along with reactions to the language. The goal is to get everyone on the same page about common language and also discuss the use of language. I usually explain that the language varies from community to community across race, class, culture, etc. I try as best as possible to be inclusive of everyone’s experiences. This is also an opportunity to raise up and highlight experiences of trans folks. Then I hand out a hypothetical involving a bad client experience. I usually have folks break out into small groups and discuss what went wrong, and then we discuss in a larger group how this hypothetical situation could have been better. I try to make sure that a few themes come out of the discussion: (1) do no assume what someone’s pronouns are based on how they look, (2) ask everyone for their pronouns, (3) do not assume someone’s gender based on their appearance, (4) when offering directions to the bathroom, do not assume what bathroom the client uses, (5) do not use gender specific honorifics or titles until you know how they would like to be addressed (i.e., ‘sir’ or ‘mister’), and (6) if you mess up, which is inevitable, apologize sincerely and move on.
“I also use the National Center for Transgender Equality website as a resource to look up all of the local statutes about updating birth certificates, DMV documents, and obtaining court orders in other states. Transgender Law Center also has helpful federal identification document handouts and California-specific handouts.”
The Berkeley-based workshop’s second three-hour training dives deeper into California’s name and gender marker change process. In this training, volunteers learn the process of changing names and gender markers in California, and practice working with the relevant legal forms. It’s important to host a training like this to make sure that volunteers are familiar with the relevant legal forms before they meet with clients.
While this in-depth advance training is ideal, your situation may not allow for this much volunteer time prior to the workshop. Work with your supervising attorney to hold as much training as possible for legal volunteers, and invest most heavily in the people most likely to be able to volunteer more than one time.
Advertise your workshops
Create a flyer, advertise it digitally, and distribute physical copies in LGBTQ+ affirming spaces and communities. It may be helpful to ask your volunteers to post your workshop’s flyer on their social media platforms (if they are willing). If you are partnering with a local legal services organization, that organization may be willing to display your workshop’s flyer in their office, on their website, and/or on their social media platforms.
Further, local LGBTQ+ resource centers, PFLAG chapters, and transgender-led advocacy and support groups will likely advise your workshop to their membership if asked. And finally, local trans-affirming medical providers, including doctors and therapists, are likely to be working with patients in need of name and gender marker change services and may be willing to advertise your workshop in their offices.
Conduct intake
Whether by email or by phone (or whatever else you decide to use), conducting intake entails asking for:
(1) the person’s chosen first and last name,
(2) the person’s phone number,
(3) the person’s email address,
(4) the person’s pronouns,
(5) the time the person will be able to come to the workshop, and
(6) the desired outcome for the person’s visit (e.g., a name change on all identification documents, a gender marker change on a state identification document, a name and gender marker change on all identification documents, etc.).
Obtaining all of this information in advance will help you create a manageable schedule for each of your workshops, and should ensure that your clients are not misgendered during their appointments. If you end up partnering with a local legal services organization, they might have additional information that they will want you to collect during intake. For instance, some legal services organizations only assist folks who live in certain counties, so they may want you to ask for a client’s address.
When the client physically shows up to your workshop, you may want to have them fill out an additional intake form before they meet with a student volunteer. This intake form can ask more personal questions such as income status. Asking these additional questions may help your volunteers determine whether the client is eligible for a fee waiver in your state. Name and gender marker changes can be prohibitively expensive, so it’s best practice to fill out fee waivers for your clients whenever possible.
Host your workshop
- Step one: the initial client meeting
When a client physically arrives at the workshop, a volunteer should greet them and meet with them in a private room for an initial client meeting. In this initial meeting, the volunteer should welcome the client to the workshop, state the purpose of the workshop, and explain to the client that they are a volunteer working under the supervision of an attorney and cannot provide legal advice without first consulting with their supervising attorney. During this client meeting, the volunteer should conduct a second, more-specific round of intake in order to gather all of the information they would need in order to help the client achieve their goals. Below is a template intake questionnaire used by Berkeley Law students in their initial meetings with clients:
| NAME/GENDER CHANGE INTAKE QUESTIONNAIRE
Welcome to the Name and Gender Change Workshop. This workshop is intended to help folks who need assistance obtaining court orders for their name and/or gender change and updating their identification. My name is [NAME]. I am a law student working under the supervision of an attorney. I cannot provide legal advice to you without first consulting with my supervising attorney. With that in mind, what brings you in today?
Are you seeking a court order for change of name and/or gender and want help filling out the court forms?:
IF CLIENT DOES NOT WANT HELP FILLING OUT THE COURT FORMS, STOP HERE
Would you like information about obtaining a fee waiver?
Would you like information about fax filing with our office? (Fax filing with the court means that we will pay to submit your court forms via fax. The court will mail a notice to the address that you put on the forms with the date and time of the hearing. We do not always receive information back from the court after we fax file for you, but it is important to get back in touch with us if you do not receive any information in the mail in the next two weeks.)
Would you like information about changing the gender marker on your driver’s license?:
Would you like information about changing the gender marker on your U.S. Passport?:
Would you like information about updating your birth certificate?
In which county do you reside?
What is the full name on your birth certificate? (first, middle and last):
What would you like your “new name” to be?(first, middle and last):
Have you used any other names on any official records or legal documents? (and if so, what are they?):
What was your place of birth? (town/state/country): What was the sex on your birth certificate?: What is the reason for your name change? (We generally use “better match for my identity.”):
Additional documentation is required if you answer yes to any of the questions below: (In California, if you answer yes to either of the questions below you must meet additional requirements. If you answer yes to any of these questions, we will get back to you with additional information about the process)
Are you under the age of 18? (If yes, your parent(s) or guardian(s) must petition the court on your behalf.) Are you required to register as a sex offender in California? Are you under the jurisdiction of the California Dept of Corrections (e.g. prison/parole)?: (If yes, and you are petitioning for a name change or name & gender change, you will have to notify DOC.) Do you currently have any outstanding warrants? (If yes, the warrants must be cleared before the court will grant your petition.)
I am going to check in with my supervising attorney now and see what we might be able to help you with. |
Please note that this template intake questionnaire is based on California law, and–depending on your state–you may need to ask different questions during your initial client meeting.
Once a volunteer completes their intake questionnaire and concludes the initial client meeting, they should excuse themselves in order to meet with their supervising attorney.
Clients should also be alerted that their current legal name (often the name on their birth certificate) will appear far more often on the documents you will be preparing than their true name. This can raise negative emotions, particularly in clients who have not used their legal name for some time.
- Step two: meet with your supervising attorney
Once a volunteer has met with their supervising attorney in a private space, the volunteer should explain their client’s goals and present their intake questionnaire. Then, under the instruction and supervision of their supervising attorney, the volunteer should use the proper court forms and follow their state’s procedures in order to accomplish their client’s goals to the extent possible. Upon completion of all relevant court forms, the supervising attorney should review all of the volunteer’s work product.
- Step three: meet with the client again, and say goodbye
If the supervising attorney approves of the volunteer’s completed forms, then the volunteer should meet with their client again to review and discuss the forms. At this time, the client can check for errors. Once the client approves of the forms, the volunteer should thank the client for coming to their workshop, provide the client with the workshop’s contact information in case they need any other assistance, and walk the client out of the workshop.
Reduce barriers for your clients
Consider the barriers your client will experience when they leave your workshop. For instance, it can be expensive (often over $200) to file forms with a courthouse. Further, the act appearing in court to (1) file forms and (2) attend a name/gender marker change hearing can be quite intimidating. Thus, you should have measures in place to mitigate these barriers for your clients.
- File your clients’ forms for them
Some courthouses permit electronic filing and fax filing. You should check with the courthouse in your client’s county to see if they permit either forms of filing. If they do, you can reduce financial and societal barriers for your client by filing their forms on their behalf. Further, even if the courthouse in your client’s county does not permit electronic or fax filing, you may still be able to reduce financial barriers for your client by covering their filing fees. Organizations such as Trans Lifeline may provide your workshop with grants to cover the filing costs of your workshop’s clientele.
- Attend court hearings with your clients
It can be intimidating for a client to attend a name and/or gender marker change hearing, particularly if they are undocumented or if it is their first time in court. To reduce this barrier, a volunteer could attend the client’s hearing with them. In most circumstances, the volunteer would attend the hearing solely to support the client and mitigate the client’s stress of appearing in a courthouse, rather than serving in a formal legal advocate role. Warn your client that court officers may refer to them by their current legal name and by the wrong pronouns during the hearing. While this may be discouraging, being prepared and pleasantly surprised is better than allowing a client to be blindsided by an unsupportive or uninformed judge or court staff.
In some states under certain circumstances, there may be opportunities for volunteers to advocate for their clients in court. In this scenario, a supervising attorney should be present with the volunteer and the client in the court hearing.
Follow Up
You may want to follow up with your clients periodically after their forms are filed to make sure they are not experiencing any problems. It is not uncommon for people to be met with delays and complications when petitioning for name and gender marker changes. Thus, in order to be the best advocate that you can be, you should be there for your clients every step of the way until they have successfully received their court order.
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For more on campus advocacy ideas, please see the LGBTQ+ Bar’s Law Student Affiliate Group Resource Guide, which provides a template for campus, local, and national student group action throughout the course of each school year as well as evergreen resources to assist your affiliate group’s internal and external advocacy work.