Transgender name change service comes to Detroit

A legal name change service for transgender people has arrived in metro Detroit, allowing those who lack funds and fear discrimination to get pro bono help from a lawyer with many or all of the filing fees waived.

“It’s incredibly difficult to do basic everyday things like getting a job or accessing health care when you have a legal name that doesn’t match who you are and what you look like,” said Michael Silverman, the Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New York-based group that oversees the project. “It leads to all sorts of discrimination and all sorts of difficulty in getting through the day.”

Silverman said that without a lawyer, the name-change process can be intimidating for people who already fear discrimination from the court system: There are filing fees and fingerprinting, a court hearing and even publication in a newspaper.

But most, and sometimes all, of those fees can we waived as part of the project, Silverman said. Interested applicants are paired with attorney who can help the applicant through the process.

The project began in New York City in 2007, and has since expanded 13 cities, including New York, Chicago, Houston, New Jersey and Seattle.

About 25 people from metro Detroit have taken part since a testing phase began locally about 18 months ago.

But the project is now being more widely publicized after a training and reception for lawyers who want to do pro-bono work was held on Sept. 24. There are now a couple dozen lawyers who can lend their services, along with a few major firms like Dykema Gossett PLLC.

Early data suggests that most of the applicants would have had a difficult time getting their names legally changed. Just under 90% of the 25 earn less than $20,000 a year, and 63% earn less than $10,000 a year, Silverman said.

Interested Detroiters can get in touch with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund at namechange@transgenderlegal.org, or by phone at 646.862.9396.

Contact Daniel Bethencourt: dbethencourt@freepress.com or 313-223-4531. Follow on Twitter at @_dbethencourt.