Indiana Appeals Court Allows Anonymous Document Changes for Transgender Men

Finding that enforcing a statutory publication requirement for a transgender name change would result in a dangerous “outing” of the applicants, a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals unanimously reversed two rulings by the Tippecanoe Circuit Court on August 10 in In re Name Changes of A.L. and L.S., 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS 340, 2017 WL 3429074, holding that the publication requirement should be waived such cases.  The court also ruled that … <Read More>


Formalistic Texas Appeals Court Refuses to Issue a Change of “Sexual Designation” for Transgender Petitioner

The Texas 14th District Court of Appeals in Houston upheld a trial judge’s denial of a transgender man’s request for a “gender designation change” embodied in a court order on August 2.  In re Rocher, 2016 WL 4131626, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 8266.  The court’s ruling turned on the absence of any Texas statute or regulation specifically authorizing courts to grant such requests.

According to the opinion for the three-judge panel by Justice … <Read More>


Bureaucratic Obtuseness Leads to Discrimination Claim by Transgender Woman against New York City

New York State Supreme Court Justice Margaret A. Chan (Supreme Court, New York County) ruled on December 2 that a transgender Jane Doe plaintiff had stated a cause of action against New York City based on the treatment she received when she requested that the Human Resources Administration’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) update it records and issue her a new benefits ID card that correctly identifies her name and gender.  My first reaction on reading … <Read More>