An expensive and tedious process that is totally worth it
By Rachel Walz
Hi, my name is Rachel, but it wasn’t always. I’m a transgender woman. I’ve been on hormone replacement therapy for about five years now, taking a daily regimen of estrogen pills and Spironolactone, a testosterone blocker. I’ve come out of the closet, even at the cost of alienation from friends and family. I’m active with Great Lakes Bay Pride and regularly attend their support groups, which is where I met and fell in love with my girlfriend Dahlia, who is also trans. In short, I’m mostly happy with where I’m at in transition, with only a few things being a little cost-prohibitive.
But aside from expensive surgeries, there was one major hurdle I had left unconquered; changing my legal name. It sounds so simple on paper, but the reality is that, in Michigan, it’s a costly and rather tedious process with a lot of waiting. But ultimately I’ve had enough of seeing my deadname (name I was assigned at birth) on all my legal documents, a good deal of my accounts and on all sorts of official paperwork. So with help from my girlfriend, who changed her name earlier in the year, I began the name change process.
To start with, the initial filing for a Petition for Name Change costs $175, though there are fee waivers available. There are online tools to help you fill out the necessary paperwork at Lawhelp Interactive. Since I reside in Saginaw County, and have for more than a year, I took the paperwork to the Saginaw County courthouse, to the 10th Judicial Circuit Court – Family Division, which has offices located in the basement. Pay them the $175 filing fee and they will submit the petition to the court. Make sure to make lots of copies of this paperwork and any other paperwork you might need, and only single sided!
Next, if you are 22 or older, you must be fingerprinted and submit to a criminal background check. My partner and I went to the police station near the courthouse, and I paid a $20 fee to be fingerprinted. This might change depending on the county you’re in; I can only speak for Saginaw. The fingerprint card must be submitted to the State Police with a $43.25 check or money order payable to the state. Once the State Police finishes conducting their background check they will destroy your fingerprints and report to the judge; you will then receive a letter or phone call informing you of your court date.
On the paperwork there are options to mark if you request to keep your hearing private, which I did. Risk of transphobic harassment or retaliation are recognized as a valid reason to keep the hearing private, thankfully, so this request was granted. If you are unable to get this request granted, you must fill out a Publication of Notice of Hearing form, then pay to have it published in a local newspaper a few weeks before the hearing.
On the day of hearing, it was myself and one other person changing our names. Judge Patrick McGraw only confirmed that our information was correct, asked why we were changing our names, and then granted the order. We then were ushered back down to the basement level where we received copies of our name change order. Finally, I was legally Rachel Christy Walz.
This doesn’t change everything automatically; I had to update my information with Social Security and receive a new card. A corrected birth certificate commands a $50 sum, with a $16 charge for additional copies. My driver’s license also required changing, which is thankfully only a small $10 fee (and for us trans folks, changing the gender marker was also made easier and part of the same form). I then had to update with work, Delta College, insurance, my credit union (which thankfully also handles my credit card), and other organizations that had my previous name on file. A full list of potential updates after your name change can be found on Michigan Legal Help.
It was a long and kind of tedious process, but it was worth going through. The relief I feel, knowing that once my new license comes, I won’t have to deal with nosy cashiers studying my license for just a hair too long. I can go to a doctor’s office or bank and not have to hastily out myself to explain name discrepancies. And most of all, Rachel isn’t just my “preferred name” anymore. It simply is my name, and no one can tell me different.
