The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) presented the second Gender Marker Change Day on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at Matheson Courthouse. The first Gender Marker Change Day took place December 2022, with 57 slots open to receive assistance.
This year’s event received support from SixFifty, an online legal document platform for human resource teams. On their website’s pro-bono section, SixFifty provides a free online tool called Identity 650 to assist Utah citizens with completing the legal paperwork for name or gender marker changes.
The event highlighted the importance and benefits for transgender people changing their legal name and gender marker, some of which include peace of mind and security. However, obstacles can present themselves while changing one’s name and gender marker, such as the time-consuming process, fees, and legal support.
Peter Moosman, manager of the Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center at Salt Lake Community College, explained what legally changing names and gender markers to align with identity can do for trans students.
“Especially here as a student, the legal name and gender marker change can really impact a student’s experience while navigating the diploma paperwork, class rosters, interfacing with instructors,” Moosman said. “So, for students it really helps mitigate a lot of the dysphoria that they will face each semester.”
Moosman said the GSSRC is available to help students through the process of changing identification.
Resources available at the GSSRC include community connections such as attorneys, support from people who have been through the system, and prototype gender affirming “mini grants” funded through donations.
Nick Arteaga, transgender rights strategist and organizer for ACLU Utah, pointed out the waivable $375 court filing fee which complicates the process of legally changing one’s name and gender marker in Utah. This is the standard filing fee for original complaints not specifically governed by other subsections of Utah code, according to utcourts.gov.
“I’ve been on my journey for over ten years, and I have still not legally changed my name, and the barriers [that] I don’t like are paperwork. I think it kind of reinforces some negative rhetoric — [such as] proving that I wasn’t on the sex offender registry,” Arteaga said. “How much time it takes to do just one set of paperwork, get that returned, and then move on … It’s just, like, really daunting.”
Other barriers include receiving verifications from doctors and the Department of Corrections. Getting legal representation is recommended.
Applicants must schedule time off for a court date, as well as the transportation and potential childcare required to show up. Additionally, legislation affecting trans Utahns, such as rules regarding bathrooms introduced in H.B. 257, may be enforced in courthouses.
Nina Begue, a trans student at SLCC majoring in history, believes that the current process can be improved.
“Make it less complicated and more straightforward,” Begue said. “Like, Peter knows what he’s doing [when it comes to assistance in gender marker changes] so have more people like that [in the system]. You could call someone and just do it [change gender markers] over the phone. Yes, there might be a little fee, just not too expensive and not too time consuming.”
Although intake for Gender Marker Change Day has passed, Arteaga believed that the event would return and continue to grow.
“Ideally, we would want this to be a mainstream or streamlined program that people can access anytime they need to,” Arteaga said.
Guidance and community support are available for any students at the GSSRC located at South City Campus in room 1-140.
