When a person gets married and wants to change their last name, they can do so for typically under $50 and have their paperwork approved in a short period of time.

When a transgender Michigander wants to change their name, however, the process can take months, require the courts to get involved and cost up to $400 when all paperwork is filed – but only if everything runs smoothly.

“What we should have is gender affirming documentation so that we can have the same quality of life as everybody else. We’re not asking for special privileges,” said Julisa Abad, director of Transgender Outreach and Advocacy with the LGBTQ legal group Fair Michigan.

An estimated 476,000 transgender adults in the U.S. are without any form of identification baring their correct gender marker, according to a 2021 report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. That same report names Michigan as having the highest percentage of trans adults without a gender-accurate identification at nearly 78% or roughly 15,000 individuals.

It’s part of the reason why lawmakers in Lansing are eyeing possible changes to the process — what one legislator referred to as a potentially huge step forward.

“The goal is to level the playing field in terms of people who are changing their names because they got married – which is very, very easy to do – and people who are changing their name because they are trying to bring their name in line with their gender presentation,” said Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia.

Pohutsky, who signed onto the package, said the four proposed bills would change the requirements a person publish notice of their name change in a newspaper, make physical mandated court hearings and be fingerprinted.

A judge could require these actions still take place, she added, “but for most people, it’s not necessary.” The bills are expected to be introduced this fall.

To get a name change in Michigan, a person must be a resident of the state for at least one year according to Michigan State University’s Gender and Sexuality Campus Center.

After that, depending on the county a person lives in, they could expect to pay an estimated:

• $175 for an initial filing fee with the court system
• $45 for a criminal background check and fingerprinting
• $20-$50 for an individual county processing fee, though this is not always applicable depending on a person’s county of residence
• $60 for a newspaper publishing fee, though this cost can vary depending on the paper a person selects to publish in
• $30 fee for filing the order and two certified copies of the petition following the hearing
• $10 for a new state identification card or driver’s license

As this is ongoing, a person can expect for it to take roughly one week to obtain and mail a petition for name change to a court within their county; three to five weeks to obtain a criminal background check, if 22 years-old or older, and; two to eight weeks to receive hearing information from a clerk and to have that name change hearing scheduled.

A person must also publish their notice of hearing in a newspaper no less than 15 days prior to their scheduled hearing date. Failure to do so could result in a person’s hearing being rescheduled and cost the that individual even more when it comes to seeking a name change.

This is the process regardless if a person is changing their name due to gender presentation, or if changing a name outside of marriage.

By comparison, recently married couples looking to change a name simply have to pay for a certified copy of their marriage certificates, costing between $15 and $30. The federal Social Security Administration will then issue a free, updated social security card once alerted by the couple.

That documentation can then be taken to a Michigan Secretary of State branch office where it costs $9 for an updated driver’s license and $10 for an updated state identification card.

Filling the gaps

Given how convoluted a name change can be, support groups have been quick to try and fill knowledge gaps for Michiganders undergoing the process.

One of them, the Grand Rapids Trans Foundation, has even gone as far as to start its own name change aid clinic – dubbed “Update!” – which, among other things, offers microgrants to individuals unable to afford the process on their own. Already, the organization has helped 165 Kent County residents change their names since first starting in 2019.

Foundation Executive Director Ximón Kittok said finances are among the more common stumbling blocks for people seeking a name change.

Others include an inability to navigate the legal system and a general apprehension about having their deadname – or name given at birth which may not align with their gender presentation – appear in print.

“The trans population is statistically underemployed, discriminated against, under-housed – and a lot of these things can offer a lot of financial barriers just to existing, to survival,” Kittok said. “Adding an extra $400 on to a sort of survival existence can be untenable for some folks.”

For Gray Cacheris, 23, of Kent County, their effort to legally change their name change is almost complete.

With the help of Update!, Cacheris was able to have half the costs of their process covered via grants. They’re expected to be done with everything in early September.

When asked what they found most daunting about the process, they were quick to answer: “Definitely the newspaper publication.”

“I just think it adds a lot of extra stress to folks’ lives when they’re already stressed about this very expensive and long name-change process. ... There has to be another way to ascertain potential fraud concerns without forcing people to out themselves in a public newspaper in order to get their name legally changed,” Cacheris said.

It’s the process most, allies and trans people alike, pan as being outdated and no longer necessary.

The requirement for publication stems from a 1939 law rooted in keeping individuals from changing their name for fraudulent reasons, such as avoiding creditors, said Pohutsky. But the reason for a name change differs sharply from nearly 100 years ago, she argued, panning the move in 2023 as being antiquated when it comes to the trans community.

Abad, who underwent her own name change four years ago, added the need to publish a person’s deadname could inadvertently put a trans person in harms way depending on who learns of their identity change.

Having had to navigate the process on her own, Abad now runs a name change clinic with the Fair Michigan’s Justice Project, which specifically aids lower-income individuals undertaking the process in the counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb.

Already, the group has helped almost 300 people in getting their names changed.

“If someone is out there actively trying to target trans people, you know that all you have to do now is grab the newspaper and you can look up everything about us: what our dead name was, what our new name is, where we are,” Abad said. “If you simply get married, that’s not a process you have to go through.”