Attorney offers free name change services to transgender people

[left-of-center2012]

LAKEWOOD, Ohio - Attorney Andrew Schriver is offering free name change services for transgender people. Schriver said he thought about doing this for a while, but decided to pull the trigger when a close friend of his needed it done. "Having done my friend's name change, I realized that it was a very straightforward process in most cases - I wish all of my court appearances were as easy as that one was," Schriver said. He said it is possible to do name changes on your own.

"However, the nature of the legal system is that any court proceeding is an intimidating process, especially for marginalized communities who tend not to be treated well or fairly by the system. Just having someone present who is comfortable in that environment and knows the law has really seemed to encourage people to take this step who otherwise would have put it off or never done it," Schriver said.

Schriver understands how meaningful a name change can be for people. "Transgender people face a frankly devastating amount of discrimination in nearly every area of life, and being able to present as true self and your correct gender in the courts, applying for jobs, interacting with police, applying for housing, etc. can help prevent or at least mitigate a lot of that," Schriver said.

Schriver is bisexual and wants people to know that it's important for him to stand in solidarity with other LGBTQ people. Schriver is available to help people for free in Cuyahoga County or an adjoining county. He said anywhere too far outside that area is not workable for him to do for free, but he is willing to help people fill out the paperwork over the phone free of charge.

The filing fee to change your name in Cuyahoga County (Ohio) is $137.

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-cuyahoga/attorney-offers-free-name-change-services-to-transgender-people

[Lithos]

1. Nice guy

[Laffy Kat]

2. I changed my last name by myself when I was twenty-three.

It wasn't hard. My father was a union-busting executive in a five-state region in the south and I didn't want to be associated with his activities. I thought the name change was very therapeutic and healing emotionally and never had any regrets. It can absolutely change the way you feel about yourself. You have to pay for an classified ad to announce the name change and there were minimal court costs. Still, I can understand how it could be intimidating. I did have to stand in front of a judge (old white man) and explain why I wanted to do it, although I made up another reason.

[Lithos]

4. That is a very cool story

And so informative...

How much of being the scion of a union-busting executive gave you knowledge and courage?

I was thinking of challenging several of my High School friends (now lawyers0 with a similar thing.

L-

[Laffy Kat]

5. I don't consider myself a scion.

My father's reputation was pretty limited to mostly farmers, old white farmers, although they did adore him. They're all dead now. Not only did my father go after unions, the association he ran also went to court against the OSHA and the EPA. I don't remember being all that political at the time, but I knew right from wrong and I knew what he was doing was wrong. My father attributed my name change to rebellion and I remember telling him that that's exactly what it was. Ironically, his position also allowed us to travel internationally and seeing other countries, people, cultures, governments had a greater impact on me than anything else in my life. I'm thankful for that opportunity. I especially remember living through several strikes while we were in Italy and being impressed about how much power the unions seem to have over the government. The strikes were short and seemed to work, at least back then.

The final blow to my dad is probably the fact that his only children, both me and my sister, are radically left-wing. I'm a union member. All three of his grandchildren, my niece and two sons, are leftists as well. We the are products he left behind. LOL.

[More_Cowbell]

3. This was an issue at the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland

It a long time to identify many of the young victims, because their names or descriptions didn't match their official ID. It can be an expensive process to change that. California took one step toward fixing that last year, when it added a third (non-binary) gender choice.