The Philadelphia Bar Association’s LGBT Rights Committee is collaborating with the Community College of Philadelphia to hold a free name-change clinic for members of the Philadelphia community who are transgender, gender nonbinary or gender nonconforming and wish to have their name legally changed.
The committee will also hold a continuing legal education (CLE) training session to teach attorneys how to litigate, on a pro bono basis, the name change process for low-income transgender or gender-nonconforming people. The CLE is free only to those attorneys who plan to volunteer for the name-change clinic.
Considering the committee’s partnership with CCP, the clinic is partially geared toward students as well as members of the general public, said Ian Evans, co-chair of the Bar Association’s LGBT Rights Committee.
For the purposes of this clinic, attorneys will be working with Philadelphia residents and are unable to take on clients who have a criminal record. However, participating attorneys can offer referrals to non-Philadelphia residents or those with prior criminal offenses.
“For the terms of this clinic, we wanted to make it as streamlined as possible so we can hopefully improve on the model as time goes on,” Evans said. This is the first name-change clinic the committee has organized since he took on the role as co-chair.
Evans also pointed out that the legal name-change process in Philadelphia is fairly accessible.
“The judges in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas that handle name changes are really adapted to the process and really sensitive to the needs of the transgender and gender-nonconforming community,” Evans said.
According to weighted data from the Philadelphia 2019-20 Resident Survey, 103 respondents said they identified as transgender, 216 preferred not to say, 107 identified as nonbinary or a third gender and 32 preferred to self-describe. A 2016 study by the Williams Institute indicated that 0.44 percent of adults living in Pennsylvania identify as transgender and 0.6 percent of adults living in the U.S. identify as transgender, which equates to roughly 1.4 million people.
Lawyers participating in the CLE and volunteering for the Philadelphia LGBT Bar Association come from diverse backgrounds — some are from the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, some hale from larger firms such as Blank Rome, and others practice law privately.
“It’s really good to have this diversity of experience because the clients that we anticipate have a large diversity of experience and possible needs,” Evans said.
Because the CLE is open to all attorneys regardless of whether they have previously worked with LGBTQ+ clients, Evans emphasized the importance of cultural competency. It is integral “to make sure that no matter what the lawyers’ backgrounds, they [have] the information necessary to be able to deal with transgender and gender non-conforming clients in a sensitive and productive way,” he said.
The ability to legally change one’s name is paramount for members of the LGBTQ community who wish to have their names match their chosen identities, Evans said. He also noted the need to show identification for everyday things like registering to vote or checking in for a flight, and how a discrepancy between a person’s legal name and their presentation could incite discrimination or violence.
With the upcoming REAL ID requirements going into effect Oct. 1, which establish minimum security standards for license issuance and production, as well as the acceptance of ID cards for boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, this issue becomes even more critical. In 2019, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said it will offer the gender marker X as an option on drivers licenses and that these ID cards will meet REAL ID requirements.
“Beyond the basics, the legal necessity of having identification documents that match your identity and presentation, it’s just an affirming quality that you are recognized for who you are by your government,” he said. “If we are working toward making a better and fairer more open society where the closet is not really a thing that people need to hide in, it helps to be able to have something like that, to be able to officially say, this is who I am by law.”
The CLE training will take place at 10 a.m., followed by the name change clinic at 1 p.m. at CCP’s Center for Business and Industry at 1751 Callowhill Street. Those who seek name-change services from the clinic must register by Thursday, Jan. 30 at 12 p.m. via https://forms.gle/aaTZaPvkNBpGbNzp7