#sb 179

Look what came in the mail today!!!

I’m so excited, I can’t even believe it. I’ve already socially transitioned, but this is my first step in legally transitioning.

SB 179 was signed on 10/15/17 by Governor Brown!

Effective September 1, 2018:

Nonbinary gender identity officially recognized

Californians will be able to file a petition with the superior court in any county to change their gender to female, male, or nonbinary.

Nonbinary birth certificates

Californians will be able to have a new birth certificate issued reflecting a change of gender to female, male, or nonbinary, without a court order, if the individual submits an application to change the gender on the birth certificate.

No court hearing for name changes

Californians can file a petition to conform the petitioner’s name to the petitioner’s gender identity, and if no objection is filed, the court shall grant the petition without a hearing.

Minors can gain permission to use this process

Californian minors are authorized to petition for a change in gender with the written consent of one parent, a legal guardian, or if both parents are deceased and there is no legal guardian, a near relative or friend.  The court is allowed to deny the petition if neither living parent signs the petition or if one non-consenting parent objects and the court finds the gender change is not in the best interest of the petitioner.

Watch out for exorsexists/transphobes/parents!

(Danger!) If an objection is filed on a court order to recognize a change in gender, the court may set a hearing if the objection shows good cause, as defined, and provide that the court shall grant the petition for gender change at the hearing if it determines it is not made for any fraudulent purpose.

Effective on or before January 1, 2019:

Nonbinary driver licenses/IDs

I’ve been thinking a lot about legally changing my name ever since SB 179 passed. I know I want to get my nonbinary gender marker on my driver’s license, and possibly some other documents as well, and I figure if I’m going to go through all the hassle and paperwork to get that done, I might as well do something about my name as well, since my current legal name can be very dysphoria-triggering sometimes.

Even before SB 179 was passed, I was idly thinking about the name Auggie, but it was more of an “IF I ever legally change my name” thing than a “WHEN I legally change my name” thing. I liked Auggie because it rhymes with the name I actually go by, and I didn’t think legally changing my name to Froggy would be a very good idea for job applications and stuff like that. Plus, it could be short for Augustus or Augustine, so it’s totally gender neutral.

There were a couple of things that later made me less keen on the idea of being Auggie. First, the movie Wonder came out, and the main character’s name was Auggie. I really liked the movie, (haven’t read the book yet), but I didn’t want people to think that that was where I got the name from.

The second incident that made me reconsider Auggie was the disaster with my Facebook account that happened over Thanksgiving. (I wrote about that shitshow here, if you don’t know what I’m referring to.) After that, I began to seriously reconsider my stance of not having Froggy be a part of my legal name, regardless of how unprofessional it may sound. Perhaps Froggy could be my legal middle name? Or I could make it my legal first name, pick something normal and gender neutral as my middle name, and then use the middle name in situations where I desperately need to be taken seriously?

Either way, the passing of SB 179 turned my name change from a “maybe” thing into a “probably” thing, and the Facebook incident then turned it into a “definitely” thing. But trying to make the choice was honestly irritating me. I’m Froggy, dammit! If I had my way I’d just be Froggy [Last Name], middle names and job applications be damned. Though I did find some names that I liked, it frustrated me trying to pick out a new gender neutral name when I already have my true gender neutral name that I go by, plus the idea of getting anyone to call me by an entirely new name was incredibly daunting. My family is just barely starting to come around with calling me Froggy, and I’ve been Froggy to my friends and most everybody else for 12 years!

There was also a more practical problem at play: I’m a journalist. I work customer service full-time, but I do some freelancing on the side, and journalism is what I have my degree in. If I ever hope to get a real journalism job, I’m gonna need all my old writing samples to be able to show off when I apply, but of course all of my old bylines are “Katrina [Last Name].”

In other words, if I were to drop the “Katrina” from my legal name, I would have to either start from scratch on my journalism path, which would essentially guarantee that I’d never get hired, or be forced to out myself every time I applied for a job, which could severely hurt my chances.

The obvious solution here would be to legally change my name to Froggy Katrina [Last Name] and pull the ol’ “I use my middle name in print because it sounds more professional” excuse. Indeed, this was the exact idea that a lot of people recommended to me, but it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. The entire point of changing my name would be to make it less feminine, which this particular change would not accomplish. Sure, there’d be some benefit to now having Froggy as my legal first name, but still, overall it wouldn’t be worth it.

I went in circles like this inside my mind for months. Can’t have Katrina in my name because it makes it too feminine, but can’t get rid of it because it’ll hurt my career. Need to have Froggy in there somewhere, but not in a way that could make life unnecessarily difficult for me. Want to come up with something gender neutral, but really annoyed about it because I’d rather just be Froggy. Around and around and around I went until finally, earlier today, I had my epiphany.

Two middle names.

It’s a little unusual, but not unheard of. It does happen. All this time I’ve been trying to come up with a single, new, gender neutral name, but what if instead I had one name that was feminine and one name that was masculine? Froggy could be my gender neutral first name, and then I could hyphenate my middle name. This would make my full name gender neutral overall, but I could still whip out the “I use one or both of my middle names in print because they’re more professional” excuse. Two middle names would allow me to keep the Katrina in my name, not causing any complications in my journalism aspirations, but also alleviate the dysphoria that comes with using that name.

I’ve even found a fantastic option for my masculine middle name already: Leandro. It sounds somewhat similar to my current middle name so it won’t take much getting used to, plus it has the same number of letters and syllables as Katrina, to ensure the neutrality as much as possible. Granted, Froggy Katrina-Leandro [Last Name] is a hell of a mouthful, but the entire point here is that the middle names would only be used in writing anyway.

I’m so damn excited. The driver’s license aspect of SB 179 doesn’t go into effect until January 2019 and I’d rather make both changes at once, so I have plenty of time to make my final decision. I’m just so stoked that I made this breakthrough because the choice felt so fucking impossible before. Now that my brain has switched gears from “neither” to “both,” the path feels much clearer.