GRANT COUNTY, Ind. — For transgender folks, having the marker on their I.D. match their gender identity can not only be affirming, it can also be lifesaving.
But a Grant County woman tells our partners at WRTV she was denied that change earlier this year.
This comes during a tumultuous time for the trans community in the Hoosier state.
A new law banning gender affirming care to minors went into effect July 1.
“First name Tiffany. Last name Resilience.”
Most of us are given our names at birth, but many trans folks get to choose their name.
“I thought about how I survived through conversion therapy for two years. Exorcisms for six months that my parents forced on me," Tiffany Veneno Resilience said. “When I show my I.D. to a person in a gas station in the middle of the night trying to buy a vape or something, it crosses my mind. I’m worried that I’m gonna be chased out of the gas station because they see a discrepancy between my name Tiffany and the fact that it says male on my I.D..”
Changing gender markers is legal in Indiana.
In order to do so, a person must provide the following to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles:
- A certified, amended birth certificate; or
- A Physician’s Statement of Gender Change – State Form 55617, completed in its entirety by both the applicant and the physician; or
- A physician’s signed and dated statement, on letterhead, that includes the language from 140 IAC 7-1.1-3 “<insert customer’s name> successfully underwent all treatment necessary to permanently change <insert customer’s name> gender from <insert prior gender> to <insert new gender>.
Megan Stuart with Indiana Legal Services specializes in LGBT advocacy for the nonprofit law firm says there’s a push to make the process easier.
“It doesn’t have to be that way. Some states don’t require a doctor’s letter. Some states require self-attestation where you just check a box. That’s how you change the gender marker on a U.S. Passport, for example," Stuart said.
Resilience is fighting this state requirement.
In January, Resilience appeared before a judge in the Grant County Circuit Court.
“The judge asks what’s in your pants and it’s just violating. It should just be if this is who you say you are, they should honor that,” she said.
She says the judge granted her permission to change her name but not her gender marker.
Stuart explains why the judge may have done one but not the other.
“There’s this conflict in the Indiana court of appeals about whether or not courts can issue gender marker changes. The local court in your county is bound by what the higher court says but there’s no rule that says what happens when two higher courts disagree. The answer is you go to the Indiana Supreme Court.”
In May, the Indiana Supreme Court didn’t take up two different cases — one in Allen County and one inOrange County — involving transgender children.
They both involved a trial court denying a parent’s request to update the gender marker on their transgender child’s birth certificate.
In both cases, the court of appeals ruled trial courts didn’t have the authority to grant gender marker changes — which conflicted with five previous cases which ruled they did.
As a consequence, Stuart says judges may not know exactly what to do.
“That’s an issue Indiana Legal Services is hoping to litigate to get some clarity for trial courts so everyone knows what powers they do in fact have," Stuart said.
In the meantime — Resilience says she will fight to change the way the system works in Indiana.
She created a change.org petition back in January. Now, it has over 2,000 signatures.
“I’m gonna do my best to make sure this is the last gender marker hearing that has to go through the state of Indiana. We need to do it how other states do it, where you just submit it online because it’s human rights," Resilience said.
She will be back in court on July 25 for a second hearing to request her marker change.
WRTV reached out to the Grant County Judge Mark Spritzer for comment.
He declined to comment saying he’s not able to answer questions about specific cases nor give legal advice.
