Close
MyNorthwest
News
Opinion
Sports
Tools
Connect

Bills would let transgender people seal name-change requests

Maia Xiao works in a production room at radio station KEXP where she volunteers in Seattle, Feb. 17, 2023. A letter from Xiao prompted a Washington state lawmaker to introduce a bill that would keep out of the public record petitions of name change for gender expression and identity. Public name changes can lead to harassment of transgender people. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) Assembly member Chris Ward, is accompanied by his partner Thom Harpole, and children Betty and Billy as he is sworn in as Speaker Pro Tempore during the opening session of the California Legislature in Sacramento, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. Evidence of a transgender person's name or gender marker change could soon be hidden from the public record in California and Washington as state lawmakers are considering new privacy provisions. A California bill introduced in January by Ward would shield minors from such requests by requiring the state to seal any petition filed by a person under 18 for a gender, sex or name change. (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas, Pool) Maia Xiao works in a production room at radio station KEXP where she volunteers in Seattle, Feb. 17, 2023. A letter from Xiao prompted a Washington state lawmaker to introduce a bill that would keep out of the public record petitions of name change for gender expression and identity. Public name changes can lead to harassment of transgender people. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) Maia Xiao poses for a portrait in the library of radio station KEXP where she volunteers in Seattle, Feb. 17, 2023. A letter from Xiao prompted a Washington state lawmaker to introduce a bill that would keep out of the public record petitions of name change for gender expression and identity. Public name changes can lead to harassment of transgender people. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes) FILE - Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, speaks on the Senate floor in Olympia, Wash., Jan. 30, 2019. Evidence of a transgender person's name or gender marker change could soon be hidden from the public record in California and Washington as state lawmakers are considering new privacy provisions amid a barrage of bills targeting trans people nationwide. Maia Xiao, a graduate student wrote last summer to state Sen. Pedersen, the Washington bill sponsor, urging action on behalf of her friend whose name change records had been posted in an online forum and used as ammunition to send her hate mail. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Bills would let transgender people seal name-change requests