Fund for Legal Name/Gender Changes
This fundraising campaign has now ended. If you are still in need of funds to change your legal name or gender, you may wish to contact one of the following organizations instead:
Trans Relief Project: https://transrelief.com/
Trans Assistance Project: https://www.transassistance.org/
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In anticipation of increased difficulty obtaining legal name and/or gender changes -- and of increased scrutiny, harrassment, disenfranchisement, and violence against trans/GNC people -- this fund is intended to provide financial assistance for those wishing to make these legal changes in the U.S. The goal is to expedite the process for people who would otherwise have to delay due to lack of funds, so they may change their documents before Jan 20, 2017. More context here .
Costs vary according to state. Legal name changes can easily cost more than $500, in addition to fees to replace driver's licenses or passports, etc. Obtaining a birth certificate with a new gender marker (still not available to those born in Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, or Tennessee) also requires fees.
This fund will be dispersed in order of incoming requests. There will be no requirement to prove one's trans status or financial need. We will ask only what documents need to be changed, which state the person is located in (or state where birth certificate originated) and how to deliver funds to them.
Any funds remaining after Jan 20, 2017 will be immediately donated to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (http://srlp.org/).
If you need funds to change your legal name or gender marker, please email [email redacted] (UPDATE: Requests are coming in rapidly and I am working as quickly as possible to respond. To help facilitate the process, please determine the cost in your state to change the documents you need changed, and include this in your email. A good place to start: http://www.transequality.org/documents)
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If you need legal assistance for ID documents:
National Center for Transgender Equality (http://www.transequality.org/id-documents-center/transgender-legal-services-network -- maintains a network of trans legal support across the U.S.)
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (http://tldef.org/work_show.php?id=7 -- legal services for low-income folks in several U.S. cities)
SRLP (http://srlp.org/legal-services/ -- provides direct legal services only for the NYC area, but may be able to direct you to resources that are local to you)
You may also find it helpful to follow #TransLawHelp on twitter, where many people are offering and sharing resources to navigate legal name/gender changes. https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/TransLawHelp?src=hash
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More info that GoFundMe asked me to include for transparency:
My name is Toby Beauchamp -- I'm a professor of Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where I research and teach in transgender studies.
This is a time-sensitive fundraising campaign. Individuals requesting funds are referred here by friends and colleagues, and all requests are treated confidentially. Funds are intended to directly offset the cost of fees for legal processing/paperwork, required newspaper notifications for name changes, and/or replacement ID documents. I will distribute funds either by mail or electronically, depending on requesters' preferences.
I'm happy to communicate with donors who want to know more about how this fundraising campaign is working, how their donations are being put to use, etc. Please feel free to contact me at the email address above.
