If You’re Trying to Change Your Name to Match Your New Gender, Try a Manhattan Court
Now that judges are barred from requiring doctor’s notes to explain why you want to go from Michael to Michelle, and prohibited from forcing transgender residents to advertise their name change in a newspaper, Manhattan’s civil courts are among the most friendly to MTF, FTMs, and everyone in between looking for a name change.
Awesome!
For my own name change, the judge was very considerate and nice (even in Montana…but i have good passing privilege) but I was able to weasel out of the “advertise for a month” by doing a Sealed version of the name change, and Safety At Risk as the reason for doing so – putting the name in the paper would make me a target. Judge agreed and the in-chambers hearing was in & out in five minutes flat.