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One of the things I did this week that I haven't had a chance to blog about is that I got to stand up and be a witness at a legal name change.
We showed up at the Ramsey County Courthouse at nine am and got shuffled into one of the minor courts. You remember the TV show Night Court? It had that kind of feel. Like, it was all very legal with a witness stand and such, but sort of... low scale. Not a lot of pomp and circumstance or marble trim, if you know what I mean. Similarly, it was serious, but not super-formal. I'm not even sure the judge wore robes, though we did have to stand when she entered.
What I didn't know, but should have expected, is that while you're expected to be there at 9 am sharp, pretty much you get called the order of first come first serve and your case is one of probably twenty or more. We were number 12. And justice is actually fairly swift. We were out of there by 10:30 am or so, which considering that the judge oversaw a number of things besides legal name change petitions, I was actually impressed.
One of my friend's other witnesses sat beside me on the bench seat in the audience and surfed the internet while we waited; I sat on the edge of my seat UTTERLY FASCINATED by how it all worked.
The majority of the cases were name changes. They were, for the most part, the sorts of thing you might expect. Petitions on behalf of minors who were now part of a melded family and everyone wanted to share the same surname. One guy was changing his middle name because, somehow during the process of naturalization, he heeded up with just "C" instead of his full family name on his legal documents.
But I'm also here to tell you that at least one district judge in the state of Minnesota GOT THE MEMO about how to be decent to trans* people. The case right before ours was that of a young man who was changing his name from his birth name (something clearly feminine) to something more appropriate. The judge never, EVER used a pronoun with this young man until someone else did. She (the judge) said things like "are you the plaintiff" and when it came to the witnesses "What is your relationship to the plaintiff?" As soon as that person said, "I'm his friend," the judge embraced that and started saying "And do you feel this change is a good fit for him?" etc. When the friend said, "I do," the judge said, "And I do too. Very much." (TBF she said that about almost every name change, which actually made it more awesome.)
Some of the other cases were fascinating too. A couple insurance settlements. And then the most important takeaway of all? Show up. There were two? Maybe three? Cases where the plaintiff didn't show up at all and as a consequence their life got shittier. In one case a whole lot shittier because an arrest warrant was issued on the spot.
So that adage? Showing up is half the battle?
SUPER ACCURATE.
And, just to bow on it, my friends' new name got accepted and changed. Whoohoo!
We showed up at the Ramsey County Courthouse at nine am and got shuffled into one of the minor courts. You remember the TV show Night Court? It had that kind of feel. Like, it was all very legal with a witness stand and such, but sort of... low scale. Not a lot of pomp and circumstance or marble trim, if you know what I mean. Similarly, it was serious, but not super-formal. I'm not even sure the judge wore robes, though we did have to stand when she entered.
What I didn't know, but should have expected, is that while you're expected to be there at 9 am sharp, pretty much you get called the order of first come first serve and your case is one of probably twenty or more. We were number 12. And justice is actually fairly swift. We were out of there by 10:30 am or so, which considering that the judge oversaw a number of things besides legal name change petitions, I was actually impressed.
One of my friend's other witnesses sat beside me on the bench seat in the audience and surfed the internet while we waited; I sat on the edge of my seat UTTERLY FASCINATED by how it all worked.
The majority of the cases were name changes. They were, for the most part, the sorts of thing you might expect. Petitions on behalf of minors who were now part of a melded family and everyone wanted to share the same surname. One guy was changing his middle name because, somehow during the process of naturalization, he heeded up with just "C" instead of his full family name on his legal documents.
But I'm also here to tell you that at least one district judge in the state of Minnesota GOT THE MEMO about how to be decent to trans* people. The case right before ours was that of a young man who was changing his name from his birth name (something clearly feminine) to something more appropriate. The judge never, EVER used a pronoun with this young man until someone else did. She (the judge) said things like "are you the plaintiff" and when it came to the witnesses "What is your relationship to the plaintiff?" As soon as that person said, "I'm his friend," the judge embraced that and started saying "And do you feel this change is a good fit for him?" etc. When the friend said, "I do," the judge said, "And I do too. Very much." (TBF she said that about almost every name change, which actually made it more awesome.)
Some of the other cases were fascinating too. A couple insurance settlements. And then the most important takeaway of all? Show up. There were two? Maybe three? Cases where the plaintiff didn't show up at all and as a consequence their life got shittier. In one case a whole lot shittier because an arrest warrant was issued on the spot.
So that adage? Showing up is half the battle?
SUPER ACCURATE.
And, just to bow on it, my friends' new name got accepted and changed. Whoohoo!
