If you or anyone you know has ever gone through the process of legally changing their name, you’re probably aware that it can be a lengthy and time-consuming pain in the backside. Some situations are easier than others, of course. In most states, if you get married and wish to take your spouse’s surname, bring your marriage license down to the county clerk’s office and they’ll give you the appropriate forms to fill out. For everyone else, the process is more involved and will require steps such as publishing an announcement of the change in multiple newspapers. The record of the change remains available to both the public and law enforcement. But a new pair of bills in Washington state and California are trying to change that, but not for everyone. If you are changing your name for reasons of “gender expression or identity,” you would be able to have those records sealed. (Associated Press)

You can change your name, but in many states you can’t completely shed your old one — something that’s of particular concern to transgender people and that legislators in at least two states are trying to change.

A bill in Washington would allow gender expression and identity as reasons to seal, or keep out of the public record, a future petition for a name change. And a California bill would require the sealing of petitions by minors to change their name and gender on identity documents.

In states where such petitions aren’t sealed, transgender people can be susceptible to cyberbullying or even physical violence because their previous names, and by extension their lives, are an open book in the public record, advocates warn.

The Washington legislation doesn’t stop with only transgender people. It would also seal the records of refugees, emancipated minors and people who have been granted asylum. (In other words, illegal immigrants.)

If the basic purpose of the change is to prevent harassment, the message is pretty clear. If you’re one of the favored demographic groups on the left, you deserve protection. But if you’re a regular American citizen who doesn’t fall into a protected class, people are free to stalk you at will. Are you seeing how this works?

The proposal ignores the reason why those records are made public in the first place. Some people will attempt to change their names to escape their past, particularly if they have financial obligations that have gone unfulfilled. Others will try to bury their criminal records as much as possible. If you are a school administrator looking to hire a new teacher, you might check into the history of Bob Smith and not find any issues. But if Bob Johnson (his original name) has multiple convictions for child molestation, isn’t that the sort of thing you’d like to know?

Of course, this ship has already sailed for the most part. Buried in a New York law passed in 2021 allowing “x” as a gender designation on licenses and ID cards was a provision lifting the requirement to publish name changes in newspapers and allowing the records to be sealed. (Again, just for the special people. Not most of you.) Oregon passed an almost identical law back in 2017.

If you’re really concerned about online harassment, perhaps you might consider prosecuting the harassers. Apparently, that would be too much work, though. So it looks like we’ll make an even bigger muddy, shadowy mess of our public records systems instead. As a bonus, we’ll make it easier for bad actors to hide their history. If you’re two years behind on your rent and your previous landlord is looking for you, no problem! Just declare that you are now the opposite gender, change your name, and disappear into the crowd.