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Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell with another edition of Family Law Matters with Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, founding, founding, blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. Owner and managing partner, three, two, one. Hello everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantel with another Family Law Matters with Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group.

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Hi Bonnie. Hi Michael, how are you doing today? I’m doing fine. Today, I thought we’d talk about a topic that probably I imagine 10 years ago or so, maybe more, would never really have been an issue.

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And that is gender change prompting name change in family law. You’re seeing more of that, aren’t you? I am actually, and you know, it’s a nice little niche because if it’s uncontested, it’s a really easy set of documentation, maybe an appearance, and then it’s done. And a lot of people who wanna just change their name, you know, to whatever, for whatever reason, or because they are changing their gender, and obviously that may need a name change, it can be all done together and we can take care of that.

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Where does age enter into this? Is this, is there an age limit where the youngster makes that decision himself or herself or theirselves? How does that work? Well, we’re usually seeing it more with adults. We have not yet seen it with, I guess, children, if you mean minors under 18. I don’t know that that would be the same sort of situation because that would require, may require parental consent.

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And then you have a different set of topics. But if it is all consented to and somebody, however old, wants to do that, that can be done now pretty simply. So much has changed in that regard.

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You now have driver’s license that are appropriately recognizing non-binary, that’s an option you can check. So while the world is hopefully getting more tolerant in some areas, we’re hoping to help facilitate people and make it a little easier to do that for them. I would imagine that it can be a psychological issue for lots of people.

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Does one spouse have anything to say about the other spouse’s changing gender and name? No, it’s a constitutional right as an individual to do, or it still is, as last I checked, to do what you will or what you would like to do with your name and gender. So no, usually, we’ve gotten all sorts of requests. We’ve gotten people who fear their name leads to too many reprisals or somebody who maybe thinks they may be wanted or are being sought by others who wanna change their name.

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And then we get people who just want little Johnny to have dad’s last name and go ahead and do that for little Johnny. So most of the time in what we do in family law, this is actually a very positive journey because it’s usually people who are all on the same page about whether or not it’s just adding a name, a hyphen, changing a middle name, changing your name finally from your ex-spouse’s name. You finally want your name back.

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You didn’t do that in your judgment where you could have. Now you need to get that done. These are usually very positive things for us because it’s giving somebody a new life and a new start.

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It’s so important, especially during the times that we’re in now, to think about the positive things, that you as a family attorney can do. Last week, we talked about adoption and how step-parents can adopt. And that adds such wonderful positivity to a family.

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And today we’re talking about celebrating someone’s recognition of who he, she, they believe, he, she, they are. And how you help them in your practice at Primus Family Law Group, how you help them become who he, she, they want to be. What a wonderful part of your practice.

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It’s just lovely to see that. We enjoy it. I can hear that in your voice.

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Bonnie, if people have questions about this, how can they be in touch with you? They can reach us at 619-574-8000, or they can reach us online at www.primusfamilylaw.com. And we will get right to them and they will be put on my calendar for a free 30-minute phone consultation to see how we can help you in this area.