Fort Worth trans inmate sues Texas over law that prevents her from changing legal name
Three transgender inmates, including one from Carswell Prison in Fort Worth, are arguing that a Texas law that prohibits them from legally changing their names is unconstitutional.
The women are suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton in a lawsuit filed in the Austin division of district court Wednesday. They, and their attorneys, argue the inability to legally change their names to reflect their gender is cruel and unusual punishment.
Abbott and Paxton’s offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
Texas Family Code 45.103 prohibits a person with a felony conviction from changing their name within two years of serving their sentence. Those in the lawsuit want the state to declare the provision unconstitutional and allow the women — Donna Langan at FMC Carswell, Teresa De Barbarac at FCI Texarkana and Alexandra Carson, who was recently released from prison — to change their names to reflect their gender.
Attorney Brian McGiverin said denying trans people the right to change their name increases their risk of suicide or being the assault victims, and makes everything from employment to housing more difficult. Forcing trans inmates to be more vulnerable to these risks violates the Eighth Amendment, McGiverin said.
Emmett Schelling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, known as TENT, said that barring transgender inmates from changing their names until two years after leaving prison or completing parole is enforcing “one of the most cruel punishments that you can give to a trans person,” after they’ve already served their sentence.
“I’ve already got a big strike against me because I have to reveal my criminal background,” Schelling said of transgender people who are former inmates seeking employment. “And so then on top of it, you’re basically forcing people to be in a situation where they’re showing an ID that doesn’t match who they are.”
Texas is one of at least 17 states that doesn’t include sexual orientation or gender identity as protected classes. There is no federal law that protects LGBTQ people from discrimination, and it’s a question the U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing.
Consequences of the law
Research shows when trans people are referred to by their given name rather than their chosen name, also known as deadnaming, they are put at substantially higher risk of depression and suicidal thoughts, McGiverin said. A 2018 study showed deadnaming increased suicidal behavior in trans youth by 56%.
Deadnaming also leads to increased risk of assault and harassment, studies show.
The lawsuit cites a United States Trans Survey of 27,715 transgender people that showed 32% of people who had identifying documents that did not reflect their gender identity had an increased incidence of verbal and physical assault, as well as denial of services and benefits.
Langan said in the suit even though the federal prison system acknowledged she is transgender by placing her in an all-women prison and she receives hormone replacement therapy, she is still not allowed to change her name.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons released a protocol in 2017 that provided specific provisions for changing transgender inmates’ names while they are in prison. However, name changes operate under state law, so Texas inmates do not fall under this provision.
Langan said because her identity documents do not match her gender or chosen name, she faces increased bullying and violence from inmates and prison workers.
She also has faced further isolation because of the discrepancy, she said in the suit. She wanted to get a pen pal, but can only receive mail under her legal name.
“Correspondence will have to be in her deadname, which is something that keeps her from taking advantage of that opportunity to talk with people in the outside world,” McGiverin said.
Having a different appearance, gender and name from one’s ID can cause everything from confusion to life threatening situations, according to the suit.
De Barbarac said she once almost died because of the name discrepancy — EMTs refused to touch her after looking at her ID and realizing she was trans, she said in the suit.
Post-prison treatment
McGiverin said while trans people face cruel treatment in prison, they face further persecution after serving their time since they cannot change their name for two years after completing parole.
Carson said in the suit she cannot legally change her name until 2023 because of this rule. She said having her legal name on her ID has made it difficult to maintain housing or a job and opens her up to fraud accusations from bank tellers, police officers and landlords.
“You’re relegating them into a position where people are going to be very hesitant to hire them, and even if they do hire them, what is the treatment of that individual look like once they are hired?” Schelling said about the challenges of finding a job under these circumstances. Schelling noted that under Texas law, LGBTQ people can legally be fired from their jobs, and denied housing or public accommodations for being LGBTQ.
McGiverin argued the state’s refusal to change trans inmates’ names is not a security issue. He pointed to the example of a transgender man — who had transitioned from female — who was an inmate at Carswell. The prison would not let him change his name under state law, according to the lawsuit.
However, in the summer of 2019, the man was transferred to a Connecticut prison. By August, a state judge allowed him to change his legal name.
“(The law) serves no legitimate purpose,” McGiverin said. “It doesn’t affect security one bit.”
Robert Salcido, the statewide field coordinator for Equality Texas, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights in Texas, said in a statement Friday that while Texas law does allow transgender people to legally change their name to match their gender identity, the process isn’t clearly laid out in statute.
“This has resulted in a patchwork of different processes and precedents across the state,” Salcido said. “In order to ensure that all Texans can be assured fair treatment by the courts, Texas should provide a standard process for modification or reissuance of identity documents. This should include citizens that are currently in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.”
Texas is one of 10 states that considers a person’s conviction history to restrict name changes, the Trans Pride Initiative said in a press release on the lawsuit.
“Are we more invested in making sure that people have a better pathway out of these situations or is this just yet another one of AG Paxton and Governor Abbott’s attempts to really punish trans people for just being trans?” Schelling said of restrictions on inmates’ ability to legally change their names.
History of trans issues
Texas has been sued over its treatment of transgender inmates in the past. Recently, in a 2014 lawsuit filed against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Passion Star, a transgender woman who was released on parole after spending 14 years in prison, alleged that prison officials refused to place her in secure housing even after she reported being beaten and raped in a Texas prison for men.
Part of the lawsuit’s settlement in 2018 included an updated LGBTQ policy for the state’s prison system.
Trans people already face discrimination, research shows. According to a 2018 study from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation:
▪ 1 in 4 trans people report having avoided medical care out of fear of being mistreated.
▪ Nearly 1 in 3 trans people who present IDs with a name or gender that does not match their appearance report harassment or denial of services.
▪ 30% report being fired or mistreated at work due to their gender identity.
“We exist. This is not something that we’re choosing,” Schelling said. “Look at how trans people are treated and find me one person that will choose to be treated poorly.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
