I think that in a rational society everyone should feel free to choose their name, and doing so should be a normal and expected rite of passage.
It makes way more sense to choose the sound people make when they refer to you, than having your parents choose it for you before you’re even a person yet.
Having to change the paperwork is a bureaucratic nightmare and should absolutely not be the normal.
Trans comrades get a pass as well as anyone who actively cares enough to change it but it is a mess of paperwork for everyone.
does it have to be a bureaucratic nightmare though? I mean in a society where this was the norm there might be a better system in place to address this
besides people do it all the time when they get married. straight women are still largely expected to change their last names due to bullshit patriarchal reasons but that’s another issue
Here the paperwork is pretty reasonable, you can do a change of name at the same time as choosing a new sex descriptor
It’s one form for the name, then a couple more forms for licences and passports
My mom changed her name after her divorce and she still gets random shit from the government and companies with her old name. Until we can come up with some universal digital archive for all data, it’s probably gonna remain a nightmare.
All official bureaucratic forms and stuff could just use an unchanging unique identifier (like the ones we already use: SSN, driver’s license, etc.); and people vould change what they want other people to call them any time they wanted.
If you want to remove the ability to identify family structure which is one of the big reasons we have names then sure.
Also, trying to get documentation to someone based only on a pin is going to be absolute hell.
“Hey, I have a tax form for #3209823 do you know where I might find them? Their last address seems to be outdated but I know they live here”
“What’s their name?”
“I don’t know.”
Well, housing should be state owned and provided, and all jobs through the state. So yeah, the state shouldn’t be losing track of people like that. Also abolish the family.
Super easy in the UK, you just fill out a form with two witnesses, and hey presto.
Some organisations like banks want a special version of the form you need to pay £50 for, but otherwise it’s free and requires minimal interaction with the government.