Gay people are our brothers and sisters and we will DEMAND equal rights...

You see, that is how easy it is.

But we need EVERYBODY!


https://twitter.com/DidTheyLetUVote

of my many WTF's each hour.

"Death ears."

They're tearing down the social machinery by throwing rocks into the gears. They're making totally crazy decisions that are nominally based on whatever cockamamie logic they can convey to their sheep but are actually intended to benefit the Super-Rich; they are, in short, social saboteurs.

Amazing that hatred and bigotry extends to something like this. Anyone should be able to take any name he or she wishes, for any reason. As long as there is no fraudulent motive, names don't matter. Florida is just trying to make life difficult for LGBT residents. Screw Florida politicians and their bigotry!

incidents like this and their police forces I would find some other place to vacation.

I have lived there twice. We visited last year to be near our son. We will visit again this year. The ONLY things Florida offers us is a chance to see our son and a chance to play golf. This will be our last year visiting, and I advise others to limit their visits to this loser state.

Florida DMV when they marry?

I just ran into this recently. My mother began calling me by my middle name when I was two years old. I've used my middle name my whole life. I've had a PA driver's license in that name since I was 16. New Jersey refused to issue me a license in that name. My NJ license would be in a name that might match my birth certificate, but it wouldn't match any of my other ID. It's ridiculously stupid.

In the case of the couple, this just seems absurd that the state is refusing to take the Federal government's name change. I think the couple has a case because they aren't being granted equal protection....

and become someone I haven't been since I was two years old. I'm only here temporarily so I'm going to try & slide by. This Real ID Act stuff is screwing a lot of people over. It all varies by state, too. And, apparently, NJ's computer system only allows a certain number of letters for your first name—maybe 9?—so if your name is Bartholemew, e.g., it gets cut off. And people from countries that use different naming conventions, like Korea, well that gets ignored. Surprise! NJ hopes you like the name they gave you!

And only the license is in Middle Lastname?

I'm confused, here. ... ???

I'd go with everything on my personal documents being the same if it were up to me. Passport, license, SS card, birth certificate (unless there's been a name change)....

MiddleLastname has been my legal name for forever. I moved to NJ, and to get a driver's license I had to prove who I am all over again, so I had to show my birth certificate. When they saw that my birth certificate has me by FirstLastname, they said I would have to use that.

Everything I've ever done legally has used MiddleLastname. Including passport, PA license, SS card. Marriage license, divorce decree, voter registration. School records, bank loans, credit cards, mortgage.

I HAVE been going with everything on documents being the same. For 40, 50, 60 years it hasn't been a problem—until I went to apply for a NJ drivers license.

can only get a NJ Driver's License in her Maiden name from her Birth Certificate, unless she goes to court to change it? I doubt that. A Marriage License officially changes a female's name, if she so chooses. I do know a lot of straight, married females, especially Hispanic ones, who use both their Maiden and Married names hyphenated. Perfectly legal to keep both.

The Federal Government (hello, FLORIDA) recognizes a valid marriage as a valid name change.

You show them your marriage certificate, and that has both maiden name and married name on it, and that satisfies them that you are you. A chain of custody, as it were.

I'm talking about the situation of my FIRST name.

My marriage certificate has my maiden name on it—as MiddlenameLastname. NJ would accept the married name part, but would insist that my license carry the same FIRST name as the FIRST name on my birth certificate.

Listen, I'm just giving you my experience as a first-time NJ drivers license applicant. I've had a PA license for 45 years—as MiddlenameLastname—but that's not good enough for them, no. NJ rules say I must use a first name that I haven't used IN ANY SITUATION OR ON ANY LEGAL DOCUMENT since I was sentient.

Other states are changing their application procedures, too, all to follow the protocol of the Real ID Act. And each state has its own idea of what constitutes a legal name. The Federal govt has yet to weigh in on what constitutes a legal name, to create consistency across the states (as far as I know, since I looked it up last month).

My mother wanted to name me and name me and not quit naming me until she gave me 4 names to go along with my surname. My first name is hyphenated with two names stuck together, that she meant as one name. It is a very long name full of hideous names that I hate. Then, on top of that, she used one of my middle names as my name she called me.

All throughout school, I had teachers refusing to call my by the one middle name that I have always gone by in life. Social Security decided to use one version of my name, dropping the hyphenated second name that is really part of the first name. The DMV in NC decided to use a different version of the name, using a different middle initial. None of my documentation matches. Then, the VA decided to double up on my first two names and drop one of my middle names and misspell the other, even after I told them it was all wrong.

And now, even after sending in the photocopy and proof of ID to healthcare.gov to enroll for health insurance since the ACA, they STILL do not believe I am who I say I am. The IRS sure does when they take my tax money including penalizing me for not having health insurance, because I can't get it through the Health Exchange and can't afford it otherwise. They locked my account there because even a state driver's license from the state of NC is not enough proof of who I am, because it doesn't match my social security card, but the version of my name they used on my social security card does not register at healthcare.gov and does not match the name they use at social security even though my social security card was issued to me before any of the other identification documentation I have was issued. I still need to call them back and see what happened for about the umpteenth time to find out why sending in the photocopy of my ID did not make them decide to let me enroll. I have a gut feeling, I will end up paying the penalty anyhow, no matter what happens, this year again, because they told me last time I called to wait and find out if they decided to approve me. They still have not. I got locked out when I went to try to enroll this year, again.

So, having too many names has made my life a living hell. I wish I could legally change it. I would drop my surname and choose a name for myself that I actually like and that is easier to write. I despise the fact that Social Security, the bank, and several other places suggested that I used all the initials while signing my name, because I have to use that every single time I sign my name now. I used to have the perfectly readable cursive handwriting before all this and getting too damn tired of dealing with having to sign my name all the time. My signature now looks like scribble marks, because I have De Quervain's Syndrome in my left wrist. I'll be lucky if I can still sign my entire name with my wrist in the shape it is in by the time I get all this shit straightened out.

Years of trying and I still haven't made progress on it. No matter what I try to do to prove I am the same overly burdened with names person has not proven shit, except to the IRS. They sure take whatever name you give them and your tax money. I'm counted as a contractor with the VA even though I am just a relative of the veteran. So, I get to pay Social Security and Medicare double every year AND much higher taxes. I pay out about 1/3 of what I make, which is not that much to begin with, and now that fucking penalty too, because healthcare.gov cannot prove my identity, because my mother could not bring herself to do the decent thing and quit naming me after every "aunt" that was really just her hippie friend at the time. On top of it all, I despise every name that I got except for the one name that she called me, one of my numerous middle names.

Life would be so much easier to live with and deal with, if only I had one middle name instead of three middle names and that stupid hyphenated first name. And to add to it, she misspelled my first name (she says the nurse misspelled it) and now most people pronounce my first name wrong when they insist on using it and my mother insisted on using the mark above the first e in Renée. So, my first name is hyphenated, misspelled, AND I have to typed Alt + 0233 to type the second part of it. No one includes that stupid little mark over the first e, except the VA. So, none of my documentation matches.

I'm just glad I have light colored skin, because being part Tuscarora might could make me look somewhat Latina to these bigoted assholes in this red state where my mother decided to raise me in deep poverty so I could never escape. I might get deported one day even though I was born here and so were my ancestors. It's fucking crock of shit. I kind of wish they would start identifying us by our social security numbers only. Just get it over with. Admit the government sees us as numbers and at the same time, give my De Quervain's Syndrome a break from the pain of signing my stupid ass long name. I didn't get the De Quervain's Syndrome from signing my name alone, but it sure does add to the flare ups.

There is a bright side though. She almost decided to move to Mississippi to raise me. She was driving through there while she was pregnant with me and drunk (because my pediatrician told her it was fine to drink the beer she was craving while she was pregnant with me) and almost decided to move there. So, I have that, at least she didn't decide to give birth to and raise me in Mississippi, although the state of poverty was just the same in this state for us... I guess that's the bright side. I sure can't find any other bright side.

that they spell my first name right.

The govts—state and federal—are going to have to find a way to acknowledge that its citizens are not one-size-fits-all! We're real people. Who have been living real lives, paying taxes, doing jury duty, etc. Are they trying to find a way to invalidate us?? If we don't fit the mold, we can't drive, we can't vote...unless we pay a lot of money to fit the mold???

I did it back in the 70's and it didn't cost much. Nowadays there are probably legal docs available online so that you can file it yourself. It was a simple process.

And the way they do it here, it still messes you up locally when you try to do anything. So, I'm stuck with it.

I got my SS card when I was 9. I had many name changes from that point in time. They don't charge you to change it. The legal forms to legally change your name are easy. Plus if you're getting a divorce then you can change your name to whatever you choose in the divorce papers and it doesn't cost extra. I did that too. My birth name was Italian (I was then legally adopted as a child by my stepfather) and when I legally changed my name between husband #1 and #2 I changed the ending to "son" from "zani." After my divorce from #2 I had my lawyer put my original birth name in the divorce papers to give me the legal option to use whatever version I wanted. You're never stuck. Been there done that and still have that t-shirt lol.

name? Or where do you go first?

Legally change your name. Then change your Social Security card to your new name. With those two documents change your drivers license. Then change all other things.

http://family.findlaw.com/marriage/how-to-legally-change-your-name.html
http://www.namechangelaw.com/states.htm

Above are 2 links to get you started. Then just google legal name change for a package like from legal zoom etc. if you want to take that route. You can see through the links that you can do it yourself or have an attorney do it for you. The in between is like legal zoom where they walk you through the steps to be completed on the forms.

Happy name change!

You know, I'll bet someone down at a legal aid office would be happy to help you change your name to the one damn name you LIKE! Then you can get a BC reissued with the new name on it, new SS card, etc., and life will be rosy for you.

Sounds like the idiocy of a lowest level clerk. If it has to match the birth certificate they should have everyone have to use Firstname Middlename Lastname.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Susie Jones who marries Fred Kaddiddlehopper could become Mrs. Kaddiddlehopper, or Mrs. Jones-Kaddiddlehopper and her name doesn't match. And Fred could change his name to Jones - Kaddiddlehopper as well.


I should think the passport would "control," wouldn't you? Very odd.

Yes, you can, if your passport is current or expired less than 3 years.

http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/pdf/Licenses/ident_ver_posterpint.pdf

That's how I'd have played it!

And, if your passport expired more than 15 years ago—which mine did, because I had no need to travel internationally—U.S. State Dept says you must apply, in person, to renew it, for a cool $135.


It's not an impossible process. But it's unexpectedly convoluted and costly. I must say, it's been a long time since I've had to prove I was me, and it's unnerving.

Or if a straight couple takes a hypenated name, both parties have to use their birth last names?

All they asked to see was my Birth Certificate, and my Marriage License. I did not need a COURT ORDER to change my birth surname. Your Passport also does not list whether your are MARRIED or not. It is LEGAL in any US State as your ID.

Say screw you, Florida. Give them a US Passport and they will not know if you are single, or married to Joe or Mary. It is none of these states BUSINESS, period. Why don't the Feds list your marital status on a Passport??????? They do not CARE.

If you want to use your husband's last name. So in order to get your driver's license, you have to provide not only a certified birth certificate, but a certified marriage certificate. If you've been divorced or widowed and did not return to the use of your birth name after either event, you have to show a death certificate or marriage certificate to prove the sequence of your name changes. Somewhere in this thread I provided a link to the FLorida DMV list of requirements for documentation.

I suspect in order to use a hyphenated name, that would require a court order, but I am not sure.

In my case, when I got married in Florida and did NOT want to change my name, I just never told the DMV. It makes life so much easier - except for the people who have a hard time understanding a married woman who decided to keep their birth name.

name unless she goes to court to change it? First lady's Ann Scott and Mary Christie drivers license are their birth cert names, for instance?

No BC. No marriage license. They MUST take a US Passport as ID. You do not need either BC or ML with that Passport. I live in Florida and when I had to renew my driver's license when it expired (AFTER that gay marriage ban amendment), I refused to give them my BC and Marriage License from New York. I knew they would be checking to see if I was married to a man or woman with documents from NYS.

Tough, cookies, Florida. If you won't recognize ALL of NYS marriages, you are not going to see MINE either.

get licenses, they should let Betty and Julia Whysadoodle-Jackson, or John and Paul Whosyflidget-Smith , do the same.

Isn't there some law about states recognizing marriages? If they are being "selective" about recognizing marriages from other states, they have a problem with the law, IMO.

I believe this was also cited in Loving v. Virginia. ABC states will only recognize some of XYZ states marriages.

I recently moved to Florida and tried to change my DL from Maryland to Florida. I took PA Drivers License, passport, 2 bills with my name on them at new house. They said you need birth certificate. I had to spend around 179 dollars to get it. It arrived, but I have not bothered to go back yet.

which has been a problem my entire life. Long story, but back in the 70s I had to go through hell just to get a Passport. My official BC makes Obama's look like his genealogy back to Adam and Eve. Anyway, Florida took my US Passport, and NYS Drivers License, in lieu of my BC and ML. Ok, maybe it helped that I was a Florida State Employee at the time, and showed that ID too.

I don't mind that you were given a possible exemption for being a state employee, but I have heard others who were able to slide not having a BC. The place I went to wouldn't even take an additional I'd of retired military.

That is inexcusable. I worked for a public school district.

with apologies to the sane people who live in that bizarre state, I wish the bermuda triangle would swallow it.

to match what they are using as their married names.

ETA: no their SSN cards were updated to match their NYC marriage hyphenated names. Hmmm...

To refuse them licenses since the SS cards now do not match their birth records.

They are going to have to sue. Florida government is too stupid and run by too many assholes to accept their legal names, just because it is two people of the same sex who choose to love each other and to make it legal - in another state.

I like the place I live, but I HATE my state government.

When you change your name through legal means and it is approved by the federal government and your *social security number* is even tied to that name, how can a state deny the legality of that name?

Regardless of the cause of the name change (whether it is because of marriage, gay or straight, or just because from now on I want to be known as Dirk Strongman and I managed to convince a judge to sign off on it), a federally recognized identity should trump some state's systemic prejudice.

Argh, of all the battles that LGBT folks have to fight just to be treated equally, this is one of the most stupid. Although it is possible that it could be a fight worth fighting to the win, because of the precedents it may set.

feel good to persecute and work hard to make lives miserable for ones that have done absolutely no harm to them.

It makes a travesty of the US always bragging about its equality and freedom to the rest of the world. And god knows, TPTB in Florida play up to the haters and tea baggers, and anything that can make them some pocket money.

Anything in the US for equality is ALWAYS a fucken struggle, one thing after another. Hell, even women in the 21st century still are not considered equal to men in the good old USA. What utter bullshit!

And, they try to dictate who one can love, more absolute BS and authoritarianism.

I'm sick and tired of individual states putting up road blocks to gay marriage in any way they can. They are doing it JUST to be assholes.

jerks/authoritarians we have in the US, land of the free, equal and equal opportunity. What a joke.

target for them. This all is so utterly stupid.

has done more disservice to FL than most.

We do so often.

but fuck this shit.

Fuck pRick Scott.

Fuck the religious right.

Why can't people just live and let live?

wrong with the haters. Frankly, I think many of them need some serious psychiatric help. These individuals/authoritarians that spend their lives trying to make other people miserable for absolutely no reason have some really serious issues going on in their heads.

as long as they are not doing it to avoid detection from the law to avoid legal prosecution. WTF?

If you legally change your name, your DL should be able to reflect that. The DMV is not in charge of marriage law; all they should require is the proper forms for the name change.

can not accept the name as legal. Hence, the DMV says they can't allow them to use that name although it is a legal name in some other states, something like that. The Florida ACLU has basically said this is total BS. IMO it is harassment. Look at TPTB in Florida one can see why, and they just elected them into office yet again. Many democrats in FL didn't even bother to vote in the last election. Yet another WTF.

I don't understand why they have authority to make these demands.

married couple in another state will not be recognized. It is illogical, stupid and yet another example of the constant harassment by Florida of LGBT for no reason other than bigotry and homophobia by TPTB. It makes TPTB feel good to persecute LGBT for the entertainment of TPTB.
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