The Reality of Trans Youth in Today's Legal System

This past year, I was a volunteer hotline operator for a national LGBTQ Center. During one of my regular shifts, a trans boy, age 17, dialed the hotline. He was searching for legal advice for a name change. He had done everything right; talked to his parents, found a supportive therapist, and even saved up money to cover the fees for a name change. But he lived in Ohio: a state that, in 2022, passed a law making it nearly impossible for minors like him to update their legal documents. He was stuck with a name that didn’t belong to him, a name that made every trip to the DMV, every class roll call, and every job application a reminder that the state didn’t see him for who he was.

He wasn’t asking for much. Just a piece of paper that matched the life he was living, the identity he had set for himself. But policymakers–people who had never met him and knew nothing about his life or identity– had decided to strip that right from him.

This is the reality of the anti-trans legislation being pushed across the country. It’s not about "protecting women" or "preventing fraud" or any of the other excuses conservatives use to justify these discriminatory laws. It’s about control. It’s about erasing trans people from public life. It’s about making it so difficult, exhausting, and demoralizing to exist as themselves that people just give up.

Bills restricting name and gender marker changes are just one part of this broader assault on transgender rights. Texas has gone so far as to propose criminalizing trans people for having documents that reflect their gender identity. Montana passed a law banning updates to birth certificates, even when courts ruled it unconstitutional. Florida, Tennessee, and now Ohio have made it increasingly difficult, if not outright impossible, for trans people to obtain IDs that match who they are.

For minors, like the boy who called the hotline, the barriers are even higher. These laws trap kids in a system that doesn’t recognize them, forces them to out themselves over and over again, and sends a message that their identity is not real, not legitimate, not worth respecting. And this isn’t just paperwork. These policies impact every aspect of daily life. It's going to a job interview and handing over an ID that doesn’t match who you are. It's being denied housing because a landlord sees a legal name that "doesn’t match." It's showing up at the polls and being turned away because your documents don’t line up with the reality of your existence. And for what? There’s no epidemic of fraudulent gender marker changes. There’s no crisis of people "abusing" name change laws. There is, however, a manufactured panic designed to amplify a conservative base that thrives on cruelty towards marginalized people.

The cruelty is the point.

There’s a reason these laws are being pushed with so much prevalence now. The same politicians pushing these restrictions know that public opinion is shifting in favor of LGBTQ+ rights. So they’re doing everything they can to legislate trans people out of existence before the next generation can fully live through the progress. They know that as more people meet and understand trans individuals, the harder it becomes to justify legislative attacks. That’s why it’s on us to fight back. Trans people shouldn’t have to beg to be recognized. They shouldn’t have to spend years and thousands of dollars navigating a broken legal system just to be called by the right name or have M instead of F on their ID. We need to challenge these laws– in court, at every local government meeting, every school board discussion, every election. We need to push back on the narratives being spread by those who benefit from our silence.

Because if we don’t, they won’t stop attacking transgender rights.

If the government gets to decide who is "allowed" to change their name or gender, what’s next? Who else will they decide is unworthy of recognition, dignity, or basic autonomy? This isn’t just about trans rights. It’s about whether we are willing to let politicians dictate the most personal aspects of our lives.

For that boy in Ohio, and every person like him, we have to ask ourselves if letting the government continue down this path is acceptable.

Written by Love A.

Works Cited:

"Ohio HB 454 – Enact Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act." Ohio Legislature, 2022, https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA134-HB-454.

"Texas House Bill 3817." Texas Legislature Online, 2025, https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=HB3817.

"Texas Quietly Paused Gender Marker Changes for Trans People, DPS Confirms." KUT 90.5, 31 Aug. 2023, https://www.kut.org/texas/2023-08-31/texas-quietly-paused-gender-marker-changes-for-trans-pe ople-dps-confirms.

"Montana Judge Blocks Enforcement of Anti-Trans Birth Certificate Rule." NBC News, 13 Dec. 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/montana-judge-blocks-enforcement-anti-trans-birth- certificate-rule-rcna129842.

"Florida Moves to Block Trans People from Changing Gender on Birth Certificates." The New Republic, 22 Dec. 2023, https://newrepublic.com/post/171141/florida-trans-birth-certificate-rule-ban.

"Florida to Cancel Transgender Driver's Licenses That Don’t Match Birth Sex." Them., 30 Jan. 2024, https://www.them.us/story/florida-to-cancel-transgender-drivers-licenses-that-dont-match-birth-s ex.

"Tennessee Vital Records Act of 1977." Tennessee Code Annotated, https://www.tn.gov/health/health-program-areas/vital-records.html.

"Ohio Bill Would Define Sex Based on Biology and Restrict Gender Marker Changes." Ohio Capital Journal, 9 Jan. 2024, https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/01/09/ohio-bill-would-define-sex-based-on-biology-and-restri ct-gender-marker-changes.

Trump, Donald J. Executive Order 14168: Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. The White House, 20 Jan. 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideolo gy-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/.

Trump, Donald J. Executive Order on Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports. The White House, 5 Feb. 2025. https://apnews.com/article/3606411fc12efffec95a893351624e1b. Pilkington, Ed.

“Trump’s Justice Department Shifts Civil Rights Focus to Target Trans Rights, Voter Fraud.” The Guardian, 18 Apr. 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/18/justice-department-civil-rights-division-trump.