A transgender woman running for an Ohio House seat has been disqualified for failing to disclose her former name on petitions circulated to voters, in violation of a seldom-enforced state law.

Local election officials informed Vanessa Joy, who hoped to run as a Democrat for Ohio House District 50, that she was not eligible to do so, despite having collected the signatures necessary to run.

Joy sought to run in a firmly Republican district covering Stark County, just south of Akron.

  • sugarfree@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Joy said that, as a transgender woman, she should not be required by law or expected to publicly disclose her deadname, which is the name she used before transitioning.

    No, I don’t think so.

    • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Amazing how people downvote you.

      Regardless of gender anyone who change their name should disclose their previous one so people can look them up.

      • admiralteal@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        The rule is only enforced for transgender people, though, and specifically exempts some other kinds of name changes that are considered more ‘socially acceptable’ to these fuckwits.

        So no, if the cisgendered people do not need to disclose, neither do the transgendered people. That’s called discrimination on the basis of sex.

        Disclose previous names, please. There were full records of the legal name change. Nothing was hidden. The forms didn’t even have the fucking disclosure requirements on them because no one gives a shit about this law.

        This is strictly an anti-trans rule at this point and you’re here rushing to its defense based on some law and order conservative bullshit.

        • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Lets be clear, this incident can be anti-trans or anti-democrat. Regardless, the rule is not enforced by good faith as it never been enforced before.

          However, in general, anyone who changed their name should disclose that, not necessary the name but knowing someone change their name is important specifically if such person want to hold a public position.

          • admiralteal@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            The legal name change is all the disclosure you need. That’s a matter of public record. No one is concealing their identity if they’re using their full government name.

            The idea that some kind of subterfuge may happen without this law is plainly preposterous. You’re steelmanning it for no reason.

      • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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        11 months ago

        Not to mention anyone can change their name, and hide a really sketchy or dangerous pasts.

        I’m a supporter of lgbtq+ —edited—

        Willing to discuss with people I have an open mind regarding techniques to get us to our goal, even if that means without a dead name. Wanna hear your ideas and solns.

        Edit: you know, it is a safety thing, for both the trans person and vice versa.

        I have a lot of questions now that I’ve been thinking about this more, do people’s criminal records stick past a name change, and if so how? Could you not use the same way to determine someone’s crimes without having to use their dead name? Obviously it’s something that’s very painful for a lot of trans people (maybe not all but still) and could be a fair way to meet on some middle ground?

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I think you’re missing an important piece of the puzzle here. Name changes are public information. When I changed my name here in Ohio I had to have that fact published in a newspaper (which I’m glad is no longer the case). These days it’s just kept in court documents that aren’t sealed and can be searched.

          For criminal records I’m sure there’s a way to keep track across it. Like my drivers license number didn’t change when I changed my name and sex marker. My social security number didn’t change when they were informed. Idk if passport numbers ever change much less what causes it, but I do know changing my name on my passport didn’t even require me to apply for a new one, I just needed a renewal and to send proof of name change. At this point so many government departments have my name change paperwork it’s laughable to imagine trying to hide my past from them using my name change

          • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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            11 months ago

            It sounds like I might be! I didn’t know they were public info, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? lol

            So could the public look up your new name and get the old info still? That’s really the furthest extent of my concerns. Just would want to make sure that people couldn’t hide bad pasts, but can still have due privacy

            • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Not really. It was traditional to publish it out of the way of where you lived. So like you’d pick a small town’s small local paper and it’s there, but it requires looking and most people aren’t going to bother. And it’s not like we’re trying to hide our pasts completely, more, it’s painful to us so we’d like to minimize our interaction with it and the degree to which it impacts us.

              People can find my deadname but it’s not easy. And by not easy I don’t mean “serious investigative journalism” I mean “pulling court records”. A journalist can do it easily, and an everyday citizen can do it with reasonable inconvenience.

              And beyond all that, yeah it would be no more difficult to find my past than that of a woman who took her spouses name. Ok it would be more difficult, but that’s because my present is apparently very difficult to find online. I’m a quite private person.

              • stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub
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                11 months ago

                Totally wasn’t meaning to imply anyone would was hiding their pasts, I totally get why trans people want to shed something they’re not aligned with, even if it’s just a name to some people, to trans people it’s a lot more than that.

                I used to be called all sorts of slurs that weren’t my name and I know how wearing that can be. Forget about a whole ass identity tied to a name. I couldn’t imagine