A Boston startup has partnered with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition to expedite one of the more onerous tasks transgender and nonbinary people face: updating their names and gender markers on government records.
Namesake Collaborative, which developed a secure identity management platform created for trans people, by trans people, is rolling out a pilot program with the coalition that streamlines the process for updating a user's information on multiple government forms. Namesake and the coalition made the announcement on Thursday, the International Transgender Day of Visibility.
At the heart of the pilot is a platform that collects a user's information through a questionnaire and automatically populates it on the forms. Namesake is eyeing a May or June launch of the pilot program.
“The goal is to build a solution that is trans, nonbinary and gender expansive, first and foremost,” said Namesake founder and CEO Luke Lennon. “I hope that folks will feel seen with this process and that it will really help them in terms of feeling like they can be who they are and there’s not as many barriers to that process.”
Lennon founded Namesake in 2021 after encountering challenges in their own name-change process. Lennon said the process varies between states and counties, but typically people need a court order to change their name. Some places even have laws that require people to put name-change notices in the local newspaper or prove that no one objected to it.
Once the court order is approved, people then need to fill out different forms for agencies like the DMV, social security office or U.S. Department of State to update their names on different documents. The process is lengthy, and the court order and documentation requirements can be confusing, Lennon said.
As a result of these challenges, 68% of nationwide respondents to the latest survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality said their identity documents do not reflect their correct name and gender. In Massachusetts, 78% of respondents to a MTPC report in 2019 said that name and gender marker changes were one of their top three legal needs.
While Lennon was in the midst of this process, they were helping run the fintech and health tech programs at MassChallenge.
“I was being exposed to a variety of startups and solutions every day,” Lennon said. “I couldn’t help but think that a lot of the similar paper-heavy, legacy-system processes that I was seeing in fintech and the solutions being deployed on those would lend themselves really well to the problem that I was experiencing firsthand as a trans person in the name-change process.”
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Namesake developed a platform for updating government records, offering the services for free. Lennon hopes to keep it that way. In Massachusetts, Lennon said the statewide legal name-change fee is $180.
“I think we’ll do sort of a pay what you’d like sliding scale for the additional services like notary or printing just to offset the cost,” Lennon said. “But my goal is to make this as accessible as possible for trans folks.”
Lennon plans to add a mailing service so users don’t need to print and mail the paperwork.
In addition to this pilot program, MTPC is launching its Identity Document Assistance Network to provide guidance and financial assistance for people going through the name and gender marker change processes.
“Not everyone needs an attorney's assistance in this process, but it is still very overwhelming and complicated; let alone the fact that the fees can exceed $300,” Tre'Andre Valentine, MTPC’s executive director, said in a statement.
Namesake will start looking for funding once the pilot program launches, Lennon said. The team is also interested in building partnerships with financial institutions and insurance providers to help people add their correct legal names to bank accounts and health insurance policies.
“Your name is connected to so many things that really allow you to do your day-to-day things you need to do,” Lennon said. “I’m trying with Namesake to help make that a lot easier for both the individuals that are trying to change your name, but also the organizations that frankly say that they want to do right by LGBTQ customers, and this is a big, easy win for them to do so.”
