Caitlyn Jenner files for legal change to name and gender
Caitlyn Jenner is set to have her new identity legally recognised in the eyes of the law, after filing for legal recognition of her name and gender.
The reality TV star and former Oympian opened up about her transition to female earlier this year.
She has since become the most famous transgender person in the world, landing her own TV series and even appearing on South Park.
This week she filed papers with the Superior Court of California, asking for her new name and gender to be legally recognised.
The star has requested her name be changed from her birth name to ‘Caitlyn Marie Jenner’, and her gender legally recorded as female.
Her filing says: “Petitioner now seeks to change her legal name and gender pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure … in order to conform to her gender identity.”
Asking the court to keep some details private, she notes: “Although public support for my transition has been overwhelmingly supportive, I am also receiving unwelcome negative attention from private citizens, including threats of bodily harm.”
Trans people are still required to go to court in a number of US states in order to gain legal gender recognition, and to submit ‘evidence’ of transition – a bureaucratic hurdle that often leaves many trans people legally seen as the wrong gender.
By contrast, under a new simplified law that came into effect in the Republic of Ireland this month, Ms Jenner would simply have to send off a two-page form to be legally recognised as female.
