A transgender woman in Vallejo, California, is enduring painful legal hurdles after being assaulted. The district attorney’s legal documents mention her only by name.
Jerian Guzman legally changed her name in 2012, so she was shocked when the county’s district attorney sent a letter to her son’s home addressing her dead name. She has not lived at that address for 15 years.
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“I’m frustrated. I’m angry because giving transgender people dead names can lead us to depression and lead to suicide and anxiety. That’s why I They don’t like dealing with the authorities,” Guzmán said. Vallejo Sun.
This ordeal posed many challenges for her and she encountered considerable difficulty in resolving the matter with the DA’s office.
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When she reported the mistake to the front desk woman, the receptionist did not allow her to speak to anyone else. Both police reports and county authorities listed her by her deceased name. The receptionist asked her to sign the claim form in the deceased’s name, but Guzman refused.
“So you’re telling me to commit fraud because that person no longer exists,” Guzman said.
The police station’s doors were closed and no one answered the phone after hours. More than a week later, her calls were still not returned. She then contacted Tom Barty, the district director for state Sen. Bill Dodd (D). Ms Bartee said she would contact the Crown Prosecution Service on her behalf.
She eventually received a call from Solano County Deputy District Attorney Jordan Kallman, who apologized for the delay and the presence of her dead name, and said she had no idea how this happened.
Mr. Cullman told her that the police report had the correct name, but the court documents and cover letter did not. The receptionist only looked at the cover letter. He said the matter would be taken up in court with a memo to the judge. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also made a recommendation to the police regarding this matter.
No one knows how the incident happened. Guzman is unable to obtain a copy of the report because police have not provided the necessary information.
“I’m not the only transgender person right now. There are 250,000 of us in California,” Guzman said. “How many prosecutors don’t want to go through the extra steps and say, ‘No, this is it?’ How many people in California are having information sent to an address they haven’t seen in 15 years? Is that so?”
She had similar problems with other government agencies. “When I applied for a hunting license, I was told it didn’t exist. [Deadname] It existed,” she said, adding that they told her they got the information from the DMV.
She contacted Mel Orpira, the senior district representative for Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), who contacted the head of the Sacramento DMV, who she listed under Jerian Guzman. He said it was listed in the.
“So he turned it over to the Fish and Game Department, and the head of the Fish and Game Department called me. And we actually called to get my records so I could get my license. I did everything,” she said.
She was also billed twice for the same procedure under Medicaid, with one bill going to her deceased name and the other to Jerian. “I went to Social Security again with Mel to figure out what the hell was going on.”
There was also a problem with unemployment benefits, where recipients of unemployment benefits were told, “You don’t exist.” After numerous bureaucratic hurdles, it took six weeks to resolve the issue.
All these hoops directly cost her money. She reports that she had to spend more than $400 because every agency wanted the original copy of her name and gender change. It costs $40 each time she requests a copy from the court.
“We are the poorest of the poor and the most educated, but we are the poorest of the poor,” she said. She had great difficulty finding a job. “I had 300 applications, but the best job I could get at the time was at Savers in Vacaville for $8.50 an hour after being a manager at the Marriott Hotel in Napa,” she said. .
“If I’m found dead, will they use my dead name, even if I legally change my name? Giving transgender people a dead name means that when they die, Not only is it disrespectful, but we all struggle so hard in life to be who we really are, and the fact that something like this happens means that no matter what I do, I’ll never be who I am. It shows that there is no.”
Vallejo Police Department Spokesman Rashad Hollis said. Vallejo Sun “Please have Ms. Guzman contact the Vallejo Police Department Records Department or speak with the records officer in the lobby to correct the discrepancy,” the email states.
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