Judge warns name change by deed poll can ‘out’ trans people

THE process of changing your name by deed poll “needs close attention” to ensure that trans people are not being outed, a High Court judge has said.

Master Victoria Mccloud said the process for changing a name by deed poll is “very public” because High Court staff publish old and new names on the internet via a notice in the London Gazette, the official newspaper of the Government.

She said the process can lead to people who have changed their name as a result of changing their gender being outed and has suggested that the issue should be drawn to the attention of a senior judge.

Master Mccloud, who herself transitioned from male to female and changed her name, outlined her concerns in a ruling, which has been published online, relating to four people who had changed their names.

“The internet enables easy search for people, and makes it very easy to identify that a child, such as Child W, was formerly known as X and was from a particular date known as Y,” she said.

“Enrolling a name change deed to all intents and purposes makes permanently

‘It makes it very easy to identify that a child, such as Child W, was from a particular date known as Y’

public the name change and will in many instances therefore amount to what will later be taken as disclosure of a change of social or legal gender, whether by child or adult. In other words, it ‘outs’ them.”

The judge said the process needed “close attention” to “ensure adherence to modern diversity standards”.

She has not named the four people at the centre of the case she analysed.

Master Mccloud, 50, is Britain’s most senior public figure to have transitioned from male to female and has been hailed as a pioneer by equality campaigners.

In 2010, she became the youngest ever Queen’s Bench Master and only the second woman to do so. In the late Nineties, she changed her name from Dr Jason Williams to Dr Victoria Mccloud. Speaking about her transition to First 100 Years, a campaign which celebrates women in law, she said: “I had not been in practice at the bar very long.

“I had been a practising barrister in my own right for three years and I then took the plunge which was something I think was always written in the stars and was something I was always going to do at the appropriate time.

“I transitioned to being and presenting as female… I don’t think I’d ever have ended up being a judge if I had to keep up with something approximating a secret and some sense of not presenting as who I authentically am.”