A transgender woman in Vallejo, California has endured a distressing legal hurdle after being assaulted: The district attorney’s legal paperwork exclusively refers to her by her deadname.
Jeriann Guzmann had her name legally changed in 2012, so she was shocked when her county’s district attorney sent a letter to her son’s home addressed to her deadname. She hasn’t lived at that address for 15 years.
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“I’m frustrated. I’m angry, because deadnaming a trans person, that leads us into depression can lead to suicidality, can lead to anxiety, and this is why we don’t like dealing with authorities,” Guzman told the Vallejo Sun.
The ordeal caused a lot of challenges for her, as she ran into quite a bit of trouble correcting this issue with the DA’s office.
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When she reported the error to the woman at the front desk, the receptionist would not allow her to speak to anyone else. Both the police report and the county system were listed under her deadname. The receptionist told her to sign the restitution form by her deadname, which Guzman was not willing to do.
“So you’re telling me to commit fraud, because that person no longer exists,” Guzman said
The police department had their doors closed, and no one answered the after-hours phone. Over a week later, her call had still not been returned. Next, she reached out to Tom Bartee, district director for State Sen. Bill Dodd (D). Bartee said he would reach out to the DA’s office on her behalf.
She eventually received a call from Solano County Deputy District Attorney Jordan Karmann, who apologized for the delays and for her deadname being present, saying he had no idea how this happened.
Karmann told her that while the police report had the right name, the court documentation and cover letter did not. The receptionist had only looked at the cover letter. He said that he would get this addressed in court with a note to the judge. The DA’s office also advised the police on this.
No one knows how the incident happened. Guzman is unable to get a copy of the police report as they have not given her the necessary information.
“It’s not just me now, being transgender. There are 250,000 of us in the state of California,” Guzman said. “How many DAs aren’t willing to do the extra legwork and say, ‘No, this is so and so.’? How many people in the state of California are getting information sent to addresses that they haven’t looked at in 15 years?”
She has also had similar issues with other government agencies. “When I applied for a hunting license they said that I didn’t exist. [Deadname] existed,” she said, adding they told her they got the information from the DMV.
She had reached out to the senior district representative for U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Mel Orpilla, who put her in touch with the head of the Sacramento DMV, who stated she was listed under Jeriann Guzman.
“So then he kicked it over to the Department of Fish and Game, the head of Fish and Game called me, and we did everything over the phone to get my record so I could actually be getting my own license,” she said.
She’s also been billed twice for the same procedure under Medicaid, with one bill going to her deadname and one going to Jeriann. “I’ve gone again with Mel all the way to Social Security to figure out what the hell is going on.”
She also had an issue with unemployment benefits, who told her that she did not exist. It took six weeks for this to get straightened out after numerous bureaucratic hassles.
All of these hoops directly cost her money. She reports having to spend over $400 because every agency wants an original copy of her name and gender change. It costs $40 every time she requests copies from the court.
“We are the poorest of the poor, the most educated, but the poorest of the poor,” she said. She had immense trouble trying to find employment. “I had 300 applications out, and the best job I could get at the time was Savers in Vacaville at $8.50 an hour, after I had been managing the Marriott Hotel in Napa,” she said.
“If I was found dead, are they going to use my deadname, even though I legally changed my name? Deadnaming trans people not only disrespects them in death, but in life we fight so hard to be our authentic selves, and for something like this to happen, shows me that no matter what I do, I can never be me.”
Spokesperson for the Vallejo Police Department Rashad Hollis told the Vallejo Sun via email, “Please have Ms. Guzman contact Vallejo PD’s records division or talk to our records clerks in our lobby to correct any discrepancies.”
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