Illinois lawmakers could consider relaxing requirements for residents to change their names in early January, a move that advocates say will reduce risks to domestic violence victims, transgender residents and others.
The measure would need to clear the full Senate to reach Governor JB Pritzker’s desk in the first week of January, or go through the entire legislative process again after a new General Assembly convenes on January 8.
The bill, House Bill 5164, would eliminate an existing requirement to publish name changes at a local newspaper. It would also reduce the state residency requirement for people who want to change their name from six months to three months.
“There are residents in our state who do not feel safe being adopted; they are transgender; they are an immigrant; they are a survivor of domestic violence, a survivor of sexual exploitation and human trafficking,” Sen. Ram Villivalam, the bill’s sponsor and a Chicago Democrat, said in an interview. “So they would like to change their name, and we need to remove as many barriers as possible to ensure their health and safety.”
The purpose of the bill is to reduce threats to people who have experienced domestic violence, discrimination and other threats to their safety. Villivalam said 24 states have already relaxed this requirement. Planned Parenthood, Equality Illinois and Brave Space Alliance are pushing for change.
But the Senate’s top Republican, Sen. John Curran, R-Downers Grove, opposed the bill. He argued that seizing the documents, i.e. restricting access to them, should have a higher threshold.
Individuals may petition the court to seize data if they believe disclosure would put them at risk. That process allows individuals to self-test of hardship and says they may – but are not required – to submit documentation.
“Why should we make it permissible, rather than a requirement, to attach relevant documents to the petition,” Curran said at a committee meeting in November.
But Mike Ziri, director of public policy at Equality Illinois, said seized documents do not disappear from court cases and are not sealed, but are selectively available to the parties involved.
“So it is not a complete seal. There will still be access to parties and also to the registrar,” Ziri said. “My experience is that when I work with communities, people who say they have experienced hardship and heartache are not making it up, and want protection for very good reasons.”
Republicans, who are a minority in the Senate, questioned whether non-citizens with criminal records could change their names to avoid legal consequences under the reduced requirements for a name change.
“Does this create a loophole for the people who are here, who are criminals and part of the human trafficking ring, who are involved in all these nefarious activities that we’ve been reading about?” Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said.
Ziri said the self-declaration was intended to seize the court files of name changes, not to obtain the name change itself. Illinois law states that people on the sex offender registry, arsonists and people on the juvenile registry for murderers and violent offenders cannot apply for name changes. The exceptions are marriage, religious reasons, human trafficking or gender identity. He also said a name change would still require a judge’s signature, and the process could take months.
“You cannot escape your criminal record by changing your name. That was legislation that was passed two years ago,” Ziri said. “That is in addition to the other requirement that state police already have to check criminal records after the name change was granted months later.”
Villivalam said this bill takes Illinois “another step forward” in ensuring the health and safety of residents.
“Now, more than ever – given the rise in hate and discrimination across the board – people you know are feeling attacked. So the legislative work that we can do to reassure them about their safety and health is part of our job,” Villivalam said in an interview. “As people continue to feel the hate, discrimination and targets, we must continue to take these steps to ensure they feel healthy and safe.”
Atmika Iyer is a graduate student in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and a Fellow at the Medill Illinois News Bureau, which partners with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government reporting to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Changing your name could become easier in Illinois
