New Oregon Law Designed to Protect the Transgendered Puts Everyone in Danger

When a woman gets married, she might change her name legally to reflect her new husband’s name.  When a child is adopted into a new family, the child will usually want to change his or her name to reflect their new status. No matter what the reason, states need to keep good records of people’s name changes. Jazz Shaw wrote in Hot Air, explains why:

Many people might be interested in knowing if the name you give them isn’t the one you used previously. An employer considering hiring John Doe as his accountant would likely be very keen to know if John used to be Billy Bob Roe who served time for embezzlement. If a mother’s deadbeat former husband has disappeared owing tens of thousands in alimony she’d probably like to be able to Google for any news of him. That becomes significantly harder if he’s living under a new name. And when “Randy Jones” moves into your neighborhood you might prefer to be clued in if Randy used to be James Docksnooker and is on the registered sex offender list.

However, Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown recently changed the rules in her state so that people can legally change their names so that others won’t be able to discover they did it. According to the Associated Press:

Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill that will make it easier for transgender people in Oregon to shield any updates they make to their birth certificates, a process typically conducted through the court system without privacy from public view.

The measure, which takes effect next year, makes Oregon the second state after California to adopt laws specifically designed to help mitigate potential discrimination against transgender individuals from employers, landlords or anyone else who is otherwise able to dig up birth-record changes through public record.

The new law eliminates the requirement that changes to someone’s name or gender identity must be posted publicly by the courts. It also allows court cases involving gender identity changes on birth records to be sealed.

In other words, the state of Oregon is bowing to the gods of politically correctness and sacrificing the safety and well-being of its citizens to do so. M.J. Randolph at Truth Revolt points out that there are very few transgendered people.  “Only 0.3 percent of the United States population is transgendered, according to the Williams Institute,” she wrote.  “However, the collective mass trans-hysteria is causing our political leaders to make unwise decisions for our states and nations.”

I’ll say.  The feelings of the transgendered do not trump our cultural safety.  Enough is enough.

Image Credit: WikiCommons