Lawyers for a woman who identifies as a man have filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals in the U.S. state of Georgia after a superior court judge denied her request to change her name from Elizabeth to Elijah.
"I don't know anybody named Elijah who's female. I'm not going to do that. I've never heard of that. And I know who Elijah was, one of the greatest men that ever lived," said Superior Court Judge J. David Roper during a hearing on the petition filed by Rowan Feldhaus, 24, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Roper denied Feldhaus' request last March. Her original name is Rebeccah Elizabeth Feldhaus. She already changed her first name to Rowan and she wanted to change her second name to Elijah.
In his decision, Roper said he took a conservative approach in dealing with the case.
He said the name change "presents a problem for the person and the general public."
It could "mislead the general public, emergency personnel, actuaries, insurance underwriters and other businesses and relationships where the sex of an individual is relevant," he said.
"Use of restrooms and facilities designed for one sex are of particular concern, especially where children use facilities unsupervised," Roper noted.
Feldhaus was disheartened by the decision.
"I felt insulted and objectified to be told by the court that I would not be able to have the name that my family, my friends, and my co-workers all call me, based on sexist opinions about 'appropriate' names," she said.
She said she wants to change her name to reflect "who I am."
Feldhaus works with the Singh Investment Group and is a student at Augusta University. In July 2015, she filed a petition for name change with the court.
She also provided the court an affidavit from her therapist that she is transgender and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and changing her name was part of the treatment.
Roper rejected "Elijah" as this was not a gender neutral name and said that Feldhaus has no salutatory right to change her name.
"Name changes which allow a person to assume the role of a person of the opposite sex are, in effect, a type of fraud on the general public. Such name changes also offend the sensibilities and mores of a substantial portion of the citizens of this state," Roper stated.
M. Dru Levasseur, Lambda Legal's Transgender Rights Project Director, said, "The court misunderstands the limit of a court's discretion in these matters. There are many people—men and women, transgender or not—who know what it feels like to be insulted because their name does not meet someone else's gender stereotype."
