MILWAUKEE — Flowers Forever remembers the day when she was just eight-years-old. She wanted her name to be ‘Flowers,’ and not the name her parents gave her.
She was sitting in her grandparents’ garden.
“I remember having moments of sincere comfort, like, alone, just being around those carnations and flowers,” said Forever. “One day when I was back there on a fall day, I remember it was cold and they were dying. I just felt like, this is my name. At the time, I didn’t know they were carnations. So, I was just like, they’re flowers. And I was like, “Flowers! That sounds like me!”
In August 2019, Forever was at an event with the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. She was almost ready financially to get her name changed, when she met Alex Corona, the Transgender Program Coordinator at the community center.
“She just really benefitted the opportunity to get it done now, and for me, that was like a breath of fresh air,” Forever said.
A name change in Wisconsin can cost upwards of $400.
There is a lot of paperwork and red tape someone has to go through, which has to be filed with their county clerk.
They have to publish an announcement in a local newspaper once a week for three weeks, and then have a hearing in front of a judge.
“It was almost like, stress-inducing,” Forever said.
That stress is something Corona and the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center want to help get rid of for transgender people in Milwaukee.
“Having our names legally affirmed has been such a weight lifted and a burden removed, and really creates more truthful, honest people because they can be who they are openly, publicly, and legally,” said Corona.
She started a workshop in 2019 to help people change their names.
The workshops and court hearings happen virtually right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, that has not slowed them down.
‘I was sitting in on a session where the judge changed the person’s Zoom name as he announced it being official and I was just like, that is such a sweet, sweet thing,” Corona said.
The workshop has helped nearly 70 people finance their name changes, and many more just work through the process.
Forever said she is eternally grateful.
“To have our names? That, to us, is just a part of getting to a place about feeling good about ourselves in our transition,” Forever said.
Click here to learn more about the Transgender Name Change Workshop.
