JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A transgender teen undergoing gender transition cannot change his name, the Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled.
The ruling on April 17 came nearly two years after a then 16-year-old undergoing a gender transition filed a petition to change his name to better fit his gender identity. Both of the teen’s parents consented to the name change. But Hinds County Chancery Judge Tametrice Hodges in November 2023 denied the petition, citing the teen’s lack of maturity.
The Mississippi Supreme Court voted 8-1 to uphold the ruling, referring in the ruling to the trans boy as a “minor female” and using feminine pronouns.
“The petitioner’s primary appellate argument is that the chancellor had no discretion to deny the name-change petition because it was uncontested and both parents agreed,” the majority opinion, written by Justice James D. Maxwell II, says. “But Mississippi law says otherwise. In fact, in Mississippi, a chancellor may only grant a minor’s name change ‘where to do so is clearly in the best interest of the child.’ And here, the chancellor determined allowing the minor to legally change her name as part of a gender transition was not in the young girl’s best interest due to a lack of maturity.”
“We further note the chancellor’s consideration of the minor’s lack of maturity is consistent with Mississippi’s express public policy against children receiving life-altering gender-transition assistance,” the opinion continues, referring to the REAP Act, a 2023 law banning both surgical and non-surgical treatments for transgender minors. “And it aligns with the very reason our law treats minors and adults differently—that minors lack maturity to make decisions with serious or long-lasting ramifications.”
The opinion notes that the Mississippi Legislature “has not addressed the specific issue of a minor legally changing his or her name as part of a gender transition,” but says it “has expressed a clear policy against children under eighteen making life-altering decisions connected with their gender dysphoria” through its passage of the REAP Act.
Presiding Justice Leslie King was the sole dissenting vote. He wrote that the record in the case is deficient, leaving it unable for the Supreme Court to decide whether the lower court was wrong to dismiss the petition.
“I find that the chancery court’s order should be vacated and that the case should be remanded,” King said in his dissent.
The initial petition was filed by the teen’s mother in July 2023. She sought to change her child’s first, middle and last names. She requested to change the first name to a more masculine name, the middle name to her own middle name and the last name to the father’s last name only — the last name is currently hyphenated.