By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

A transgender woman last week filed papers asking the Illinois Supreme Court to compel the chief judge and the circuit court clerk of the 12th Judicial Court in Will County to follow proper court procedure so that she can continue the process of legally changing her name.

Daunn Turner, 52, who is disabled and receives SSI benefits, petitioned the court to change her name last July. She included with her paperwork a request to waive court costs due to financial hardship.

But the court did not go through the proper channels to process her request, according to Turner’s attorney, Christopher Clark of Lambda Legal’s Midwest regional office.

Clark said the circuit clerk declined to file Turner’s paperwork and did not open an official record. Several weeks later, Chief Judge Stephen White then informed Turner by phone that her request was being denied on the basis that the change was “something she wanted, not something she needed.”

“In Illinois, anyone has the right (to ask) to proceed as an indigent person. Their eligibility is determined after the filing,” Clark said.

Clark has filed a writ of mandamus asking the Illinois Supreme Court to compel the circuit court to proceed with the filing and consider Turner’s waiver based on her income.

Clark added that Turner’s name change should go through unimpeded because “she wants a legal first name consistent to her personal identification and expression.” She also wants to be able obtain legal documents in her female name, “to avoid the hostility and discussion” that occurs when she shows paperwork with her birth name, Clark said.

But, in the end, the substance of Turner’s request should not matter, he said. Eligibility for the waiver of court costs has to be determined solely by the ability to pay, not the opinion of court officials on the request’s validity, according to Clark.

If the court’s refusal is a standard practice with indigent petitioners, he added, the significance of the case goes even further than the transgender community.

“All low-income folks are potentially at the mercy” of court officials who think poor people are not entitled to the same due process, Clark said.