Parents aggravated by new anti-trans law that requires approval for all nicknames

Parents in Indiana are already annoyed by the state’s new anti-trans law that requires parental approval for all nicknames that kids might go by in school. One Indiana parent called it “a stunning waste of time” to have to approve nicknames online or in person.

Earlier this year, the Republican state legislature passed and Gov. Eric Holcolmb (R) signed a law requiring schools to notify parents if their child requests a name or pronoun change at school. Many conservatives are concerned that kids might feel safe enough at school to live more authentically than they can at home, a fear that was translated into exaggerated stories that spread online of schools making kids transition behind their parents’ backs.

Related:

Indiana bans gender-affirming care for trans youth & requires them to detransition

The ACLU has already filed a lawsuit seeking to block the law from taking effect.

The bill’s state house sponsor, state Rep. Michelle Davis (R), said that it would give parents more control over the education of their children. Democratic state Rep. Vernon Smith said that the idea that schools are making kids transgender is a fallacy.

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“This not something that’s been taught to these kids or forced on these kids,” he said at the time.

The law says that parents must be given written notification within five days if their child asks to be called a different “pronoun, title, or word” than what’s on their school registration forms.

But now parents are finding out that the law applies even to nicknames, and they’re getting annoyed. Victoria Matsumura of Hamilton County said that her eight-year-old daughter has always gone by “Rosie” even though her legal name is “Rosemarie.” She said it was “silly” that she had to log into the school’s management system to fill out a new form approving her daughter’s request to go by “Rosie.”

She told IndyStar that the teacher said, “Even kids I’ve known for years I have to do this for.” The teacher said that, without the form, she would have to call the girl Rosemarie or risk losing her job.

“It’s a stunning waste of time and resources for most parents,” said Simon Hammons, a parent in Avon who got an email from his school to inform him that his son “Benjamin” wanted to be called “Ben.”

Joni Heredia in Indianapolis said that she had to go to her trans daughter’s school in the middle of the day to sign a paper saying she knew that her daughter was going by a name that was not on her birth certificate even though she had already registered her daughter for school under her preferred name at the beginning of the year. She said she was worried about how this could put other trans kids at risk if their parents aren’t supportive.

“My concern is for the other kids and how this could affect them and whether they’re going to be safe in their homes or outside of their homes,” she said.

Attorney Jessica Heiser said that she is providing training for schools around the new law, and she called it “so vague and so undefined that it just increases the fear factor.” She said that it had to be vague enough to include all nicknames to avoid courts saying that it violates Title IX, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in schools, or the 14th Amendment, which restricts how much the government can target a specific class of people for worse treatment.

The state legislature “made it so vague nobody knows how to implement it,” she said, adding that teachers could lose their licenses for calling a kid by a nickname without parental approval.

The ACLU of Indiana has already filed a lawsuit to block the new law from going into effect, but a judge denied their initial request for a temporary injunction.