Same-sex spouse denied passport
 

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (AP) -- A man who married his partner of 23 years after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts is having trouble getting a new passport.

Donald Henneberger, formerly Donald Smith, recently received a letter from the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, denying his request for a name change on his passport. The center said it would not recognize a marriage license for a same-sex couple as proof of a name change.

The center addressed the letter to "Mr. Henneberger."

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast...t.ap/index.htm

and yet somehow--- life goes on.

I got an error message when I went to read the site, but really, as long as they still recognize him for the passport under his "maiden name", which I'm 99.99% sure they would, what's the big deal? Here in North Carolina, when my mom went to get her driver's licence, she doesn't have a legal middle name, so they made her use her maiden name for her middle name. It's just a name. If Mr. Smith loves Mr. Henneberger what difference does it make what their passports say?

Did anyone think that this would be a smooth process?

Is it absolutely necessary to change the name on the passport?

Not at all.

How would a same sex couple decide who changes his/her name?

Honest question.

Passports have a no-alias rule. That means your legal name is on the passport.

Last time I checked, a marriage certificate wasn't enough for anyone to claim their name was legally changed. (at least where I am)

I'm curious. Since I'm not married and I've never had to change my name I've never worried about stuff like this. But what happens if someone does marry and they change name and therefore change their drivers license, health card, credit cards, etc, etc. They're not allowed to change the name on the passport?

I believe you have to get change your name legally to change your name on the passport (in Ontario you get a change of name certificate if you're born here, or else you get a new citizenship card). My father's name on all of this "info" (drivers licence, health card etc) is different from his legal name. When he wanted to get a passport he asked if his common name could be used on the passport. They told him straight out that he had to have his legal name on this passport - even though he doesn't use it.

but this is all location based - that's ontario... mass. could be different.

But when you change your name after marriage isn't the legally changing your name. You have to fill out a million and one forms to do that.

It is in the states.

Gee that is ODD. When I got married and wanted to change my name on my driver's license in Illinois, I had to present my marriage license from Indiana as proof I got married.

In the states, changing your name via a marriage is a legal name change. In order to change my name on my driver's license, soc security card, etc... I had to show a copy of my marriage license. From what I understand, you do the same for your passport, but since most passports are valid for a longer period of time (10 years as opposed to 5 or so for licenses) you get a stamp or a paper you show with your passport saying your name has legally been changed. When your passport expires, you get a new one with your correct name.

Okay, never mind.

No a marriage license is not enough here (Ontario where Kappaloo and I are from) to prove that your name has been legall changed. After one is married, you have to legally change it by filling out a million and one forms.
Many people do not change their names after marriage, so just showing a license isn't proof enough. Because, I believe, on the marriage licenses here, it's the maiden name that appears.

It wasn't always like that....darn feminism. Anyway, at least you don't live in Quebec, where you can't change your last name at all.

I don't think we have that problem in BC (I'm assuming a marriage certificate is all you need), but I will have to check it out. I will have to ask some of my married friends.

Why is that? :confused: Suppose you just don't like your last name, and it's nothing to do with getting married - are you still stuck?

It was very easy for me to change the name on my passport - sent it in with my marriage certificate, and 6 weeks later it came back with a notation typed on the inside back cover that my name was now <full name with new surname>. The only problem is that I'm always having to tell ticket counter agents, gate agents, customs officers, etc. that my married name is in the back.

Seems to me Mr. Henneberger could just go off and do a legal name change independently of his marriage. He'll have to pay court fees and wait a while for the courts to do their thing, but if federal agencies won't recognize his same-sex marriage certificate, then he's kind of stuck.

Apparently the divorce rate in Quebec is very, very high, so the government decided that one can't change their last name at all. Apparently there are cases of elderly women who have been Madame Husbandsname for generations who have been forced to revert back to revert back to their maiden name. I was told that even those who married outside of Quebec and have taken their husband's name have to revert back. I don't know what happens to those with passports under a married name though.

I was sooo horribly horribly wrong (and since I took that info from my parents, they are too).

You only need your marriage certificate in Canada to change your name on your passport:
http://www.ppt.gc.ca/faq/index_e.asp#260

Can you provide some proof of this, like a newspaper article or a Quebec statute?

I know people from Quebec who have their husbands' last names. I'm surprised that the charter allows the Quebec government to stop women from taking on their married names. I know the feds give Quebec concessions, but that one doesn't seem to jibe with Canada's rights and freedoms.


eta: However, I forgot that Quebec is under the civil law code, while the rest of Canada is under common law, so I suppose that can make marriage laws in Quebec different from ROC.

OK, I have heard two different descriptions of the Quebec law. One woman told me that adults can legally change their last name, but will have to fork up $100 or so, whether you are getting married or not (in Ontario, newlyweds can change their name for free). Another woman told me that adults can't legally change their name period (which I find strange, since it would be weird to have your Canadian passport, a legal document say one name and your driver's licence and health card say something else).

Can you show me proof of this? Not something you heard from Sean McCann's mom, but an actual source?

And so what if they ahve to pay to change their name? You have to do that here in many states. They still can...

You can change your name in Quebec.

The cost is $125

Here is a link:

http://www.crcvc.ca/Downloads/NameChange.htm#quebec

In most states I believe you have to pay to change your name...I think it's more than $100 in most states (I've heard as high as $250).

I'd be very surprised if adults couldn't legally change their name.

This is what I've been able to find in English so far:

The new Quebec Conseil du statut de la femme issued a comprehensive report on gender equality, titled "Egalite et independence"; as a result, Quebec changed several laws, including making a woman's birth name her legal name, all her life, regardless of marriage(s).

This is from: http://herstory.womenspace.ca/timeline.html

This is what I've been able to find so far. The (English) website for the Government of Quebec is here:

http://www.gouv.qc.ca/Index_en.html

More to come...

Taualumna, that's all well and good that you found that law- but according to this, a woman can still change her name, thus making her husband's surname her legal name. I don't understand what your problem here is.

I guess there is the misconception of that law. Everyone I speak too, including Quebecers tell me that it is illegal/impossible to do. I guess that's why I've always thought that only minors can have a legal last name name change.

ETA: In Ontario, people do not have to pay to have their name changed because of marriage (but they only have 90 days to do so upon registering). This is not the case in Quebec.

I don't have the time (nor the patience) to look through the entire Quebec civil code, but there is a link to the Canadian Law Insititute in the link I provided.

True, unless it's associated with a marriage or divorce and it's done within a certain time frame (or unless you live in Quebec, apparently). In Massachusetts, for example, each party states on the marriage license application what s/he wants his/her last name to be after the marriage. You pay for the license, but you don't have to then pay a separate fee for a name change. (That's for heterosexual couples. According to the article at the top of this thread, the same is not true for homosexual couples because gay marriage is not recognized on the federal level, so this fellow will now have to go through the courts and pay name-change fees.)

Changing your name, even due to marriage or divorce, is definitely a hassle, but the only fee I ever paid was for the marriage license, which we would have had to pay anyway. No one else (passport agency, social security, credit cards, bank, DMV, utilities, etc) charged me a dime.