Post #1720565
2026-03-18 23:18 UTC
@Fishercat @ShadSterling @trisweb @siderea Massachusetts notary here. The new system is a _vast_ improvement on the old system. They fixed it for trans people, abused spouses, really anyone who wanted to change their name and not have it be obviously visible to anyone who cared to look. Before this was fixed, all name changes (like all court orders) were available to anyone on the Massachusetts court website. You could do a search for all name changes in a given county for the past month and get old name, new name, home address, phone number, email address, and signature for every person who changed their name for any reason. When it was a minor (and yes, minors were searchable as well), you also got their birth date, and name/address/phone/email for both parents.
Replies (1)
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@SnarkWasABoojum@tech.lgbt 2026-03-18 23:18
@Fishercat @ShadSterling @trisweb @siderea To be sure, people change their names for many reasons and not all the people searchable were trans, but when you see things like "Nathan" becoming "Natalie" or vice versa it's easy to surmise. Plus a number of people flat-out give "I'm transgender" as their reason for the name change. The whole thing was effectively a trans person search engine for Massachusetts.