More than 11,000 people have signed a petition launched by an Indiana parent who is trying to spare his son the “humiliation and embarrassment” of being deadnamed at his graduation. A deadname is the birth name of someone who has changed it.
Writes Brian Thomas to Fort Wayne's Homestead High School Principal Park Ginder: “My transgender child is a senior this year and will graduate in early June. He has been going by his preferred name since the summer between his freshman and sophomore year. Teachers, pastors, managers, family and friends know him as a boy named Wyatt. But at graduation, because of an unwritten standard the school administration is unwilling to change, he will be called by his dead name. What is meant to be a celebration will instead be yet another moment of humiliation and embarrassment.”
Thomas adds: “As Wyatt's parents, we ask that our wishes be honored on behalf of our precious child. Call the name he will bear legally once the lengthy process of a name change is complete. Call him what his future university calls him. Call him what we and many others call him every day. Call him Wyatt. “
