Travis

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This page has Travis-specific information on name & gender marker change.

Where to go

Travis County District Court
Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse
1000 Guadalupe St.
Austin, TX 78701

There are metered street parking. Earlier in the morning (before 9) there's usually no problem finding a parking spot.

What to do

The following information is from interviews of the relevant court personnel on Thursday, Mar 2, 2017. For Travis county, the current best practice is to do everything in the same day. You don't need to make an appointment in advance. Some resources

  • (Optional: look at the Travis County Uncontested Dockets "Duty Judge" page beforehand and see if the judge "friendly" or not. The page is posted on Thursday for Friday through the following Thursday. See below for the lists of friendly and hostile judges.)
  • Go to the courthouse as early in the morning as possible e.g. 8:30 am.
  • Go to the Family Law Docket Manager's office, Room 419.
  • Have all your paperwork in order beforehand. Note that your physician's letter need to include the word "irreversible"; they were very specific on this point.
  • People in the Family Law Docket Manager's office will take your papers, check it over, then they will go find a judge who can see you the soonest.
  • When they do, they will take your papers to the judge while you stay in their office, in order to keep the process as discreet as possible.
  • The judge will review your case and make a decision.
  • If necessary e.g. if the judge has questions, you will need to go appear before the judge, either in their court room or in their chamber.

Judges

Look on the Travis County Uncontested Dockets "Duty Judge" page to see who will be the scheduled judge for the week. It gets updated every Friday. (If the link is broken, try poking around beginning on the Travis County Civil Courts Dockets page; look for links saying "duty judges" or "duty").

Judges listed here are known firsthand to be sympathetic/supportive to name and gender marker changes by transgender people.

Friendly

  • Judge Suzanne Covington
    • April 21, 2015: 201st District Court of Travis County, TX; petition: MtF, name change
  • Judge Karin Crump
  • Judge Rhonda Hurley
    • Sep 20, 2016: petitioner resides in Bastrop; court clerk asked why they're doing the change in a different county. The clerk was informed of the relevant section of the Texas family code and they acquiesced.
    • July 1, 2016
    • June 20, 2014: 53rd District Court of Travis County, TX; petition: name change and MtF gender marker change
  • Judge Scott Jenkins
  • Judge Gisela D. Triana

Hostile

  • Judge Gary Harger (former)

Unknown