How Collective Power Creates Profound Impact for Our Trans and Non-Binary Community

By Giselle Garcia ’23, Legal Fellow for the Aoki Center of Critical Race and Nation Studies

The Gender and Name Change Project (GNCP) is an initiative led by King Hall law students dedicated to creating a sense of belonging for trans and non-binary students. One of the project’s largest undertakings has been its clinic which helps trans and non-binary community members legally change their gender and names. 

I had the privilege of having a discussion with GNCP’s current leadership: Meena Morar (they/them) ’24, Theodore Brito (he/him) ’24, Riss Aguilar (they/them) ’24, and Katrina Reichert (she/her) ’24. Their passion for the project has propelled them through the early challenges of cementing the project’s structure with the goal of ensuring continuity in helping our trans and non-binary community. Together they crafted a mission statement which in part reads: 

To combat the systemic transphobia apparent in each interaction that requires identification and to increase access to critical legal services, GNCP seeks to positively impact our clients’ quality of life and personal safety by helping them complete a legal name and gender change that aligns with their lived identity. GNCP believes in the power of collective action; community support; trans joy; and using our privilege as law students to provide the highest quality of care to those most marginalized within our community. 

These student leaders have devoted hundreds of hours since the Fall of 2022 to live up to their mission by creating an organizational structure, recruiting attorney and student volunteers, conducting outreach, building trust with individuals bringing their cases to the clinic, and creating a community that prioritizes queer and trans joy at King Hall. Each of these elements have represented challenges along the way. 

When this team adopted the project, there were no formal organizational structures or processes in place. They recognized this was essential to create smooth future transitions and ensure continuity as well as quality of service. In a deliberate effort to remain accountable to their mission statement, together they developed a tiered system of roles that allow for growth and support at every level, and designed print materials that explain the organization’s structures, format of clinics, and answer FAQs. Katrina Reichert described this as an “organic process to figure out what structures are most effective to serve our clients and support our student counselors,” but added they have been intentional about identifying areas to work on through constant reflection. Because of their equal dedication to the project, the workload has been distributed evenly and pressure alleviated.

So, what does the project’s infrastructure look like? Each school year, GNCP hosts five clinics–one clinic in October, November, January, February and March–at the Yolo County Courthouse. Student counselors are responsible for conducting an intake over the phone with their assigned client prior to the clinic date and for completing their client’s court petition for a name and gender change. On clinic dates, GNCP’s leadership team (consisting of four Co-Directors and two Vice Co-Directors), student counselors, and volunteer attorneys meet at the courthouse. There, they meet with clients either in person or via Zoom. Clinics usually last approximately two hours where student counselors work closely with their clients, confirming that the court petitions they filled out on their clients’ behalf are accurate. It is also common for student counselors to strike up wholesome and intentional conversations with their clients during the process, which further fosters a palpable sense of community. On the other hand, the leadership team supervises, keeps track of everyone’s progress, and answers any questions student counselors have. Primarily, they are there as a safety net for student counselors as they independently provide direct legal assistance. Prior to clinic, however, the leadership team does the heavy lifting. 

The leadership team is solely responsible for all operational tasks that lead up to clinic dates. These tasks include, but are not limited to: recruiting student counselors, advertising the clinic on social media sites to garner clients for the school year, coordinating with employees of the Yolo County Courthouse, collaborating with interested stakeholders (like other advocacy groups and volunteer attorneys), assigning clients to each student counselor, and managing each student counselor throughout the school year. It is hard work, but it’s worth it. Particularly on clinic dates when GNCP gets to meet clients and make stronger connections with the larger trans and nonbinary community in Northern California. After clinic dates, the whole team celebrates together with a bite to eat at a local restaurant, usually Pupusería La Chicana in Woodland. Post-clinic dinners are a chance to process together how clinic went, talk about life and classes, and be in each other’s company. 

Notably, this has been a student-run project, so the leadership team was not earning course credit for their hours spent participating in the project on top of their full course loads and externships. The lack of course credit also became an obstacle when attempting to recruit student volunteers who felt they could not devote additional time to the project without it. Although the leadership team wants to make sure volunteers share their same commitment to the project and that participation is not based on external credit received, they recognized that solidifying their organizational structure created a certainty in the process which allowed student volunteers to integrate seamlessly and return. 

These student leaders remain intentional about striking a balance between receiving institutional support and maintaining student autonomy to protect the values and collective power behind this project. They have successfully petitioned the clinic be held as a practicum for course credit in the Spring of 2024, that according to Meena Morar, “will allow students who have already been dedicated to this work to receive course credit while continuing to learn how to center the project’s mission.” 

Establishing the practicum was the result of many trans and queer King Hall students' tireless efforts over the course of several years. Through many conversations with the Dean's Office, and student recruitment of a practitioner to teach the course, the practicum was developed and approved for Spring of 2024. After the Dean’s Office provided approval, the practicum was sent to the Education Policy Committee for review and received unanimous approval. The leadership team expressed, “We are grateful to the Dean's Office and all King Hall students, past and present, who helped us get to where we are today.”

GNCP assisted 72 clients in the 2022-2023 school year and has thus far helped 46 students in the 2023-2024 school year with plans to help at least 50 more in their remaining three clinics. They have 19 student counselors this year and are excited for this increased capacity to help more individuals. 

As the project continues to develop such a strong structure, the space has felt safer to engage in and a sense of community has been cultivated. Thus, not only has capacity grown to assist more clients, but student volunteers have started to connect with the project as more of a peer support network and queer and trans community. Theo Brito says the group is, “actively working to prepare the next leaders to take on [their] roles and continue to foster growth within the project and create community.” This sense of community has also fostered a network of advocates for non-binary and trans policy issues such as having access to gender neutral restrooms and mandatory trans competency education within the law school and in the greater community. Riss Aguilar says this is the broader goal of the GNCP, “this clinic will feel like it has reached its point of completion when trans students feel like they belong.” 

Noa Batlan (they/them) is a second-year law student who will take on a leading role in the project after its current leadership graduates this May. They share: 

I am most excited to inherit a program that envisions and puts into action what direct client services can look like when we center these values. I hope to pick up where they leave off and work to ensure these values continue to motivate our work, even as we expand so significantly. But I’m so sad that my friends are graduating! GNCP has given me a trans community at King Hall. The current co-directors are amazing friends, mentors, and thought partners - not only related to how we problem solve in the clinic but generally we will take on being trans lawyers in our everyday lives.

Collective power, dedication, and intentionality that centers trans and non-binary individuals has driven these leaders to establish and grow the Gender and Name Change Project into a community which celebrates queer and trans joy. We should all partake in elevating this project of transcendence. 

Interested in volunteering? Law students and experienced attorneys can contact the Gender and Name Change Project via email at info4gncp@gmail.com and via Instagram @ucdavisgncp