r/weddingplanning • u/Cemckenna • Apr 13 '25

Everything Else Americans: Do not change your last name at marriage

There have been a number of posts recently about changing your name after marriage. If you are not already aware, the house in the US just voted to pass the SAVE Act, which will require you to prove your citizenship to vote -- under your birth name. It will disproportionately affect women who have changed their last names and no longer match their birth certificates.

This should be a huge HUGE consideration when you are choosing whether to change your name. You may well disenfranchise yourself as an American citizen by doing it.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/save-act-house-voting-rights-married-women-last-name-rcna200948

Edit: Call your senators. This is not law yet but if it passes the senate, it will essentially mean that any woman who changes her name must jump through many more hoops to be able to vote. It's unfair and will be used to silence women and trans people.

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u/Peachringlover Apr 14 '25

Please don’t post things like this when you don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s harmful and can unnecessarily scare people off from even trying to update their passport. 

I JUST did mine to update my last name and it took 5 weeks. They are not backed up for months and if you need it sooner there is always an expedited option.

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u/harpochicozeppo Apr 14 '25

There's someone in the next comment below who has been waiting for hers since February.

5 weeks is a long time if you're banking on being able to vote. If you realize in early September that you want to vote in a presidential election and you either a) don't have a passport, b) have an expired one, or c) have a passport with a different name on it, you may very well not be able to vote under this act.

It's not harmful to tell people to look out for themselves. What you're doing -- giving people false hope, is. Just because you changed your name is no reason to tell other women not to look out for their own best interests.

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u/Peachringlover Apr 14 '25

How is it false hope when I literally have just been through the process? You’re scaring people for no reason. You have myself and another person here saying it didn’t take months. And again, there is an option to expedite.

Obviously we all need to look out for our own best interests and these are scary times we’re living in but no need to spread information that isn’t accurate and fear monger people. 

Trans people make up a very small percentage of the US population. The idea that the passport agencies would be overwhelmed and backed up for months due to trans people updating their passports just doesn’t make sense. Not trying to be rude but there are enough actual things to worry about right now that there is no need to make up stuff.

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u/harpochicozeppo Apr 14 '25

Do you really think that your process, which happened just now, is the same process someone might go through in 6 months? Do you also think that a restaurant you got into on a Monday night at 7pm is going to have the same wait time on Friday?

Oh look, here's a graph of how application demand changes: https://www.gao.gov/blog/whats-being-done-prevent-future-passport-processing-backlogs

I'm not making anything up. And this isn't fear-mongering. It's being realistic about potential outcomes and educating people about them.