Republicans Want Voters To Provide Proof Of Citizenship To Vote. Millions Could Be Impacted.

[ShazzieB]

30. I think people have the right to choose the name they want to use.

Some people change their names when getting married, and some don't, for a variety of reasons. Some probably always will, unless it's outlawed, which imo would be would be a gross infringement on people's personal choices. By the same token, I think people should be free to decide what name to use after a divorce. These are very personal decisions.

In my case, I chose to adopt the same surname as my husband, because I liked the idea of sharing a name with the person I had chosen to spend my life with. I loved my parents, but my identity was mine, not theirs, and it wasn't tied up with their last name. I was a fully autonomous, independent, self-sufficient person before I got married and have continued to be one for almost 51 years since then.

Did Michelle Robinson give up her identity when she married Barack Obama? Did Jill Tracy surrender part of her autonomy when she said "I do" to Joe Biden? How about Hillary Rodham, who initially kept her birth name but changed it later on, because people in Arkansas were being buttheads about their governor and his wife using different last names? Did she stop being an equal partner to Bill when she began using the name Clinton? In all three cases, my answer is a resounding "No."

A name is just a label. I think people should be allowed to label themselves how they want. That applies to men as well as women. I think Chasten Buttigieg and Brad Takei would agree.