A local judge in upstate New York has once again refused to seal a transgender name change request, and an appellate court judge isn’t having it.

“We are once again confronted with the denial of a sealing request in a Civil Rights Law article 6 proceeding — by the same Supreme Court justice — predicated on amorphous ‘public interest concerns,’” Judge Eddie J. McShan wrote in a unanimous decision overturning the judge’s ruling, reported by the Times Union.

Related

Indiana has been keeping a list of trans residents. It could revoke their IDs like Kansas did.

Records sealing happens automatically in New York for divorce proceedings, adoptions, and some legal name changes, but those associated with a gender transition require a request.

And the judge keeps denying them.

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The latest case is at least the fifth time the appellate court has been forced to overrule a similar decision by Saratoga County Justice James Walsh in the last two years.

In 2024, the court had to step in to seal the records of a 13-year-old. In October, it issued three separate decisions on the same day, overturning Walsh’s denials, according to Them.

All of the name change applicants expressed concerns about being outed and victims of hate crimes, harassment, or other discrimination if their records were made public.

But Walsh argued that those fears were outweighed by “public interest concerns,” including the ability of people or entities searching for information on trans individuals — who may be applying for a mortgage or gun license — to get background checks.

Not sealing their records opens transgender people up to invasive searches.

A name change application requires a birth certificate and provides answers to questions about the applicant’s background and reasons for the name change. If not under seal, that application is easily searchable online.

“They have to explain to the court their reasoning, and so they have to talk about their transgender status,” explained Joseph Williams, an attorney for appellants in four of the five cases. “It’s all very personal information.”

That information went public in 2024 for the 13-year-old Williams represented, predicated on Walsh’s reasoning that the child could be the subject of a background check.

The attorney included a demonstration of how easily accessible that information was online in the child’s appeal, before the court overturned Walsh’s denial and sealed the child’s records.

A search of court records by the Times Union appears to show Walsh is an outlier in denying requests to seal trans name changes.

One appellate court ruling in 2025 did overturn another judge’s decision denying a name change entirely for a 7-year-old. The court admonished the judge for referring to the child as “it.”

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