Transgender woman seeks name fee waiver

LOCKPORT, Ill., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A Lockport, Ill., transgender woman is asking the state Supreme Court to waive fees so she can change her legal name from "Donald" to "Daunn."

Daunn Turner, 52, asked the court in a legal filing to force Will County, Ill., Chief Judge Stephen White to waive the $450 in court fees required for the name change because of her low income, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Turner claims in her filing that White said in rejecting her request that "I am not spending the county's money on something like this."

White told her the name change was "something that she wanted, not something that she needed," the court filing said.

However, Turner contends the name change is important to "reflect my identity."

"I need to be able to live comfortably as a woman," she said in the Tribune report. "It's who I am."