This is what's hard: I know I'm legally a man, but I'm also male-minded, despite having the female appearance.
All women, and men of color - we were owned like tables and chairs. We spent a hundred years getting a legal identity as human beings. That's a big thing.
I don't have a birth certificate.
I am Roe.
A State cannot … deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws.
I think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
Mitt Romney is the guy who said corporations are people. No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people.
I do have two data identities. I have my name, Bruce Sterling, which is my public name under which I write novels. I also have my other name, which is my legal name under which I own property and vote.
That's my real name. That's not like a gimmick or anything, that's my government name, Tierra Whack.
If you are invisible, you are vulnerable. Birth Registration must be everyone's priority. Let's make all children visible and let's give every child a birthday!
The only name on my birth certificate was Henley, no first name.
One of the things I was taught in law school is that I'd never be able to think the same again - that being a lawyer is something that's part of who I am as an individual now.
I can't get over this. Dad isn't Sam's dad? Dad is a friend? How was I supposed to know that? People shouldn't be allowed to sign themselves as Dad unless they are your dad. It should be the law.
By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law, that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage.
Until last year, the penal code was based on British law, now we are not British, we are Arabs. So why should we govern ourselves through alien laws?
When we walked out of that hospital, we had a birth certificate with our names on it that said: 'Father one and father two, Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black.' And we knew our son was not only ours in our hearts but also legally and protected that way.
In the early days of the Indian Territory, there were no such things as birth certificates. You being there was certificate enough.
