You Got Served: The Mike Pence Edition

A transgender man is suing the Republican vice-presidential nominee for refusing to let him legally change his name.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

September 13 2016 3:53 PM EST

September 14 2016 1:19 AM EST

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It hasn't been a good couple days for Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence -- after fielding fierce criticism for refusing to call former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke "deplorable," Pence was smacked with a high-profile lawsuit.

Pence, Indiana's attorney general, and the clerk of Marion County are being sued by a 31-year-old transgender Indiana man who cannot legally change his name. The plaintiff, who was not identifed by name, was born in Mexico but came to the U.S. at age 6 and has since been granted asylum in the Hoosier State. While all his official documentation and identification lists him as male, he is currently stuck with his original birth name because of a 2010 Indiana law that requires American citizenship for a name change.

The plantiff says the discrepancy of having a name that doesn't correspond with his identity opens him up to "harassment and violence," according to reports.

"I want to use a name that is in line with my true identity," the plaintiff said, according to the Transgender Law Center, which is representing him. "Without a legal name change, I am forced to use an I.D. that is inconsistent with who I am and puts me in danger of harassment, violence, and being outed as transgender whenever I present it. I am simply asking for equal treatment under the law."