Page "Name change" Paragraph 39

This has occasionally led to controversy.

A lawyer named Micheline Montreuil, a non-operative male-to-female transgender woman, had to undergo a lengthy process to have her name legally changed.

Initially, the director of civil status refused to permit the change on the grounds that a male could not bear a female name.

According to Quebec law, Montreuil could not change her record of sex because this requires proof of a completed sex reassignment surgery, which she has not had.

On November 1, 1999, the provincial court of appeal ruled that nothing in the law prevented a person who was legally male from legally adopting a woman's name.

( Montreuil was initially prevented from changing her name despite this ruling on the grounds that she had not established general use, as normally required for a name change ; the Quebec appeals court finally authorized the change on November 7, 2002.