Job interviews are stressful enough without having to explain why you're a woman named Bill or a man named Frieda.

"What we hear most of the time is that people aren't going for jobs because if your name is Jason and you look female, people are confused," said Michael David Battle, executive director of the Garden of Peace Project, a Pittsburgh-based advocacy group for transgender people and other sexual minorities. "We've heard of people going on interviews ... and [interviewers] get angry at them. 'Why are you deceiving me?' No, I'm not deceiving you."

Having a name that doesn't match your appearance can complicate efforts to rent an apartment, attend a university, get health care or even deal with a traffic stop. But getting a name change to match a gender change, which involves petitioning the court and attending a hearing, also can be daunting.

That's why the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund last month brought to Pittsburgh its Name Change Project, which helps transgender men and women navigate the legal work needed to modify their monikers. The New York City-based fund is working with the 1-year-old Garden of Peace Project, but also with the venerable law firm Reed Smith and the financial giant Bank of New York Mellon to make names match genders.

Read the full article, "Legal project helps transgender people get a name change" at post-gazette.com.