The Austin Law Commune was created in 1969 to provide free legal services to civil rights and anti-war activists. In the early 1970s, civil rights expanded to include women’s rights and a few years later, gay rights.
And I am here to testify that Bobby Nelson helped me file in 1979 to change my name. What a blessing then and now. It was one of the most significant moments in my life of questioning and protest from the McCarthy era on.
I had carried my new last name already for 9 years, and now decided that my two daughters might have the legal choice to carry their mother's last name. This being not so much because of the matriarchal possibilities, and more that it was a matter of choice itself I was exercising in my own life and offering to them. They both took this move on advice and made different ‘choicely’ decisions - which was the point.
Thank you Bobby. In the spirit of your calling you also didn't charge me a dime, and only partly because you knew I didn't have any dimes.
The subject of the name I have carried sweetly and proudly ever since might be summed up in an action I frequently take as I'm going out the door into the public arena; I put on a hat with a feather in it.
And I am here to testify that Bobby Nelson helped me file in 1979 to change my name. What a blessing then and now. It was one of the most significant moments in my life of questioning and protest from the McCarthy era on.
I had carried my new last name already for 9 years, and now decided that my two daughters might have the legal choice to carry their mother's last name. This being not so much because of the matriarchal possibilities, and more that it was a matter of choice itself I was exercising in my own life and offering to them. They both took this move on advice and made different ‘choicely’ decisions - which was the point.
Thank you Bobby. In the spirit of your calling you also didn't charge me a dime, and only partly because you knew I didn't have any dimes.
The subject of the name I have carried sweetly and proudly ever since might be summed up in an action I frequently take as I'm going out the door into the public arena; I put on a hat with a feather in it.