Colorado Rapids Pride Night: C38 Works With the Name Change Project to Support Transgender Coloradans

Tonight, the Colorado Rapids host Vancouver Whitecaps at DICK’s Sporting Goods Park. It is Pride Night. The club is looking to spread awareness through You Can Play, an organization dedicated to safety and inclusion of all LGBTQ+ people in sports, including athletes, coaches, staff and fans. Centennial 38 is raising money for the Colorado Name Change Project.

The CNCP is nonprofit organization seeking to help transgender Coloradans better understand and navigate the process of changing their name and/or gender marker.

They provide resources, statewide workshops, and reduce the bureaucratic and financial burdens of having one’s legal identity match one’s true identity. To date, they’ve helped over 20,000 trans and gender nonconforming Coloradans and achieved several policy wins.

You can donate to C38’s Prideraiser here and find more information about Prideraiser in general here.

Sara Fitouri has been a Rapids fan for over six years. She is a lawyer and has become more involved in C38 in recent years. She now sits on the board with the CNCP and has been doing name changes pro bono.

“When I heard that C38 was looking at including more nonprofits I was really excited at the opportunity of the overlap of two of my passions and help connect the club to the Colorado Name Change Project”, she told Burgundy Wave.

The organization is entirely volunteer and donation driven. The vast majority of donation money goes towards microgrants to those looking to change their name and gender on their documentation. LGBTQ youths often have less economic stability, making microgrants critical.

Depending on the city and county in Colorado, the process can take $200 just to update one’s name and gender. That’s before getting a new copy of a driver’s license, passport, etc. which only adds to the cost.

Unlike other states that have seen trans rights under attack in recent years, “Colorado’s actually doubled down. Colorado has some of the best name change laws in the country and that’s because of the advocacy”, said Fitouri.

For example, people changing their name are no longer required to publish that in the local newspaper. That’s an extra expense, can add a month to the process time, and is a forced public outing of one’s transition.

“Something as simple as having their documents match their identity creates a level of safety and security. You don’t want to risk going to a bar and getting outed. It’s actual safety. It’s also the sense of security which is so important to their mental health.”

C38 chose a nonprofit that supports gender identity for their fundraising efforts. They’re putting their money where their mouths are: Anyone is welcome at the tailgate and in their community.

Photo Credit: Colorado Rapids

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