Looks like a family tree with very few branches....
Posted on 05/07/2008 1:15:59 PM PDT by forkinsocket
All Michael Buday wanted to do was take the last name of his wife, Diana Bijon, when they married.
But it took two years, a lawsuit alleging sex discrimination and a change in California law before he picked up his new drivers license in the name of Michael Bijon on Monday.
"It was personal. I feel much closer to (Diana's) father than I do mine. She asked me to take her name and I thought it would be very simple. I never imagined the state would make it so difficult," Michael Bijon, 31, told reporters.
He discovered it would take a $350 fee, court appearances, a public announcement and mounds of paperwork to make a change on his driving license that is routine for women who marry.
After months of frustration, the Los Angeles computer programmer and his ER nurse wife Diana, 29, took their problem to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
A double barrel name would have been no problem, nor would Diana and Michael deciding to each keep their birth names. But California and some 40 other U.S. states provided no place on the marriage license application, and driving license, for the groom to choose the bride's surname.
"Women have fought for so long for equal rights and it feels like this is part of that fight," said Diana Bijon. "When we got married, the law basically said, 'Don't be silly, only a woman can change her name when she gets married."'
"I am really, really proud of him. Not many men would do this," she said.
A subsequent lawsuit led to a new California state law guaranteeing the rights of both married couples and registered domestic partners to choose whichever last name they prefer on their marriage and driving licenses.
"This disposes of the rule in California that the male surname is the marital name to the same trash bin where dowries were once tossed out," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU.
I don’t see what the big deal is. Private matter. It does kind of have a gayness to it, but it is their choice.
Besides, Bijon is a cooler last name than Buday.
Yep. One suspects a juvenile, feminized jerk.
I’m not your “Buday”, Pal!
Hey lady... I give you two months before you kick this wussbag to the curb...
Michael Buday -- please hand in your balls... You won't be needing them any time soon...
Looks like a family tree with very few branches....
Uh-huh. Whatever helps him sleep at night.
"She asked me to take her name and I thought it would be very simple."
"This isn’t emasculation."
Yeah, whatever.
They look like brother and sister!!!! What a fancy boy!
There's going to be a situation where she wants him to stand up and be in the manly defender role, and he's not going to, because he's not that kind of guy.
Both men were emasculated losers.
The name is definitely an improvement. IMHO, the marriage is what matters, not which name is carried on.
"I am really, really proud of him. Not many [real] men would do this," she said.
Looks like a young John Kerry and Teresa Heinz.
What will happen to this sissy’s name when he decides to marry some man in Massachusetts?
Why does anyone care what he wants to call himself?
Look for a divorce soon, when the gal realizes she married a wimp.
I don't know any men who would do this...
Public ridicule has its uses.
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