Donald Trump’s newly-announced running mate, J.D. Vance, is facing allegations of hypocrisy for changing his own name while opposing rights for transgender individuals. The Ohio senator and author of “Hillbilly Elegy” has maintained a consistently conservative stance on transgender issues, introducing legislation to remove the “X” gender option from passports and attempting to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors.
Critics point to a little-known part of his biography: Vance chose to change his surname while attending Yale University, which they argue demonstrates a double standard in his opposition to allowing minors to transition. Vance has openly discussed his troubled childhood, making it a central theme of his bestselling memoir. However, less attention has been given to his decision to change his name from James Hamel to J.D. Vance during his time at Yale Law School.
Vance adopted the surname Vance in honor of his maternal grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance, who played a significant role in his upbringing while his mother struggled with addiction. Originally born James Donald Bowman, Vance’s biological father, Donald Bowman, left the family when he was six. Vance’s mother remarried twice, and her third husband, Bob Hamel, adopted James, leading to the name change to James Hamel. Eventually, Vance decided to take the name Vance, stating it gave him “finally, the same name as the family to which I belonged.”
Critics, including parents of transgender children, have highlighted this name change as hypocritical. One Threads user, juhneenhow, posted, “Dear red hats: If you won’t call my daughter by her chosen name you don’t get to call him JD Vance, it’s James Bowman.” Another user, sydney_meditates, commented, “‘Good for me, Not for thee’ seems to be his MO.”
Brad Walsh also criticized Vance, posting, “James Bowman, better known after a string of name changes as JD Vance, doesn’t believe identity is fluid… unless it’s his identity, of course. The identifying information on the birth certificate assigned to him when his brain was not yet fully formed turned out to be inadequate to describe him as his life and mind progressed, so he changed it several times. But you shouldn’t be able to do that. According to ‘JD Vance.’”
Vance’s voting record, particularly his ultra-conservative positions on culture war issues, including transgender rights and access to abortion, is likely to be a focal point of Democratic attacks. These positions are generally unpopular with key voting blocs, such as suburban women. In October 2023, Vance pushed for a national ban on gender-affirming care for minors and criticized the inclusion of a third gender option on passports, stating, “The last thing the State Department should be doing is wasting its time and your tax dollars pushing far-left gender ideology. There are only two genders — passports issued by the United States government should recognize that simple fact. I am proud to introduce this bill to restore some sanity in our federal bureaucracy.”
In 2022, Vance dismissed the increase in people changing their pronouns as a “fad” and “so weird,” posting on X, “Why not just say ‘Mr.’ and ‘Ms.’? That’s what we did when America was still a real country.”