Election 2024: For young LGBTQ+ voters, casting a ballot comes with unique challenges

When 19-year-old JQ Shearin casts their ballot for the first time in the November general election, they will do so under an identity that the third-year UCLA student says no longer reflects who they are.
Shearin identifies as gender non-binary and lives life as “JQ” — a different name from the one assigned to them at birth, which they call their “dead name,” the legal name with which they no longer identify.
Like many newly eligible college and Generation Z voters,