Transphobook: How Facebook’s “Legal Names Only” Policy Could Lead to Transphobia
So one day, the cosplay community (and Salman Rushdie) woke up to find all their Facebook accounts gone. Some were separate accounts that cosplayers kept in order to avoid stalking, some to keep potential employers from seeing their cosplay life, and some just because they didn’t want to bother their family and non-cosplay friends with all that cosplay stuff they don’t understand anyway. In the case of Mr. Rushdie he beat the book of face’s policy and is now Salman Rushdie again, however the cosplay community is still left with a gaping hole where all their photos, contact info, and memories used to be. On a personal level, outside of cosplay but as a transgender individual, this policy and random enforcement frightens me and makes me worried that Facebook All Mighty will start erasing Trans individuals from their social media website, and could lead Facebook down a very transphobic path.
Facebook is such a valuable tool for Trans individuals. Facebook helps Trans individuals develop a sense of community, find other trans individuals in their area with its groups function, and gives us exactly what FB should be, a social network. At the beginning of July, I came into personal hardships and had to leave the living situation I was in. I will not have a permanent place to stay until November. I was looking at living out of my car, on the streets, anywhere I could think of because I had been turned away. If it was not for both Steampunk, the Cosplay community, and my ties to them on Facebook I would still be homeless. I am SO lucky that so many friends on mine on Facebook, who I met through Cosplay and Steampunk, rallied together to let me couch-hop until I can get something long term.
Many trans individuals (myself included) have trouble affording the services they need, such as legally changing our name. Sure, it’s a priority on my list but, as is the case with many trans people like myself, when I have to choose between buying razors because I’ve been using the same for three months, transportation, and shelter, not to mention other amenities that for some might seem frivolous (like makeup) but are 100% necessary if I want to leave the house without being harassed on the street, the money you’re saving up to get your name changed goes to other places.
Sure, one can also make the argument “Quit cosplaying, quit going to events, quit doing stuff and put that money towards getting your name changed.” That is a very true and very fair argument. However it is this community that has helped lift me up and it is this social medium that allowed them to do it, which brings me back to the point. Facebook has been a place that many trans individuals can finally realize who they are. To make me or another trans individual identify as their legal name/their birth name is insensitive to trans individuals. You wouldn’t tell a hermit crab to move back into it’s original shell, a snake to live in their original skin, a butterfly to crawl back into it’s cocoon, and you SHOUDLN’T tell a trans individual to identify as their birth name. I have outgrown that skin. If Salman Rushdie is a human being and can exist on Facebook as such, so can we.
Ah wow that’s ridiculous Lucreatia. 🙁 I do not agree with facebook on both of these matters! They need to rethink what they did. The profiles that got deleted, it really didn’t help people out. Now a lot of people have to make a new profile and re add all of their friends and that will take a long time! Or actually they won’t make a new account because it will just get deleted again. We all love you lucretia and I agree with u 100% on everything you’ve said. Us steampunkers and cosplayers are definitely here for u whenever u need us. I miss u! I loved your article. You did such a great job writing it. I couldn’t of done that at all. I love you! With all that you’ve been through, you’re such a strong, smart, loving and beautiful person. Love Eva 😀
Ashley, as a fellow trans person, I agree with you completely, I have also gone through homelessness, as my family disowned and evicted me a year and a half ago – eight months into HRT – and I have been unable to find a job because no one wants to hire a 1/2 male 1/2 female here in Florida. Facebook has literally been my lifeline through this time, and kept me in touch with my friends so that I was able to find sofas and floors to sleep on and continue to survive. I’m coming out of this in about 2 1/2 weeks when my federal financial aid funds and my student job come through and I will finally be able to afford my own place again while I finish college.
If you would like to organize a campaign against this new Facebook policy, I will be more than happy to assist you with my not inconsiderable resources and experience. I wish you the best of luck in your struggle and please, please let me know if there is any way that I can help you.
As an article, it’s not very informative, it’s basically a pity column. The fact that your upset that a free service like facebook has certain rules to go by does not give you much of a fight to start. There are other social media services other than facebook, but if you feel compelled to continue using the service under a false name, then have at it and expect such an event in the near future.
As for saving up money for a name change, I’m not familiar with the rules in Florida, but it cannot be that far off from where I live where all it takes is a visit to the county courthouse, post the name change request on a bulletin board for 10 days, have two witnesses to confirm sound mind and a notary. Basically, it is relatively cheap, and considering people do it all the time, it should be.
In the end, I’m basically expressing my lack of empathy for your plight. Simply get over it and move on.
Hey Mark,
That’s an opinion and you’re def. entitled to it. :::Shrugs::: Oh well.
Lucretia