LGBT News Facebook 'Name Change' Policy Disproportionately Affecting LGBT Community

This is the one reason I hate face book

 

This is sad. Yes there are people who are using fake names and causing problems, but at the same time a lot of people use them for protection.

 

I really hate that website.

 

Oh shit.

I'm actually going to change the English display of my name when the 60 day thing is up. I hope they don't do that to me..

I fucking hate facebook, but I use it to rant (and stalk certain people.. Hehe)

 

Didn't understand it. I have two names, am I supposed to use them both now? I don't get this rule. Why wouldn't you allow anyone to use the name they feel comfortable with (when it's not hurting others)?

 

It seems like the policy is meant to stop people preying on young kids or women by using fake profiles to trick them.

 

I mean, the thing is, I haven't legally changed my name yet. But I use MY name on Facebook. But if Facebook were to raise a stink, I don't have a license or proof that my name is Byron...

And think about it. It's not just drag queens or transgender people who'd be hurt by this policy. There's people who use psuedonyms professionally- even though a page might be personal. There's people in a variety of situations where use or public knowledge of their presence on Facebook might be dangerous or risky.

I mean, if Facebook required a legal name, I'd hate it but maybe if they're so insistent they could require use of a legal name to be submitted to Facebook but it would be hidden from anyone besides the user and Facebook itself- instead, users could have a preferred name viewable to everyone but there's that legal name hidden in the account in case the user decides to make a purchase, connect accounts, or raise formal complaints to the company...

 

Performers, entertainers and drag queens can set up a 'page' for their persona.

Transgender people are a different kettle of fish and I can see it may cause some pain/issues to these people who have not gone through a legal name change.

 

I don't really think this is going to do help against "creeps", they can just use a very common name and change account if someone ask for proof... It will do more harm than good, which seems to be Facebook's modus operandi for a while now...

 

Don't know if English has this too, but in Dutch, you may have a roepnaam (the name you use / the name others use for you) which is not your official name. I don't have it, but I know some who do have it. For instance Jan instead of Johannes, so I know some who are not using their real name..

I think this rule is completely ridiculous and it brings more harm than good.

 

In Japanese you can have a nickname too, but it does not show in place of your "real name", only beside it in your profile.

From what I remember, English has one too. But still..

 

I'm not quite understanding why this would affect transgendered people much. I use Facebook everyday, and as long as it's a realistic name, I don't see why people would receive a message like that. It's for people's protection.

I'm also sure Facebook isn't doing this purposefully to attack LGBT people, because they are a very liberal website. Idk... something just seems off about this. Unless I'm missing something?

 

I'm training to be a teacher atm and one of the things they tell you to do before you teach in a school is change your fb name to a pseudonym so kids you teach can't find you. Not sure what I can do if that's no longer possible

As for LGBT performers like drag queens and such, well surely it's a pain for them as much as it is for any sort of performer

 

I don't use Facebook, so I don't know: How do they know the name is "real"? Can someone just make up a name like "John Smith"? How about "Mark Zuckerberg"?

I don't use my real name on anything online. Every forum, I use a different name (hint - my name's not "Christopher").

I got annoyed with Youtube awhile back when I started getting prompts to enter my real name instead of the user name I'd had for years. So I changed it - to something even more obviously fake! Something like Qwerty Mnbvc12. So far, so good... I can still log on.

 

Facebook has a real name policy where if a name is reported as fake, or sound fake enough in the creation process, it would require you to provide a legal document (ID, passport, or driver licenses, etc) proving your legal name to confirm that the name you are using for the account and the name on your legal documents are the same.

You can see where this goes with transpeople that have not done the expensive and time consuming process of legally changing their name across their legal documents. They have to either abandon facebook, or be outed.

This is why I simply refuse to use facebook. It have been causing problems for me though, as all the other students in my university has facebook and use it to communicate, even during group projects, so I have been left out for the most part. Also, some company has been researching on potential employees' facebook account in the hiring process. Not having one raise some red flags for them as they assume you have something to hide/anti-social.

It is horrible, this hyperconnected world.

 

I didn't get the message, and I use a shortened version of my legal name on Facebook (it's a very common name, and an extremely common shortening of it, so not entirely surprised)

 

Wait so if I changed my Facebook to say Alex rather than my birth name I could have issues as a result??? ;-; #Confused
- My birth name is too feminine so I have considered having my friends call me that instead (only people online do that as of now) and changing it to say Alex on Facebook... I do plan on getting a legal name change at some point...

 

A performer I follow on FB said their personal page was already removed by the staff. This is insane, don't they have more important things to worry about and fix instead of policing crap. A friend of my fiance had this problem before too...using her REAL NAME.