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Facebook Apologizes To Drag Queens Over "Real Name" Rule
An anonymous reader writes Facebook apologized to drag queens and the LGBT community after an outcry over the social network's policy of requiring members to use real names on their accounts. While the policy itself will stay in place, Facebook says, it will be changing how the rule is enforced. In a Wednesday post, Facebook's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox apologized to "the affected community of drag queens, drag kings, transgender, and extensive community of our friends, neighbors, and members of the LGBT community for the hardship that we've put you through in dealing with your Facebook accounts over the past few weeks."
So drag queens can use fake names but the rest cant?
If fb is serious and enforcing the policy, their user count will be reduced by at least 60 percent which essentially cut the worth of the company in half.
I see no reason why any person with a private Facebook page should be given special status or exemptions from the rules just because of some arbitrary, momentarily popular PC BS category.
Why would LGBT members require more of an apology than heterosexual cisgenders who desire to use another name?
"Our policy has never been to require everyone on Facebook to use their legal name," Cox said. "The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that's Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that's Lil Miss Hot Mess."
So if Fred Phelps had gone around calling himself God's Fag Killing Machine, Facebook would obviously have let him use that name under this "understanding" of their policy. Right? Right?..
Alternative lifestyles are free to be offensive to some niches of society. Thus, neither are you, Lil Miss Hot Mess, guaranteed the right not to be offended.
Being driven by ratings based on the viewing habits of folks who have checked out, the fourth estate is there in force to address every imaginable social injustice.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
OK Facebook. Now apologize to all of the affected whistle-blowers that can't openly protest and embarrass you into action.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
I guess they think my account "bob disembodied brain" is a real person.
They're very sorry for this policy which they intend to continue. But they're very sorry about it. And that's coming from the heart, man.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
And that their drag persona and their day-job/legal identity are two spheres that many people want to keep separate?
Not everyone uses the legal identity on the day job, especially in entertainment. Consider Caryn Johnson, whose day job identity is Whoopi Goldberg. Or Paul Levesque, who goes by Hunter Hearst Helmsley professionally (or Triple H for short). Or Stefani Germanotta, who took the name Lady Gaga from a Queen song, possibly to escape No Doubt-related jokes. On the other hand, RuPaul Charles's drag name is just that: RuPaul.
Yeah, I love corporate apologies. They value my business, appreciate my concerns, and are always sorry for the way I felt about their behavior. No one else every says that to me on a regular basis.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Newsflash: Drag queens, drag kings, and other people in the LGBT community can often go by pseudonyms because they might happen to live with a family that would put them out on the street if they found out. Drag queens, drag kings, and especially transgendered people are subject to not just that, but downright assault as a result of their lifestyle. This isn't about people being offended, this is about the fact that Facebook's policy could cause actual, physical harm to people. Fuck you, you ignorant fuckstick.
This is totally besides the point.
It's FB wanting to force people to use their real name, so they can identify you to do more stuff they shouldnt with your data.
And now that there's a giant move to Ello, or at least it's starting, they're backtracking.
They are catering to their profits, not to any subset of their users.
Lots of people use fake names, just because they dont want to use their real names. Not because we were all molested.
represents the group who's unfairly burdened by the original requirement.
I would say that the group is fairly burdened by the requirement. Burdens arent unfair just because you dont want to be burdened.
"His name was James Damore."
The so-called "apology" is in itself offensive and patronizing. "Drag queens" to LGBT is what "Exotic dancers" are to being a straight woman (or a man, I suppose). The choice of names they used in the example is also not coincidental.
I wonder if reaction would have been different were facebook to require all married women to use their husbands name (Mrs Robinson), and then apologized by way by letting them keep their "Lil Miss Makemeasammich" monikers.
It's only "PC bullshit" until it's your problem.
If their birth name is that much of a burden they can legally change it. Problem solved.
Teachers and counsellors often don't want the kids they work with to be able to easily find them on facebook, so they use fake names. I have many friends who do this. So far they haven't been affected by any rule enforcement.
You have such a fundamental misunderstanding of some very basic concepts of justice (which have been tackled over and fucking over throughout the last 100 years of jurisprudence) that I'm not sure whether to bother replying to you.
Consider the following rule: "Anyone whose hair holds a pencil when inserted into the hair is not permitted into the party."
Is it unfair?
Well, no, on the surface of it, it isn't. Pretty simple rule, really? Applies to everyone. Everyone's treated the same. If you don't like it, don't spray/curl your hair, right?
No, of course not. It's a test for blackness. A person who has black skin is way more likely to fail the test than a person who has white skin. It's inherent to black people that they have curlier, tougher hair which is more likely to hold a pencil.
Just as it's inherent to transgender people that their sex organs do not reflect their psychological gender, so there is a very high likelihood that they are misnamed at birth.
Justice does not just consider whether a rule is equally applied to everyone, but whether a rule in effect treats everyone equally. Only in exceptional circumstances do we consider as just a rule which somehow disadvantages a group because of some innate feature of that group.
Reality: deal with it.
use your real name like us normal folks
Wow, I have now met the real person called "Anonymous Coward"
Is it me or is it just funny that someone posted anonymously that you should used your real name like "Normal Folks"
He is saying the rule(regardless of what it is) should be evenly applied.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
represents the group who's unfairly burdened by the original requirement.
I would say that the group is fairly burdened by the requirement. Burdens arent unfair just because you dont want to be burdened.
If you actually read the news stories (it's been widely reported) you'll find out that one individual reported 200 xgenders. Sounds to me like someone who was targeting a group based on their gender expression. Facebook said they didn't catch what had happened at first because they get thousands of reports.
Facebook clarified it's policy by saying that you can go by the name you're known by to the general public. How would you like it if you couldn't go by the nickname you've been using since grade school, but had to use your "real name"? "William Robert Doe? Who the heck is that? Oh, you mean Billy-Bob?"
Transgenders who are not transsexuals generally retain their legal birth name for things such as banking, etc. However, in the context of social interactions, what is the harm in letting them use the name that their friends and the general public know them as? Isn't it supposed to be a social network, and not a courtroom?
For transsexuals, do you have any idea of how long it takes to do the paperwork in some jurisdictions? Some places will refuse to change your name without a valid reason, backed up by documentation. And what is someone supposed to do while they're transitioning? Go by their old name (one that conforms to their old gender) on Facebook when their co-workers know them by a different name and gender? The Standards of Care for transsexuals require that you live and work full-time in your target gender for at least a year. So you've got a year when you don't have that documentation, and then another year while it goes through - minimum. Sure, YMMV, but that's the way it is where I live.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
voter id laws are in no way racist. you need an ID to buy beer, smokes, or enter the whitehouse (legally, not just hopping the fense)
If obama requires an ID to meet the president, why is it unfair to need one to vote for him?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
", but transgender people are unfairly burdened by a requirement of using their birth name when that doesn't agree with the different name they're getting most people (hoping eventually everyone) to use in the real world."
They want people to use that name. So why doesn't everyone have the right to pick the name they want to be called on Facebook?
You allow everybody pick their name or you do not.
Or if you really do not like your name you can always have it legally changed.
In discrimination. You are saying that those people are so not like normal people that you must make a special exception for them.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Kind of hard to believe Facebook really is trying to protect the integrity and reputability of its users, and applying rules to people equally. Mark Zuckerberg's dog has a fucking account -- tell me how that's ok?
Voter ID laws shouldn't be racist. Everyone should have ID, especially if they want to vote exactly one time.
Unfortunately voter ID laws were foisted on counties and districts where those enacting them knew that it would impact urban (and thus likely democratic) voters disproportionately. It's the sort of change that you make an election or two in the future, and send a state ID team out to major polling places now, so people are prepared when your sensible change rolls around.
Obviously nothing is stopping the "straight community" from using fake names on Facebook. Look at how many people have more than one account.
It's only when someone complains that Facebook gets grumpy. In this case 1 individual spent their time targeting 200 people. Sounds to me like that 1 individual has a problem.
Also, many transgenders and transsexuals are members of the "straight community." The definition of "straight", for transgenders who are not transsexual is straight-forward (pardon the pun); "straight" for a transsexual is defined by their sexual preference in their target gender. For example, a male-to-female transsexual can be either "straight, bi, or lesbian," while a male cross-dresser can be "straight, bi, or gay."
Facebook has clarified their position so that you should use the name you're known by publicly. For example, "Billy-Bob" instead of "William Robert", or "Mary-Ann" instead of "Marienka Anastasia". You legally have the right to use the name you're know as publicly. All that's happened is that Facebook has acknowledged that the same applies to LGBT as to everyone else. Sounds to me like it IS about equal rights, not "special rights."
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.