Is Facebook engaging in gender cleansing? The editor of Frock Magazine and founder of Gender Society believes she is a victim of Gender Cleansing!
You may know my editor, a trans woman by the name of Katie Glover? Well, her personal Facebook account was disabled on July 12th 2011. After inquiring as to why Facebook informed her by email she she was kicked off because she is a "faker" for not using her "real" name presumably meaning the name on her birth certificate! Whats more, there appears no way for Katie to contest her being deleted!
RU A FACEBOOK Transgender FAKER TOO?
Not using your legal name? Then you might also see this next time you try and log on to Facebook:
Katie posted this on the Gender society forum this morning:
"July 13, 2011 10:28:23 AM BST
I tried to post a status update yesterday evening and discovered that I was logged out of Facebook. Upon attempting to log in I received a message that said my account had been disabled. The reason given was that I was a faker because I had not used my real name. They didn't mention my birth certificate but they obviously meant that I had not used my official male name (ie the one on my birth certificate).
No warning was given and there was no way to appeal. In fact, I could not find any way of contacting Facebook at all.
I have done nothing wrong. My only crime is being a TG person. It took me years to build up all the contacts I had on Facebook and I used it every day to communicate with them as part of my work for this community and also for Frock Magazine. Losing Facebook is akin to losing my hard drive and everything on it. This is yet another serious blow for me and I'm not happy.
However, it could just be the thin end of the wedge. I would guess that the vast, vast majority of TG people who have Facebook accounts use their femme name rather than their male name. What are the implications of this for them? This action raises a lot of questions...
Have Facebook set a precedent by kicking me out?
Will we now see the bulk cleansing from Facebook of all trans people who refuse to use their male names?
Does this mean that Facebook is transphobic?
Have they just declared war on the worldwide trans community?
Over to you...
Hugs, Katie x
This post was edited by Katie Glover at July 13, 2011 10:28:23 AM BST"
As we all are aware many trans people do not use the name on our birth certificates. Many of use use pseudonyms or preferred names on facebook. Its just part of the transitional experience. Some find ourselves unable to transition past a certain point, some are happy at a transitional point that does not include legal name changes.
These are personal reasons and not are not offensive or illegal!
Take Action!
Join the Facebook page demanding they reinstate Katie Glover's personal account!
Sign the Change.org petition telling Facebook to reinstate Katie's facebook account.
5 comments:
Katie will need to file an appeal by filling in the form at https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=191093220938115#!/help/contact.php?show_form=disabled
I expect Katie is an unintended victim of Facebook's new policy. My guess is that they are insisting on no pseudonyms because "real" names can be identified in real life (especially if you have also given them your address) and are therefore worth a lot of money to them. Ironically this would mean that Katie's present name is more valuable to them than any past name she used as it is the one she can be most identified with in the "real" world.
The amount of work involved in finding out that a name that is a normal name is not the name on a person's birth certificate is so great that I would also assume that Katie has been the recipient of a malicious complaint to Facebook by a person unknown.
By the way, MadPriest is not the name on my birth certificate.
I agree with MadPriest about being the victim of a malicious complaint. I'd wager that not just us transfolks, but a great many others on FB don't use the name on their birth certificate. For instance, the name on my birth certificate isn't "Jami", either. I'm not trying to hide anything by using a shortened nickname. I'm just not all that fond of my actual first name.
MadPriest is your real name and I have pictures to prove it LOL. MP, (is that member of parliament) in my opinion she was deleted because she posted about the Moscow Pride in Frock.
If anyone still cares, shit got worse. In 2011, Facebook could suspend your account for using "fake name". What they do in 2014?
They demand that you send them a photo ID with your "real name" on it.
I'm pissed off, and I'm just not all that fond of my actual name.
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