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.
