Among those impacted: Polly Filla Drag queens and performers are locked in a battle with Facebook over its insistence they use their 'real' names. Auckland drag diva Tess Tickle is among those who were locked out of their accounts, but has since managed to convince Facebook reactivate it after protesting and sending in a few official documents from her business. Expat Kiwi Polly Filla, who now lives in Melbourne, has been forced to set up a fan page for her alter-ego so she can change her personal Facebook page to her real name. “I have almost 5,000 friends, I have used your site for paid advertising, I have been performing for over 18 years, and I have a Wikipedia page (that I didn't write) - AND YOU SUSPEND MY ACCOUNT BECAUSE "IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE NOT USING YOUR REAL NAME,” Polly has raged, adding “grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” Drag queens all over the world are facing similar issues, with Sister Roma of San Francisco’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence telling the Daily Dot she was automatically logged out and told her account was suspended because it appeared she was not using her real name. “In light of the new demand by Facebook that we use our ‘real’ names I am considering shutting down my personal page to concentrate on my ‘FAN PAGE’. I update it and interact as much as I can but I detest the idea of having a fan page. I'm not fucking Britney Spears. I have friends, not fans. At any rate, please follow me there cause this profile may be coming to an end.” A petition called Performers are People Too has been signed by 11,000 people. Organiser Olivia LaGarce says: “Although our names might not be our ‘legal’ birth names, they are still an integral part of our identities, both personally and to our communities. These are the names we are known by and call each other and ourselves. “We build our networks, community, and audience under the names we have chosen, and forcing us to switch our names after years of operating under them has caused nothing but confusion and pain by preventing us from presenting our profiles under the names we have built them up with. “People we have known (or who have known us) for years are unable to find us, communicate with us, or recognise us in our Facebook interactions now.” LaGarce points out many Facebook users, performers or otherwise, use names that are not their ‘legal names’ to help protect their privacy and anonymity, “with good reason. Victims of abuse, trans people, queer people who are not able to be safely ‘out,’ and performers alike need to be able to socialise, connect, and build communities on social media safely,” she says. “By forcing us to use our ‘real’ names, it opens the door to harassment, abuse, and violence.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 15th September 2014 - 8:32am