Facebook Refuses To Change Name Policy After Meeting with Drag Queens, Temporarily Restores Deleted Profiles

Facebook Refuses To Change Name Policy After Meeting with Drag Queens, Temporarily Restores Deleted Profiles

Mtg

After the social network begin enforcing its ‘real names’ policy, requiring that all users go by their legal name online, drag queens who found their accounts shut down were in an uproar and successfully set a meeting with Facebook to discuss the policy. That meeting, also attended by openly gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rudy Campos, took place today and did not result in any change on Facebook’s part. The AP reports:

Facebook said it will keep the accounts active for two weeks so people can decide whether to provide their real names.

Several drag queens and Supervisor David Campos said at a news conference at San Francisco City Hall that they are disappointed that Facebook didn’t change its policy after the two sides met for about an hour Wednesday. Campos said Facebook has agreed to another meeting.

According to The Bay Area Reporter, Campos also added, “After an hour of discussion, we have yet to hear from Facebook they agree the policy is wrong.”

Meanwhile, Sister Roma, one of the most vocal drag queens who has been opposing Facebook’s policy, said she was ready to mount a large-scale protest if necessary, saying, “We’re always ready to go.” For the drag queens and for Mr. Campos, Facebook’s policy represents a real danger for many at risk minorities:

“They’re claiming they’re trying to create a safe environment,” but [Roma] and others have heard from people who have escaped abusive spouses and “the only outlet they have is through Facebook.”

[Heklina] said safety is a concern for her. “I have crazy family members” who she doesn’t want to be able to find her. […]

Advocates said that LGBT employees at Facebook have been pushing their cause, and Roma said, “There are people on both sides of this issue within the company.” […]

“This issue is way bigger than a bunch of drag queens complaining because we can’t use our stage names,” Roma said in a news release. “This policy is discriminatory and potentially dangerous to a variety of Facebook users, including abused and battered women, bullied teens, political activists, sex workers, and especially members of the transgender community; all examples of people who use pseudonyms to ensure their safety and privacy.” 

(Photo via Twitter)


Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/09/-facebook-refuses-to-change-real-names-policy-after-meeting-with-drag-queens-temporarily-restores-hu.html

Facebook's Name Policy Won't Accept Chase Nahooikaikakeolamauloaokalani Silva

Facebook's Name Policy Won't Accept Chase Nahooikaikakeolamauloaokalani Silva
Chase Nahooikaikakeolamauloaokalani Silva has a bone to pick with Facebook.

Last week, the social media platform froze Silva’s account because of a policy that suspends accounts suspected of fake names. Facebook says they want you to “always know who you’re connecting with,” and the policy was enacted to help “keep our community safe.”
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But his 29-letter middle name is real and the site doesn’t make it easy for him to prove it.

“That’s my name,” Silva wrote in a Facebook post, shortly after he was alerted to make the change. “I am a proud Hawaiian who wants to be able to display my Hawaiian given name.”

Story continues below…

The lengthy name, Silva told HuffPost, means “to be strong and draw strength from heaven above.” His great-grandmother who spoke the Native Hawaiian language fluently selected it for him.

He shortened it on Facebook to just the first letter to appease the policy because he said there was no easy way for him to access his account without first making the change. Then, there’s a series of informational pages and links that lead to a form where users can submit approved documents to confirm their identity.

“We’ve always required that people use their real identity on their Facebook profiles,” Andrew Souvall, a representative for Facebook told HuffPost in an email, adding that people tend to use “fake names to engage in bad behavior” online. “We also recognize that a person’s real identity is not necessarily the name that appears on their legal documentation,” he said, “and that’s why we accept other forms of identification.”

Facebook’s recent policy implementation caused an uproar among performers and drag queens in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community who identify with their stage names online and in real life. After a group of LGBT activists threatened to protest outside of Facebook’s San Francisco office, company officials agreed to discuss their concerns.

Silva, a self-described “proud gay male,” doesn’t plan on contacting Facebook to prove his name, and he says he shouldn’t have to. He believes that Facebook shouldn’t tell its 829 million active users daily what names they can and cannot use.

“Facebook should not be able to dictate what your name is, what you go by, what you answer to,” he told HuffPost. “Aside from the LGBT community, there are rape victims, abuse victims, even teachers, who use aliases because they don’t want people to contact them. It’s a protection of your identity.”

For Silva, his full, given name is a “badge of honor.”

“It’s not a standard name, obviously, in America’s eyes,” Silva, who was born and raised on Oahu before moving to Seattle in 2008, “but that’s the name that I’m proud of.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/facebook-chase-nahooikaikakeolamauloaokalani-silva-_n_5833248.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Michigan AFL-CIO: ““Discrimination is Not Only Unfair and Un-American, It’s Anti-Competitive”

Michigan AFL-CIO: ““Discrimination is Not Only Unfair and Un-American, It’s Anti-Competitive”

Today Michigan AFL-CIO, a longtime supporter of a fully inclusive nondiscrimination bill, reiterated in an op-ed for The Detroit News its full-throated support of amending the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/michigan-afl-cio-discrimination-is-not-only-unfair-and-un-american-its-anti?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Philly Drag Queen Gives 9/11 Performance As Muslim Woman In Bomb Jacket

Philly Drag Queen Gives 9/11 Performance As Muslim Woman In Bomb Jacket

10435127_1475865512663551_1790013103464129376_n (1)Members of Philadelphia’s LGBT community are outraged this week following a local white drag queen’s September 11th performance, during which she apparently dressed as a Muslim woman wearing several bombs in what could be considered a “bomb vest.”

The performance was given by Ariel Versace (right) at an installment of Voyeur Nightclub’s annual “Drag Wars” competition, hosted by Drag Race veteran Mimi Imfurst

The weekly show is described asRuPaul’s Drag Race meets The Voice” and operates much like Drag Race — several queens compete in lip synch challenges every week until one is crowned as the winner.

Last Thursday, contestant Ariel Versace took to the stage in what has been described as “Muslim garb,” holding toy bombs and wearing a vest that included a handful of toy bombs as well.

Though unconfirmed by the venue and show host, a disgruntled drag fan tells us that someone in the audience — perhaps involved in the performance — had also flown paper airplanes onto the stage, which were intercepted by Versace as part of the performance.

A drag fan tells us:

[Ariel] made a complete mockery out of the 9/11 tragedy by dressing up in Muslim garb and wearing bombs…As a former New York queen, I can’t believe [Mimi Imfurst] would allow such a production to not only go on, but then push through. More ridiculously, Jiggly Caliente, another NYC queen performed that night.

In response to a Facebook status on Mimi Imfurst’s wall earlier that day, Ariel seemed to know beforehand that her performance may not be received well. “I’m. Going. To. Hell. For. Tonight.,” she wrote:

Screen-Shot-2014-09-16-at-1.47-edit

At least two photos showing Ariel Versace in the offensive “Muslim garb” were posted to a Drag Wars photo album on Facebook but were removed before time of posting. We’re told by the photographer that they were taken down at Ariel’s request.

Screen Shot 2014-09-17 at 4.05.04 PM

Art is subjective, but response to the offensive performance has been almost unanimously condemned on Facebook. Several Facebook fans have called the performance “disgusting,” “classless,” and “distasteful.”

Ariel Versace had not responded to multiple requests for comment at time of posting. A photo of the performance, as well as conversation regarding it, can be found below. If you have other photos or videos of Ms. Versace’s performance, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Photo via Facebook

Queerty Editor

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/WGDze0jtE_Q/philly-drag-queen-gives-911-performance-as-muslim-woman-in-bomb-jacket-20140917

NEWS: House Vote on Syria, ‘Encyclopedia Madonnica', Bangladesh, James McAvoy

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Sean Mandell

www.towleroad.com/2014/09/zachary-quinto-on-james-francos-interest-in-gay-subject-matter-my-feeling-about-james-in-particular-is-that-hes-someone.html