I shed tears of great joy
I'm no longer that boy
I'm free at last
From my lonely past
As I walk out the door
I know not what's in store
I will face each day
As I find my way
What ever it might be
I'm being me…
Corrine Jutz is an accomplished poet, having published 2 books of poetry (A Little Girl Growing, Spero Publishing, 2011 http://www.lulu.com/... and Boys Cry Too, Spero Publishing, 2013 http://www.lulu.com/.... She is a political advocate, a dedicated motorcycle rider with a large network of friends and family.
At 65, she is not your typical Midwestern woman struggling with all the issues that have befallen the middle class here in America. She self-identifies as transgender. Her journey, like most non-famous transgender folks, has been challenging. Gender dysphoria characterized her childhood in many ways. But as she grew into an adult, Bill, as she was known back then, became the woman she always knew she was meant to be. She chose the name Corrine Alaine and embraced her authentic self. While her life was not glamorous, it was hers, and for the most part, she was happy.
Coming out to family and friends years before took courage, but she was fortunate enough to find the acceptance and support that is not afforded to all. As social networking took hold, Corrine established a Facebook account in her name. Facebook became the pathway to social connections, political causes, and professional contacts - her keyhole to the world.
She is keenly aware that for many in the LGBTQA community, life is often unbearably hard. The rates of homicide and suicide in the community are precipitously high, giving some indication of the dangerousness of being transgender. For many who never find acceptance in life, who are never able to express themselves authentically, who never feel safe or even comfortable, life can be unbearable. Intimidation, harassment, and violence can rob people of the joys of life, sometimes, of life itself.
Last month, Facebook changed her chosen name of Corrine, to her “dead” name, William. Embarrassed and annoyed, Corrine appealed to Facebook, explaining the significance of her name and the devastating effect of their “real name” policy on her and people like her. At this point, Facebook has yet to respond or change her account name back.
For nearly a year, Facebook’s “real name” policy has emerged arguably as the single most disturbing corporate policy by a social networking giant to date. Despite protests, meetings and articles, Facebook continues to exert its own brand of torture upon the vulnerable populations that it serves.
First, let’s explore a little background. As the internet has expanded, it has provided a network of global communication so pervasive, it is unrivaled in human history. From personal social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Ello and others, people are able to connect and communicate, virtually cost free, with family, friends, business associates and those who share similar interests and hobbies.
The internet also provides on line services such as shopping, medical information, community events and educational resources. Another important group of services is that of political, cultural and economic opinion sites where anyone with an opinion, can write it down and put it up in cyberspace for their own little piece of infamy.
While each group does have unique goals, they are all brought together by services like Facebook, which, through their newsfeeds, and options for groups and pages, give individuals the power to connect with friends, buy new living room furniture, get an organic recipe to cure hives and check the latest news all while sipping their first cup of coffee. No doubt, in today’s world, staying connected to the internet is a critical part of one’s social, professional and community life.
Trolling is a phenomenon that involves sadist individuals posting hurtful words, sometimes information or pictures in response to those whose posts they don’t agree. There is currently quite a bit of research ongoing on trolls due to the alarming rate of occurrence and the virulent nature of the actions. Often trolling mimics on the internet the real life phenomenon we call bullying. In fact, trolling is often referred to as cyberbullying and its victims, predictably, are the same vulnerable populations we see in real life, women, LGBTQA community members, children and political organizations. The effects of trolling can be devastating, with suicides, stalking, and blackmail being the ugly results of cruelty protected by distance and anonymity afforded by the nature of this type of mass communication.
People have a variety of reasons for wanting to use the internet under an anonymous alias. For some, unfortunately, they use their anonymity to wreak chaos and destruction upon their chosen targets. For others, it is to protect themselves from cyberattacks, from cyberstalking, from doxing (having their personal information such as address and phone number exposed for further harassment and other diabolical acts). One of the most affected populations in this category are those transgender individuals who are currently being stripped of their protective layer by Facebook through its “real name” policy.
A little history. The policy was certainly derived with all good intentions, explained by Facebook spokesperson Andrew Souvall, ”… our real name standard, and we stressed how the standard helps prevent bad behavior, while creating a safer and more accountable environment…”1.
However, in late 2013, things changed dramatically when due to what was eventually revealed to be the work of a single person, hundreds of drag queens had their accounts suspended for using what was called fake or stage names. At the time, in a meeting held on September 2014 between drag queen activists and Facebook, Facebook agreed to change their policy, but in fact, did not follow up with it. 2.
Matters continued to escalate when in early June, 2015, Drag group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence demonstrated outside Facebook’s offices to protest the continuing use of the “real name” policy. In addition to the drag queen community, it was also noted by a spokesperson for the group, that native americans were also targeted 2. Indeed, domestic violence victims who often need to hide from their abusers, are also being forced to choose between their real names and their safety.
Late June, at the Pride Parade, protesters representing a campaign calling themselves, #MyNameIs carrying banners stating “Shame on FB” marched in front of the Facebook group after efforts to prevent Facebook from marching failed after Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened by calling event organizers. It is unclear what the nature of the conversation entailed, but Facebook is still carrying out its policy and blocking accounts it feels are fake names. 3.
Why does Facebook persist in its “real name” policy after it has heard from so many about the damage it is creating? Ello is a social networking site that is a smaller and less well known rival of Facebook that does allow aliases. According to Ello CEO Paul Budnitz, “Ello is not motivated by the needs of advertisers and data aggregators. Facebook’s policy is aimed at squeezing the most money out of its users by bullying them into using real names so they can more easily track them and sell their data.” 2.
Regardless of the motivation, Facebook’s inconsistent enforcement of their real name policy and their ban on violent speech has made it a troll’s delight and a playground for stalkers, bullies, transphobes and wife beaters. It has lead Jane Fae to pen an article entitled, “ Facebook is becoming a more dangerous place for trans and gender-variant people” in which she outlines the dangers of exposing innocents like transgender people and Native Americans while failing to curb violent speech, explicit threats and other intimidating behaviors.
For members of the populations mentioned, not using Facebook to connect with their world can result in social isolation, depression and even an increased risk of suicide. To target a group of individuals by insisting that they either compromise their safety to participate in activities offered to the world at large is unconscionable.
This article, aside from raising public awareness of the unfair and often dangerous “real name” policy of Facebook, is meant to draw attention and signatures on a petition calling on Facebook to cease their policy enforcement. Our power is in numbers. Please sign and share this petition on your Facebook feed, in your groups and on your pages.
Stand with Corrine and the others calling for the rights of privacy, of self-expression and of self-preservation.
https://www.change.org/...
1. http://www.thegailygrind.com/...
2. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/...
3. http://www.advocate.com/...
4. http://www.gaystarnews.com/...
Petition to sign for FB to stop their "real name" policy