In an effort to "keep our community safe," Facebook has started enforcing a requirement that people to use their real names on its social media network, enraging many in the drag queen community.
Drag queens have started a petition against the policy in an attempt to get it changed.
"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," reads the petition.
Michael Williams, known as Sister Roma, is a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an LGBT organization that does drag performances that has been around since the late 1970s. Roma was suspended from using the social media network until she changed her profile to match her legal name, even though she had been using the name Sister Roma since 2008.
"I was automatically logged out and told my account was suspended because it appears that I'm not using my real name," Roma said in an interview. "I was instructed to log in and forced to change the name on my profile to my 'legal name, like the one that appears on your drivers' license or credit card.' "
Despite the move toward using legal names as opposed to stage names, Facebook has been trying to appear sensitive to nonconforming identities, even rolling out gender-neutral family options.
While it seems as though the rule primarily affects drag queens, in reality there is a much larger scope of people that could be affected by it.
"This isn't just a matter for nightlife performers, this is a matter for actors and musicians, as well as folks who have chosen a different name simply to avoid potential stalkers," said drag queen Cherry Sur Bete.
Despite the outrage, Facebook has stood firm on the issue, maintaining that it is for the safety of the community. According to the social network, there are other ways that the drag-queen community can express themselves on Facebook.
"If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a Page specifically for that alternative persona," said a spokesperson for Facebook.
The spokesperson continued, saying that the policy was aimed at reducing abusive comments on the social media network and that those with high profiles typically use pages rather than personal profiles anyway.
Drag queen's argued that it is rather difficult to raise the profile of a public page without giving Facebook money for advertising.
