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Facebook demands that drag queens use their real names

By Standard-Examiner Staff - | Sep 18, 2014

Drag queens all over the world have been up in arms since Facebook began deleting the profiles of all self-described drag queens.

A group of angry drag queens joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ David Campos, and met with two employees from Mark Zuckerberg’s company on Wednesday.

Facebook refused to back down despite previously stating that it “usually deletes accounts with fake names only after investigations due to complaints.”

Facebook grants a meeting to outraged drag queens over name policy. http://t.co/T3ARe06Fe9 pic.twitter.com/bQBncBQ0Y5

— SFist (@SFist) September 15, 2014

In the past two weeks Facebook has closed down hundreds of accounts around the world but have now reinstated them temporarily provided they follow the new rule: to change their name to their real name, or to convert their profile to a fan page.

The decision has angered users across the globe and not only drag queens. It has also provoked the creation of a new twitter hashtag #MyNameIs  

So my brother can call himself Scroo U Buckaroo on Facebook but drag queens can’t use their names?

— Stacey Burns (@WentRogue) September 19, 2014

Prominent Los Angeles celebrity writer and personality Jackie Beat has shown her fans how to migrate from Facebook to Google+.

Drag queens and others in the LGBT community say that many Facebook account holders fear using real names for a variety of reasons, including threats to their safety and employment. 

But even Lady Gaga has run into this issue and a search for “Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta” on Facebook will bring up Lady Gaga’s fan page. Germanotta has 67 million likes and now a notice says her real name “was merged with this page.”

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