Facebook ‘Real Name’ Protest Rescheduled for 11 a.m. on Oct. 2 at San Francisco City Hall
Drag queens and supporters, headed by Sister Roma, had planned a protest last week at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park following the social network’s recent crackdown on drag queens using stage names on their profiles. In order to avoid the protest, Facebook officials agreed to meet with Sister Roma and a small group on Sept. 17 to discuss the matter.
Following the meeting, Sister Roma reported that Facebook had decided to give dozens of deleted profiles, removed for using names that we not real, back to their owners. These profiles, however, must “confirm their real identity, change to their legal names, or move to a fan page” in order to “comply to their unfair and discriminatory policy, and if not, [Facebook will] take them away again.” This was the only immediate success resulting from the meeting aside from “an agreement that they would continue to meet with us to further hear our concerns and work together to find a compromise.”
SEE ALSO: “This is Not Over!”: Facebook Won’t Change its Real Name Policy for Drag Queens
Yesterday, almost a week after the meeting, the Facebook event page that was being used to organize the initial protest updated its name to ‘Save The Date: #MyNameIs – Protest Facebook’s “Real Names” Policy! (Oct 2nd),’ with a new protest time and location. This time, instead of taking the issue to the Facebook headquarters, protesters are being ask to meet at San Francisco city hall at 11 a.m. on Oct. 2. The protest organizers are also hopeful that supporters who are unable to attend the San Francisco protest will work with them to organize protests in other cities as well.
More details will be released soon according to the Facebook event page.
9/24 UPDATE: We have been informed by Heklina that the protest is still postponed and that there is a second meeting scheduled with Facebook for Monday, Sept. 29.
Show solidarity for this cause by updating your Facebook profile picture to the picture below (click the image for the full-sized file) – #MyNameIs is the official hashtag of the cause, which you can use to join and follow conversations related to this issue on social media.
