How to get your “real” name back on Facebook as a Leatherperson, Drag Queen, Kinkster, etc.
Your results may vary.
Did Facebook force you to use your “Christian” name a year or two ago? If you’ll recall many of us: drag queens, leather persons and others, were forced to stop using the name we are known by in the community on Facebook due to their “Real Name” policy.
More recently Facebook has “changed” their stance and stated that they’ll start allowing people to use the names they’re known by in the greater community, however what they fail to mention is what happens if you were already made to change your name.
The fact of the matter is this could not be less transparent on Facebook’s part.
Facebook gives affected users NO information regarding a path to resolution, so we are left to our own devices and asking friends for advice on how they got it done. I hope that my process will work for you, but if it takes you different steps, please leave a comment, we’re all in this together.
For those of us who previously had to verify our names, they option to change your name is grayed out stating you can not change it once you’ve had to verify it once before. Most people accept that it must be impossible to get your real name back, luckily it’s not impossible. It is, however, extremely difficult.
I’d submitted a number of support tickets to no avail, all of them went unanswered. Finally, I asked a friend who had successfully gotten his name back for his advice. After about two weeks and probably 15 emails back and forth with Facebook’s Community Operations team, I finally had my name.
Here’s what I did:
Your first email:
To get the process started you’re going to need to send an email to “namesupport@fb.com”. This email should make your case as to why you must use the name you’re requesting, and state all the information they need to find your profile, and make it very clear the name you are known by in the community.
Here was my first email:
Now, you’ll notice I attached my drivers license. Before you ask, no, my drivers license does not reflect the name “Bull Stier.” Instead it reflects my legal name. However, your drivers license or any official form of identification with your photo and date of birth is important. They will use your photo and birthday from this identification to prove that you are the person reflected in this profile.
Tl;dr, put your drivers license or a government ID in your first email and the process will be MUCH smoother. Make sure to explain why it’s important that you don’t use that name, and none of that information will be put on your profile.
Supporting material:
You will need to attach supporting documentation to this email thread in order to get your name change requested. You can find the list of recognized documents here. In summary any physical (not web) document which shows you using your chosen name will help.
Personally I started with a magazine and piece of mail, however these were not enough. They continued to request more proof so I ended up in the end attaching a magazine, mail, business card, DragonCon badge, and CLAW badge, as well as my driver’s license.
I did try to use the membership page on the website for my local club which has my name and photo, however I was informed that websites are not considered “evidence” with regards to name changes. So, save yourself the time and don’t try it. Stick to paper.
This section is key, and you won’t get anywhere without it. Simply asking for a name will do nothing, you have to prove to Facebook that this is the name you’re known by in the community. The more supporting documentation you can give them the better.
In reality, if I had included all of this information along with the first email (see above), I likely would have gotten my name back in one try. The key here is to flood them with information and they will give you far less push back.
In summary:
Will this work for everybody? I have no idea, honestly. Like I said earlier, Facebook gives no guidance on how to do this as it applies to those affected by the sweeping deactivation of profiles a year ago which started with the Drag community.
You have to stay on top of them!
Just sending one email with this information and hoping it works will probably not work. Make sure that you keep emailing when you don’t hear a response. I usually gave them about 36–48 hours before I’d send another email saying something like “Emailing to confirm receipt of my previous email, is any further information needed? Thank you for your help! Bull.”
Doing this kept them in contact with me and kept me on their radar. Between the dedication to stay on top of the situation and providing a heap of supporting documentation, it should work for you.
With you always,
Bull
EDIT: I was advised that the email address was not working. That has been corrected to reflect the proper domain.
