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What is deadnaming, and how to avoid it

Phys251

Purge evil with Justice
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The glossary, as well as the rest of the document, was written by trans journalists, a fact that happens to coincide with lesson number one: Listen to trans people.

A trans person’s given or former name that they no longer use, also often referred to as a “given name” or “legal name.” … While deadname is usually a noun, it’s also used as a verb to refer to the act of using the wrong name for a trans person.

Deadnaming is far more than simply calling a person by the wrong name. It can also have a significant impact on a trans individual’s well-being. “We choose names that are correct for us. And often, our legal name, deadname, former name isn’t appropriate for trans people,” Oliver-Ash Kleine, a journalist and founding member of the TJA tells Lifehacker. “It takes away our autonomy. It takes away our right to self-determination, and often undermines our gender, and our identity. It’s really unaffirming, and it can be quite distressing.”

(I)t also should be unnecessary for us to spell out why you shouldn’t deadname someone. You should use a person’s chosen name because it is the name they have chosen—it the very least you can do to show them respect.

Not deadnaming a trans person is so simple. All you have to do is change the name by which you refer to them. We do this all the time with last names; why not extend this to first names?

Unfortunately, some people are stuck in their gender dogma and refuse to call trans people by the name that they have taken. You wouldn't want to be misnamed; why would you deliberately misname someone else?
 
Serious question- did Bruce Jenner win Olympic gold or did Caitlin Jenner?
 
Serious question- did Bruce Jenner win Olympic gold or did Caitlin Jenner?

Perhaps you should actually read the article before making comments such as those.

If that is too much to ask of you, let me help you by restating a quote I already highlighted:

lesson number one: Listen to trans people.

And don't even try the freeze peach argument. This is about educating yourself and making the world physically safer for trans people.
 









Not deadnaming a trans person is so simple. All you have to do is change the name by which you refer to them. We do this all the time with last names; why not extend this to first names?

Unfortunately, some people are stuck in their gender dogma and refuse to call trans people by the name that they have taken. You wouldn't want to be misnamed; why would you deliberately misname someone else?
As someone who changed what I prefer to be called several times since grade school--example: going from William to Bill and finally settling on Pete--I get it. Call people what they wish to be called.
 
**** Ellen Page and the delusion she rides.
I am not going to be a participant in her delusion and mental illness.

WWTD
 
Yet something else modern liberalism gets dead wrong.
 
Perhaps you should actually read the article before making comments such as those.

If that is too much to ask of you, let me help you by restating a quote I already highlighted:



And don't even try the freeze peach argument. This is about educating yourself and making the world physically safer for trans people.
Perhaps you could address my VERY SPECIF instance. I personally think it's strange to posit that a woman accomplished what Bruce Jenner did and it strains reason to expect people to talk about this particular Olympian as if HE at the time was actually a woman who beat men at multiple events.
But blah blah blah virtue signal and just expect everyone to swallow such insanity without question. Too bad. you won't speak on merits.
 

Not deadnaming a trans person is so simple. All you have to do is change the name by which you refer to them. We do this all the time with last names; why not extend this to first names?

Unfortunately, some people are stuck in their gender dogma and refuse to call trans people by the name that they have taken. You wouldn't want to be misnamed; why would you deliberately misname someone else?

No sweat off my back on this. Trans persons have a lot to struggle with and I don't need to make it my mission to add to it. Using a different pronoun and name is easy and it doesn't even mean you agree they are the opposite sex. It just means you're being considerate.
 
Serious question- did Bruce Jenner win Olympic gold or did Caitlin Jenner?
Not the same thing, but a context that might be better understood; If a married woman who had taken her husbands name won an Olympic medal but later divorced and reverted to her maiden name, would you continue to call her by her ex-husband's name? And if there was someone who really objected to divorce and so deliberately called her by her ex-husband's name, despite (or because!) of any distress that caused her, would you support them?
 
Not the same thing, but a context that might be better understood; If a married woman who had taken her husbands name won an Olympic medal but later divorced and reverted to her maiden name, would you continue to call her by her ex-husband's name? And if there was someone who really objected to divorce and so deliberately called her by her ex-husband's name, despite (or because!) of any distress that caused her, would you support them?
I don't quite agree with your analogy. We're talking about biological sex here, not marital status, which for many female Olympians, has changed.
My point is, a man, male, xy chromosomes won those medals, not a female. The attribution to a woman seems strange.
I have and will continue to refer to Bruce Jenner as Caitlin, as she likes to be called now. But I'm not finding logic or reason in referring to the Olympian who competed and won against other males, as a female.
I just can't bend my brain around that one.
 
I don't quite agree with your analogy. We're talking about biological sex here, not marital status, which for many female Olympians, has changed.
My point is, a man, male, xy chromosomes won those medals, not a female. The attribution to a woman seems strange.
I have and will continue to refer to Bruce Jenner as Caitlin, as she likes to be called now. But I'm not finding logic or reason in referring to the Olympian who competed and won against other males, as a female.
I just can't bend my brain around that one.

As humans, we find it comfortable to sort reality into boxes. Trouble is, reality doesn't always conform to those boxes.

It's OK if this all doesn't make sense yet. But you've got to be willing to let it make sense.

Best place to start is by listening to trans people. Those who choose to speak out will show you the way, if you'll let them.
 









Not deadnaming a trans person is so simple. All you have to do is change the name by which you refer to them. We do this all the time with last names; why not extend this to first names?

Unfortunately, some people are stuck in their gender dogma and refuse to call trans people by the name that they have taken. You wouldn't want to be misnamed; why would you deliberately misname someone else?

Deadnaming is not one-dimensional.
Some people just forget.

But yes, the TACTIC itself is both disrespectful and potentially dangerous.
Deadnaming when used as a tactic is a form of aggression, you're basically telling a person that they do not exist as a human being in their present form.
A classic example is Bob Tur, (now known postop as Zoey Tur) owner of Los Angeles News Service, who I worked for briefly way back in the 1980's.
During a televised appearance, pundit Ben Shapiro tried to "deadname" Zoey Tur and she wasn't having any of it.



Ben Shapiro certainly wasn't putting Zoey Tur in danger but a committed homophobe with skewed political aspirations could be counted on
to morph this into a form of terroristic threat by leveraging manufacture of consent and demonizing/otherizing folks like Tur in public.
 
I absolutely, positively, do not care...
 
As humans, we find it comfortable to sort reality into boxes. Trouble is, reality doesn't always conform to those boxes.

It's OK if this all doesn't make sense yet. But you've got to be willing to let it make sense.

Best place to start is by listening to trans people. Those who choose to speak out will show you the way, if you'll let them.
As I said, I recognize Caitlan as Caitlan and out of respect, refer to her as a her. But don't expect me to erase the fact that a man, Bruce Jenner, was on my Wheaties box.
 
Interesting article in the OP. It does bring up a question similar to what Arcadia asked in post 2. Do transgenders who are famous expect history to be rewritten to reflect their current names? In the case of Arcadia's question, did " Bruce Jenner win Olympic gold or did Caitlin Jenner? As far as I know no one knew Jenner was a transgender. It makes no sense to go back and change Olympic records. Bruce won the gold. History can show that Jenner became Caitlin later in life.

Maybe such an article guide should be written for transgenders on how to talk with people who are not transgender and may not accept them.
 

Not deadnaming a trans person is so simple. All you have to do is change the name by which you refer to them. We do this all the time with last names; why not extend this to first names?

Unfortunately, some people are stuck in their gender dogma and refuse to call trans people by the name that they have taken. You wouldn't want to be misnamed; why would you deliberately misname someone else?
Actually not so simple, as some might believe. A lot depends upon how long one has been using the previous name, as well as how mentally flexible they are. Mind you that lack of "mental flexibility", as a I called it, is not an indication of one's intent towards the trans individual. You can be highly supportive of them and their transitioning, but still have issues getting your mental paths to change over to the newer name. For some if the name is too close to the old one, such as going from Joan to John, it makes it harder. For others the opposite, going from Alex to Heather, is harder. Some people can easily shift names, but not pronouns, especially if they are not the standard ones.

The biggest issue is not whether a person deadnames, but if there is ill intent behind it. Too many people are vilifying those who make errors as opposed to refusal to change. Personally, if you harp on me for a mistake, instead of a gentle correction, I would be more apt to shut down on efforts. Anyone who can't respect that I can make a mistake doesn't deserve the respect of having their preferences met. If you make an effort with me, I will give you all I can.
 
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