Why Are Drag Queens Going To War With Facebook?
Facebook might want to sleep with one eye open, now that it's gone and made an enemy of drag queens everywhere: The ubiquitous social-media platform is cracking down on performers who use stage names and forcing them to share their real identities on their Facebook profiles,.
Sister Roma, a member of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, says she's irked Facebook made her use her boy name. “I use this site to keep up with friends and simply don’t want employers or crazy stalker people to log on and search me,” she told SFist.com.
“I detest the idea of having a fan page," says Roma. "I’m not fucking Britney Spears. I have friends, not fans."
So why is Facebook giving drag queens and other performers with stage personae a hard time?
Money (duh).
The company will earn an estimated $12 billion in advertising revenue in 2014, based mostly on its ability to collect detailed and accurate information about users. According to Facebook policy, "the name you use should be your real name as it would be listed on your credit card, driver's license or student ID." (We'd hate to think where this leaves transgender Facebook members.)
Facebook says about 11.2% of its 1.32 billion user profiles actually represent "alternate identities, misclassified accounts or fake accounts used for spamming."
One legendary queen, Heklina, encapsulated what many feel: “Fuck you Facebook! If you weren’t so important as a marketing tool I would quit you.”
A cyberpetition urging Facebook to allow members to use their chosen names has garnered more than 11,000 signatures.
