This notion? Right here? Needs to stop.

I’m not even going to touch all the other stuff that folks have already touched on as to why supporting this person is Not Great.

I want to talk about this.

This system would be extremely harmful for countless people.

Thread: (1/7)

This will harm people who are attempting to escape abusers. This will harm people who are struggling under oppressive systems. There’s so many facets of harm here that I couldn’t begin to list all of them. (2/7)

One facet, that I am intimately familiar with, is how this will harm LGBT folks.

Many LGBT people will find support online, especially young people with unsupportive families. Having a “real ID” attached to your online experience can make it so you cannot have an online (3/7)

experience at all. Having your real identity attached will out you to all of your friends and family, which could be harmful to the point of abuse, assault, or even death.

What about trans people? If we have to go by our “real” identity, how many of us who haven’t had any (4/7)

legal changes will have to tolerate deadnaming and misgendering online? An incredibly helpful and affirming thing for trans people is the room to experiment and play and have people refer to them with names and pronouns they’d like to try before committing to. (5/7)

That’s exactly what I did. I participated online under various names and trying he/him pronouns for years before actively going “okay... let’s take this offline” because I NEEDED to be sure. And I NEEDED to engage online with support groups/communities and resources sans my (6/7)

“real” identity. My identity is real, regardless of it it’s legal. Forcing people to participate in this form of system can outright strip them of their real identity.

(Which btw, will open people up to harassment and bullying.)

Trans people are tired of repeating this. (7/7)

“But it says handle!”

Cool. What happens when someone unsympathetic leaks your “real” identity? What if your abuser works for (insert platform here)? What if (platform) gets hacked?

But yeah, sure, let’s give every online everything access to our legal documentation. Smh.