Christin Scarlett Milloy reports on the case of a black, Deaf and disabled trans woman, Kylie Brooks, who, after having successfully advocated for change to local Toronto services whose policies forced trans individuals “out” publically, then found herself the target of Facebook’s “real name” policy.
““Kylie” is a woman’s name and her account identifies her as female. However, in her profile picture, she appears as a black person who would commonly be read as masculine, with short hair, and a bearded face. Brooks is trans, and someone who works for Facebook has looked at her profile photo and decided she doesn’t look “Kylie” enough.”
The irony of an anonymous employee many thousands of miles from Kylie being empowered with the discretion to control her name and access to her community is repugnant.