I think the issue is people getting hung up on the gender identity, not the name. I have known lots of people who go by preferred names, whether chosen themselves or given to them by friends as nicknames. Hell, there are a few people I knew for years only by their preferred name/nickname without realizing it wasn't their given name.

And stage names make a lot of sense from a practical standpoint. Being famous by your given name can make it hard to separate professional life from personal life.

I feel silly now for not realizing that was a stage name.

I straight up thought her actual name was "Whoopi".

Historically they didn't give a fuck about a lot of things until they are searching for reasons to hate someone or a group of people.

Take drag performance... drag is an ANCIENT tradition in Western theater that goes back into Ancient Greece. Name a comedian active in the black and white film era and I will show you a drag performance they made. Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, they all did it, and exactly no one told them it was wrong.

If you know anyone who is anti trans but goes by a nickname, start calling them by their given name. Doug, you're Douglas. Alex, you're Alexander or Alexis or whatever. Bill: William. Ted: Rafael (might only apply to one Senator).

JD Vance isn't a real name, and that's cool. Apparently.

this dint start until conservatives,right wing groups started pushing the anti-trans narrative. which was pretty recent, like within 5-10years. nobody gave a poop about it til trumps 1st term. Now everyone is either afraid, or freaks out over names that should be ONE sex or the other, or gendered, plus this also applies to characther names in movies and shows. there was one trek show that made it forced and wierd, like that is making statement.

They don't seem to mind that JD Vance has had a bunch of different names.

Change your name to make yourself more palatable to a wider audience? Good.

Change your name to make yourself more palatable for yourself? Bad, apparently.

Actors and actresses have to register their name with a guild and sometimes change it because it is too close to another previous actor's name or they don't want to show their nepo roots or whatever reason.

So to just skip that problem they make up a registered stage name. Not that it lends any more authenticity but rather there is a structural professional reason that they do that.

And I have no problem with people using any name as long as they don't mock me for needing help spelling it.

Going back a ways bigots had a problem with both Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) and Kareem Abdul Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) but were fine with John Wayne (Marion Morrison).

Not a gender-identity thing, but I met my best friend when I was 12. We didnt have any classes together so I never heard his name called out in the register.

Wasn't until we were having a drink at 18 that I realised I didnt actually know his real name.

The name is never the problem, it's that the person with the name exists that people get so butt hurt about

Don't make the mistake of assuming the stances they take and the words they use are genuine arguments given in good faith. They will manipulate language and make claims just to achieve their own ends. They don't care about consistency. There is no goalpost they won't move. You can't convince them they are wrong using words.

Not really.

The people who have an issue with that, don't have an issue with Rafael Cruz making up a white name.

They just don't like people transitioning.

You're implying transphobia is a common view.

This one is a hard one, as a cis-gender male, I don't go by my real name. If someone calls me by my birth name I wouldn't even know they were referring to me.

I think its more to do with gender rather than names, that and the will to be cruel, of course.

Its okay to have a different name as long as your conservative.

Just ask Rafael Edward Cruz, famous Texas Magician who disappears everytime things go bad for his constituents.

I think having a cute stage name is something people accept after you're famous.

I'm gonna come in with maybe an unpopular hot take. I have no problems people being trans or choosing a name that suits your preferred gender, but--perhaps because of the repression earlier in life--it seems there is often an... aggressively creative search for names?

I know about 8 MtF people (0 FtM for some reason?), and they are not picking mainstream names like Mary, Samantha, or Norah for example. Eris, Athena, Cybelle, Malice, and Laika are 5 of the 8 names chosen. It's not a problem, you pick it and I will use it, but it IS jarring. I'm not making excuses for transphobia because that's stupid, but it is strange to me to ostensibly want to blend in with everybody else, but then choose a name that obviously marks you out? It's like the line between choosing a name for your heroine DND character and for yourself is suddenly completely erased and it's absolutely your right, but as an outsider it's honestly kinda weird.

I support a parents right to pick names for their kids, but aeslyn and breeleigh and brandaeden are weird names. Same for people who pick their own names regardless of gender identity. If you pick a name that is kinda weird... well it's kinda weird.

I was only ok with the fake name of Guynan.

Whoopi suck. Guyana, helped picard saved humanity.

I recently learned that Charlie Sheen's birth name is Carlos Irwin Estévez.

That's the problem.

Gender change is a premium feature, how dare ypu, peasant!

chooses a name

Whoopi

And it's not something new or anything like that. There are lots of cultures through history in which people choose their own names or alternate names throughout their life for a variety of reasons.

The only people that have a problem with people changing gender is religious people that think that a fictional god assigned them a gender at birth, because their god knows and controls everything, so can never, ever, ever, ever be wrong about anything. Ever. Like a person's gender. So they hate everyone that questions their fictional hate book. Because it takes them a lot of work to live in that weird, fictional religious reality they want to so badly.

Be whatever gender you want to be. I'll call you whatever you want, but at least stick to it for a bit.

I've never encountered or noticed this problem that you mention.

I can't even see an issue with choosing a name that suits their gender, whatever that may be..

Is this really such a big deal irl?

🔥🔥🔥

The main difference is that nobody considers referring to Whoopi Goldberg as Caryn Elaine Johnson a hate crime.

She has stated that her stage forename ("Whoopi") was taken from a whoopee cushion: "When you're performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So if you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoopi_Goldberg

TIL it was a fart joke.