Johnny-No-Bones

Names of transgender people

Please note that Wikipedia does not follow a blanket policy of always memory-holing the former names of transgender people — rather, people who established their notability under their former name before coming out as transgender have to be handled differently than people who became notable after transitioning.

In the case of Barbra Amesbury, for example, all of the songs that constitute her actual basis for notability were recorded under her former name before she transitioned — so a person who reads the article, and then attempts to find the songs on a streaming platform or request them from the oldies radio station, is going to fail to find them at all if they don't know what name they were actually recorded under. So in that case, the rule is that we do mention their former name, and just exercise caution not to overuse it any more than necessary. Yes, somebody like Laverne Cox can be treated differently, since she became notable only after transitioning and thus has a stronger basis for claiming privacy rights over whatever her name was before she transitioned — but if a person was already notable under their former name and then comes out as transgender later on, we have to mention the former name so that people can actually find the work and understand the references that used that name.

Please exercise more caution to understand the difference between these two situations in the future: people who established their notability under their new names after coming out as trans have to be treated differently than people who established their notability under their old names and then came out as trans later on. By comparison, we're not disappearing "William Bruce" from Caitlyn Jenner's article either, because her fame was established under the name Bruce before she came out as trans. Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 23:38, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Concerning your recent edit, please stop removing the original names of people. Thanks. Nigos (t@lk • Contribs) 08:40, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

My apologies! I am a relatively new user here, and I failed to consider the consequences of deleting such information. I will refrain from making similar edits in the future, and I hope that I have not caused too much inconvenience. [[User:Johnny-No-Bones|Johnny-No-Bones] (talk)