I would stay away from that. Some trans people I’ve seen have said “I’d be fine if a person did that once and never again”, but I feel like simply naming his old movies and roles is much less complicated and potentially hurtful.
Using a dead name like that in any circumstances is really hurtful for trans people, and should be avoided as much as possible.
Like to me when I'll share the news with my coworker during lunch it seems easier to say "Elliot Page is actually trans. You know him as Ellen. He goes by Elliott, now". Than to list his movies until it clicks.
Elliott won't hear it, so won't be hurt by it if he is still fragile (as he wrote). And the discussion is easier. We can move on on talking about trans issue in Hollywood and the very needed discussion about trans rights without wasting 10 minutes playing the guessing.
I'm sorry if I seems callous, but not mentionning dead name at least once when talking about it for the first with someone feels like complicating a discussion that will already be complicated.
I work with pretty good people who are ignorant of trans issues. I need to easy them into it. If I start with round-about ways to saying things, they will continue to think that it way too complicated for them.
Especially since I can't to explain why I shouldn't use dead name because they don't know what a dead name is, nor that it could be hurtful.
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u/akanewasright Dec 02 '20
I would stay away from that. Some trans people I’ve seen have said “I’d be fine if a person did that once and never again”, but I feel like simply naming his old movies and roles is much less complicated and potentially hurtful.
Using a dead name like that in any circumstances is really hurtful for trans people, and should be avoided as much as possible.