The Radical Faeries, one of the more idiosyncratic groups at San Francisco’s Pride, said the festival should dump Facebook as a sponsor because of the company’s ban on adopted names.
The policy was unfair to LGBT people who use adopted names to avoid homophobia or to express their true identity, they said.
“I don’t like anybody telling me who I am or have to be,” said Storm Arcana, 42, seated on a rug in the Faerie Freedom Village, a colourful camp near city hall.
“That’s anathema to my essence. I’m self-defined and self-described and that is my right.” He objected to Facebook sponsoring Pride. “There’s too much of a contrast between what they represent and what we represent.”
The strangest thing about this report is that I know Storm, and seeing him show up in the Guardian was entirely unexpected. (I do think the no-adopted-name thing on Facebook is problematic, though.)