Commentary on how Google+ and other social networks could go further to improve security and utility for trans* members, especially those whose gender presentation or public persona changes in different contexts:

practicalandrogyny:

practicalandrogyny:

Google responds to privacy concerns and gives the option to hide the gender field on your Google+ Profile.

If you hide your gender, Google uses singular they pronouns when talking about you.

So you can now proudly show ‘Other’ as your gender or have a selectively secret binary gender, happy in the knowledge that Google only shows it to trusted people you opt in to telling.

As an added bonus singular they as gender neutral pronouns are treated as universal (can apply regardless of gender), giving yet more precedent for this usage.

Great job Google!

NB, the YouTube video has closed captions for deaf and HoH people, just click ‘CC’ on the bottom bar.

This is a good start but Google can do better. They could easily allow a write in field to display for gender when you select ‘Other’, that would help non-binary gender people from feeling literally othered.

The most serious and pressing issue is the privacy of names though. Next Google should make it their priority to allow Google+ privacy controls for your name. Google+ profiles should allow multiple pseudonyms or AKAs and let you choose who you display each to. The names we go by are a serious privacy issue for trans* people that can threaten our safety, privacy and job prospects when some cross gender.

Critically, it’s important that Google allows people to change what their primary name appears as to different people. Transgender safety can be severely impacted by outing the name you’re known as legally to people who have only ever encountered you by your chosen name. Many trans* people work as one name and socialise as another, or even work under their chosen name without changing their documentation.

If Google is serious about privacy they’ll allow people to use gender neutral, obviously chosen pseudonyms or nicknames as their default display name while reserving their legal name and the name or names they’re known by in day to day life for trusted circles. This could just be a matter of practicality - some circles of friends may know you as one name, others as another. What different circles of friends, family and colleagues know you as can and will vary. Allowing multiple names can be a practical issue as much as a privacy and safety issue.

If Google doesn’t think people use different names in different places, or doesn’t think people are genuinely known by different names by different people as a matter of life (or livelihood) threatening safety, they’re seriously naive.

* The asterisk at the end of ‘trans*’ denotes that this is the wider inclusive form of trans that includes all transgender, genderqueer, gender variant and gender non-conforming people regardless of gender identity or expression.