Elliot Page's deadname -- the name he used before coming out as trans -- was trending on Twitter, defying the site's own policy on hateful conduct.
Alongside Elliot, his The Umbrella Academy character also came out as transgender with the new name Viktor in the newest season of the series. As a result, many commenters have begun purposefully misgendering and deadnaming Elliot on Twitter, resulting in his deadname appearing in the trending tab.
This is a direct violation of Twitter's hateful conduct policy, which states, "We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals."
Elliot's deadname originally trended when Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson targeted the actor in a tweet that later got the author suspended from the platform.
Peterson wrote amidst pride month celebrations and in reference to Viktor's transition on Umbrella Academy, "Remember when pride was a sin? And Page just had breasts removed by a criminal physician."
As a result of his suspension, Peterson released a video on Youtube where he continues to misgender and deadname Elliot, claiming the suspension would remain in place "unless I delete the hateful tweet in question, and I would rather die than do that."
Peterson's suspension caused an onslaught of hate towards Elliot, which resulted in his deadname appearing in the trending tab.
In a statement to Buzzfeed News, Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy said that allowing Elliot's deadname to trend was a mistake.
"The term you referenced should not have been allowed to appear in trends, and it has since been removed and prohibited from appearing in trends," Kennedy said. "Our teams are constantly evaluating our internal processes for mitigating this from happening."
"Elliot Page" later appeared as a trending topic, with much support from fans who defended him from anti-trans harassment.
Page has not responded to the events but instead shared on Instagram his first passport picture since transitioning. The caption read, "Never thought I would love a passport photo." ~Megan Parsons
Bunch of evil people with AR-15s killing innocent people, and here this idiot Peterson would RATHER die? Someone please introduce. them. Yes, this is hateful.
This is the only way she can get publicity now? The epidemic of our youth all thinking they are trans is sad.
What's sad are people like JazmineS trying to justify their hatred by accusing the actor of coming out as a publicity stunt.
Bunch of Nazis banning people that use common sense. Ellen Page is within her rights to ask to be addressed as a man, but everyone else is within their rights to accept or refuse to do so.
Whatever happened to free speech? Not everyone agrees with each other and once people start getting censored that’s when we need to worry. Peterson is free to speak his mind and we don’t have to agree with him but he still deserves a voice
Cool, so it’s ok for people to start rallies in the name of “Free Speechâ€, spreading hateful and dehumanizing behaviour that build and build until with have another Hitler? Until OUR rights to our own identities AND bodies come into question?!? That is the most DANGEROUS defence of free speech. You should respect others, their identities and their bodies. It’s the very least you can do as a human being. It doesn’t hurt you to be accepting.
I'm glad to see some ACTUAL common sense here as opposed to the reactionary libertarian neanderthals. @JazmineS: There is no epidemic and Elliott Page is 35, not a child. One of the characteristics of adolescence is defining their own identity (Erikson). They are often breaking away from roles that have been defined FOR them as they become autonomous adults. @R : As soon as you compare ANYTHING to Nazis you have lost any credibility, unless that comparison involves systematic euthanasia and genocide of 12 million people. Any other comparison is lazy hyperbole. @free speech: Freedom of expression only applies to protection from legal consequences, and even then it is not unlimited. Peterson hasn't been arrested or prosecuted for his views and he can still write or say those views. Because freedom of expression is a two-way street, people are also free to criticize what Peterson expresses. Freedom of expression doesn't apply to private enterprise. Social media outlets are businesses, not democracies. They have every right to control what is on their platforms, the same way that your employer has the right to fire you if you say or do things that could negatively affect their reputation. I can say that Justin Trudeau is too egocentric, that Doug Ford is Uncle Buck trying to be a serious politician, or that Jagmeet Singh is a naive idealist who will never be PM. It's NOT okay to publicly question Trudeau's sexuality just because he isn't an alpha male. That is nobody's business. It's not okay to go after Ford's physical appearance or Singh's race / appearance. All of those things are protected by the charter of rights and have no bearing on the job these men are holding. You can say what you want, but others are free to hold you accountable for it. Choices have consequences and Peterson's personal attacks on Page are hate speech.
It was a publicity stunt for the actress (tor) to come out. she (he) did not have to do so. its her (his) personal life. why does she (he) have to tell the whole world?
Thank you @Kevin for putting those points down so eloquently- that is PERFECT. I completely agree & wish more people would be wise enough to understand what you are saying so well.
Why call it a deadname why not call it retired name or original name, but deadname is just so horrible sounding. My only question is Elliot wants to be called Elliot wants to use pronouns he/him fine (they/them in my opinion is for group of people for person with multiple with multiple personalities) but if one’s referring to his earlier work when he was a woman I do think people are entitled to say Ellen was good in the movie juno, and she was kewl as an X-men.
I agree with R, that Ellen is within her rights to ask everyone to treat her as if she's a man now, and it's our right to decide whether or not we want to. I also agree that a lot of young people are now incredibly confused about their sexuality. They're bombarded with gay and bi characters in TV and movies. I'm really glad I grew up without this agenda being pushed at me day and night. Ellen, or Elliot, looks like a girl dressed as a little boy; she acts mostly like a girl, and sounds like a girl. She's about 5 foot tall and 90 pounds. I don't see why she didn't stay a lesbian, cut her hair, and continue to wear men's clothing like she did before. Why did she keep her hair long all these years and accept female roles when she felt like a man? And I agree with yeknom. If a single person wants to refer to himself/herself as plural (they/them), they should split in half and become twins. I will never refer to one person as they. I haven't got a problem referring to Elliot as he/him but I agree for his past, it should be she/her since she was playing female roles and was a female.
Jordan Peterson's opinion is NOT hate speech. It is a cogent argument and difficult to dispute; hence the name calling and branding his opinion as hate speech. if you truly believe differently, argue without the ridiculous name calling.
Jeffrey Dahmer just wanted to eat people; we should respect who he was. He was born that way. I guess the real tell will be if this Ellen chick ever goes to jail. Will they put him in male or female side? I mean, if you had the medical procedure: Addadictome, prob male. You're right, it's not an epidemic, it's a full-on plague. When I was 18, I too knew everything and was so very wise. It took years to figure that I knew very little. When kids spout off and use words like "boomer" it makes me laugh at their ignorance of life. Their opinion doesn't really matter that much anyway, as it is given to them by what the internet tells them to think. No real processing power... parotting. I do admire this Jordan guy, as he knows he is on the verge of being cancelled and still has the balls to speak his opinion, which many people find to be truth. IV IV IV looks very much like WWW. The internet was supposed to be a great learning tool, not the beast. Antichrist, coming to a theater near you!
Nicely said ted954. These people have no argument they just wanna cry about something.
I have found, like many of the people in these comments, that there seems to be a desire to shut anyone down who might have a question or concern about this issue. This truly does not help those who want to understand what is exceedingly complicated and could be helped with some degree of conversation and open debate rather than name calling. I personally do not agree or disagree with changing one';s gender, it is simply confusing, not easy to understand and unfortunate that debate and discussion is not allowed on this topic, both amongst friends as well as in the public sphere.
I always find it fascinating when people dehumanize another’s experience and act as an expert on their lived experience. Because I’m not trans, I have no clue what that experience would be like. If I’m not a complete jerk or a psychopathic narcissist, I might be curious enough about someone’s experience to ask someone in those shoes to teach me what they have discovered and what I might do to make their journey in life better and more fulfilling. However, we still have white people telling one another we aren’t racist, so it would appear the voices of people in the “T” community might be the very best to honor the weight of it and the lessons in resilience our country claims to celebrate. We seek to forget the greatest lesson of our history and the ways people we are not yet wise enough to love and honor always being disregarded in the conversations about their truth. We could save a lot of time by seeing every person different from us as a teacher first and a future friend
Oh look. Burn Gorman is upset again.
It IS a highly divisive, emotional, and as Pamela so astutely pointed OUT- COMPLICATED issue that cries out for calm, compassion, explanation and Dialogue, whatever side of the fence you come down on. I for one wonder if it boils down to the way we are overpopulating this planet and living too close together.....more like rats of viruses than as sentient, evolved beings. But it Does concern me, as to the Causes. Could it be just large-scale genetic degradation caused by environmental poisoning like radiation, heavy metals, plastics and the Hosts of other pollutants created by US?
Of course people are welcome to their own opinions, people trying to say they are being censored for their ideas are trying to distract from the issues or refusing to see the real issues. Repeatedly calling someone by a name they don't want used is hateful and lame and should be censored on private platforms that have terms of service you agree to. If he really had a point he would say it intelligently and respectfully. But of course that's not what it's about. It's about discrimination and forcing your beliefs on others. And there is no agenda to make anyone anything they don't want to be. The only agenda is that people are shedding the bigoted beliefs of the past and allowing people to be who they want to be.
Does she even act anymore? Or is she just a full-time victim now?