Hollywood star Elliot Page comes out as trans (deadname Ellen Page)

[T'Chenka]

IMDB actor profile:
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0680983/

The pride and joy of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada got his first big break on Trailer Park Boys and you might know him from the 2005 film Hard Candy, the 2010 film Inception or the Netflix show The Umbrella Academy.

This is arguably the biggest hollywood film star to ever come out as trans, at least during their career and not afterwards. Do you have any thoughts? Please discuss.

[T'Chenka]

My first thoughts:

- Good for him.

- I remember thinking that he looked amazing in his topless scene in Into The Forest, so I would probably feel uncomfortable with the memory of thinking that if I wasn't LGBTQ.

- My lesbian co-worker has a crush on him and is homophobic against bisexual people. She only likes hetero and homo people but is prejudice against bisexuals. She will now have to live with the knowledge that she has fantasized about a man. I'll try not to rub it in.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

It's great to see more positive representation for my community, although can news outlets please stop referring to him using his deadname in the literal headlines? Like, I get it makes it a little less confusing, but it doesn't make it right.

[bagelman]

huh I thought "Elliot Page" was this new actor, possibly with a family relation to Ellen.

[T'Chenka]

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheElliotPage/status/1333820783655837701

...

... he said "latinx"...

...

I still love him. Nobody's perfect. The rest of the tweet is awesome.

[Middle-aged Europe]

It's great to see more positive representation for my community, although can news outlets please stop referring to him using his deadname in the literal headlines? Like, I get it makes it a little less confusing, but it doesn't make it right.

huh I thought "Elliot Page" was this new actor, possibly with a family relation to Ellen.

Unlike actress Ruby Rose, who I know identifies as genderfluid and who at least publicly contemplated the possibility that she might undergo transition to male at some point in the future, yesterday's news about Elliot Page came as a bit of a surprise to me. (Case in point: If you go to Elliot Page's own newly renamed Instagram account you'll still find a posting from November 2 there, advertising an Instagram live event with "real life superheroes Ellen Page and Edafe Okporo".)

Insofar I find it totally okay, even necessary, to make some sort of reference to his deadname in news articles because that's the name he had made movies und TV shows under for the past 20 years. Otherwise people will certainly start to ask "huh, who is this??? what the hell is going on?". One could debate whether this reference should be made right in the headline or at some point in the article (I saw one news article in Germany which tried to somehow circumvent the issue by using the headline "Hollywood star Page comes out as transgender", omitting any first name). And obviously, it would weird, even inappropriate, if media news outlets still refer to him as "Elliot Page, the actor formerly known as Ellen Page" six months from now. The reference is only necessary as long as the fact that a gender/name change happened constitutes actual "news" in itself.

Anyway, I wish him well and all the best. Certainly also some form of milestone for the trans community to have a representative of such prominence in public life now.

[bagelman]

It's great to see more positive representation for my community, although can news outlets please stop referring to him using his deadname in the literal headlines? Like, I get it makes it a little less confusing, but it doesn't make it right.

huh I thought "Elliot Page" was this new actor, possibly with a family relation to Ellen.

Unlike actress Ruby Rose, who I know identifies as genderfluid and who at least publicly contemplated the possibility that she might undergo transition to male at some point in the future, yesterday's news about Elliot Page came as a bit of a surprise to me. (Case in point: If you go to Elliot Page's own newly renamed Instagram account you'll still find a posting from November 2 there, advertising an Instagram live event with "real life superheroes Ellen Page and Edafe Okporo".)

Insofar I find it totally okay, even necessary, to make some sort of reference to his deadname in news articles because that's the name he had made movies und TV shows under for the past 20 years. Otherwise people will certainly start to ask "huh, who is this??? what the hell is going on?". One could debate whether this reference should be made right in the headline or at some point in the article (I saw one news article in Germany which tried to somehow circumvent the issue by using the headline "Hollywood star Page comes out as transgender", omitting any first name). And obviously, it would weird, even inappropriate, if media news outlets still refer to him as "Elliot Page, the actor formerly known as Ellen Page" six months from now. The reference is only necessary as long as the fact that a gender/name change happened constitutes actual "news" in itself.

Anyway, I wish him well and all the best. Certainly also some form of milestone for the trans community to have a representative of such prominence in public life now.

especially for FtM who are far less represented in popular culture.

[Samof94]

It's great to see more positive representation for my community, although can news outlets please stop referring to him using his deadname in the literal headlines? Like, I get it makes it a little less confusing, but it doesn't make it right.

huh I thought "Elliot Page" was this new actor, possibly with a family relation to Ellen.

Unlike actress Ruby Rose, who I know identifies as genderfluid and who at least publicly contemplated the possibility that she might undergo transition to male at some point in the future, yesterday's news about Elliot Page came as a bit of a surprise to me. (Case in point: If you go to Elliot Page's own newly renamed Instagram account you'll still find a posting from November 2 there, advertising an Instagram live event with "real life superheroes Ellen Page and Edafe Okporo".)

Insofar I find it totally okay, even necessary, to make some sort of reference to his deadname in news articles because that's the name he had made movies und TV shows under for the past 20 years. Otherwise people will certainly start to ask "huh, who is this??? what the hell is going on?". One could debate whether this reference should be made right in the headline or at some point in the article (I saw one news article in Germany which tried to somehow circumvent the issue by using the headline "Hollywood star Page comes out as transgender", omitting any first name). And obviously, it would weird, even inappropriate, if media news outlets still refer to him as "Elliot Page, the actor formerly known as Ellen Page" six months from now. The reference is only necessary as long as the fact that a gender/name change happened constitutes actual "news" in itself.

Anyway, I wish him well and all the best. Certainly also some form of milestone for the trans community to have a representative of such prominence in public life now.

especially for FtM who are far less represented in popular culture.

Elliot Page should not be deadnamed!!! Netflix has updated everything.

[Middle-aged Europe]

It's great to see more positive representation for my community, although can news outlets please stop referring to him using his deadname in the literal headlines? Like, I get it makes it a little less confusing, but it doesn't make it right.

huh I thought "Elliot Page" was this new actor, possibly with a family relation to Ellen.

Unlike actress Ruby Rose, who I know identifies as genderfluid and who at least publicly contemplated the possibility that she might undergo transition to male at some point in the future, yesterday's news about Elliot Page came as a bit of a surprise to me. (Case in point: If you go to Elliot Page's own newly renamed Instagram account you'll still find a posting from November 2 there, advertising an Instagram live event with "real life superheroes Ellen Page and Edafe Okporo".)

Insofar I find it totally okay, even necessary, to make some sort of reference to his deadname in news articles because that's the name he had made movies und TV shows under for the past 20 years. Otherwise people will certainly start to ask "huh, who is this??? what the hell is going on?". One could debate whether this reference should be made right in the headline or at some point in the article (I saw one news article in Germany which tried to somehow circumvent the issue by using the headline "Hollywood star Page comes out as transgender", omitting any first name). And obviously, it would weird, even inappropriate, if media news outlets still refer to him as "Elliot Page, the actor formerly known as Ellen Page" six months from now. The reference is only necessary as long as the fact that a gender/name change happened constitutes actual "news" in itself.

Anyway, I wish him well and all the best. Certainly also some form of milestone for the trans community to have a representative of such prominence in public life now.

especially for FtM who are far less represented in popular culture.

Elliot Page should not be deadnamed!!! Netflix has updated everything.

Well, it's good that Netflix does that, and it certainly wouldn't be okay to insist calling Elliot Page by her deadname as a means to ignore and deny her status as a transgenderd person (because this is why the practice of deadnaming is ultimately considered harmful or disrespectful). But as I tried to point out there exist certain... limitations... in totally avoiding "deadnaming" trans people, at least when it comes to previously known celebrities.

Case in point: IMDb. It's standard policy on IMDb to list not only one's birth name, but all previous/alternate names and aliases an actor has been credited with in movies at any point of his career. This is why Charlie Sheen's birth name is given as "Carlos Irwin Estevez" and his alternate names as "Carlos Estevez" and "Charles Sheen" (he was credited as "Carlos Estevez" in Machete Kills and for some reason as "Charles Sheen" in a couple of movies he did in the late 90s).

This practice has so far been also extended to transgendered people, since Matrix director Lana Wachowski's birth name is given as "Laurence Wachowski" and her alternate names as "Lana & Andy", "The Wachowski Brothers", "Larry Wachowski", "The Wachowskis", and "the Wachowskis" (same thing also applies to her sibling Lilly Wachowski, obviously).

It is therefore not surprising that IMDb uses the same practice with Elliot Page. Birth name: "Ellen Grace Philpotts-Page", alternate names: "Ellen Philpotts Page", "Ellen Page", "Ellen Philpotts-Page". In fact, as it is also happens to be standard practice on IMDb, Elliot Page's deadname is listed behind every individual movie credit of his (e.g. "Juno: Juno MacGuff (as Ellen Page)"). This does in fact look a bit weird, since Elliot Page's deadname now appears way more often on that page than his new name, but it is IMDb's standard procedure for processing an actor's bio and career information.

[Lambsbread]

I'm incredibly happy for him and I've been happy to see the response from a lot of people. Just goes to show that representation matters.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The deadnaming issue is a serious and not self-evidently solvable conflict between LGBT community etiquette and journalistic best practice. "Actor Elliot Page comes out as trans" is not going to be a meaningful headline to just about anybody because as far as the general public was concerned there was no "actor Elliot Page" before the last couple of days. Insisting that the media is obliged not to clarify that this is the person formerly known as Ellen Page is akin to when people insist that headlines are obliged to name random Malawian schoolgirls who build power generators.

[darklordoftech]

When I first saw the headline, I thought someone who was known as Elliot had come out as male-to-female trans.

[PSOL]

He needs to seriously fire his agent stat, the last few roles he’s been in haven’t been good at all, especially the travesty that was the Umbrella Academy (even though he did great given the poor writing).

[HisGrace]

As others have said, that this used to be Ellen Paige is the story here, so there's no way to talk about it and not mention that. It's not like this is some random reference to a high profile trans person and the old name is being dropped in for no reason.

[afleitch]

As others have said, that this used to be Ellen Paige is the story here, so there's no way to talk about it and not mention that. It's not like this is some random reference to a high profile trans person and the old name is being dropped in for no reason.

I mean it's the same person, who always was Elliot Page.

Given that Elliot is well known, it was entirely possible to say 'Elliot Page, star of Umbrella Academy and Juno...' without dead naming and if people still can't work out who they are, then Google is your friend. If anything, it's a privilege (not the right word) to be well known enough that you don't have to be dead named. That isn't the case for those coming out to family and friends and then being referred to in various tense.

[Alben Barkley]

As others have said, that this used to be Ellen Paige is the story here, so there's no way to talk about it and not mention that. It's not like this is some random reference to a high profile trans person and the old name is being dropped in for no reason.

Yeah all this pearl-clutching over "deadnaming" is ridiculous. It would be like never mentioning that Caitlyn Jenner used to be called Bruce Jenner when covering that story. Especially when it's a new development, you just can't expect people to forget what the person used to be called overnight. It takes some time to get used to a change like that. Also there's something weirdly revisionist about saying something like "Caitlyn Jenner won the men's decathalon when she was 25, then she posed for Playgirl magazine." Like obviously when that stuff happened, everyone knew "her" as a man named Bruce, so it's just odd to read stuff like that. Nothing wrong with referring to someone the way they want to be called from now on, but you can't change the past.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

My thoughts are:

- I had no idea who E. Page is or what a deadname is before today.

- Good for him, anyways.

[HisGrace]

As others have said, that this used to be Ellen Paige is the story here, so there's no way to talk about it and not mention that. It's not like this is some random reference to a high profile trans person and the old name is being dropped in for no reason.

I mean it's the same person, who always was Elliot Page.

No he wasn't. Paige might have always felt like a man on the inside (not sure if he commented on that) but the name change only happened yesterday. Muhammad Ali wasn't "always" Muhammad Ali.

[7,052,770]

As others have said, that this used to be Ellen Paige is the story here, so there's no way to talk about it and not mention that. It's not like this is some random reference to a high profile trans person and the old name is being dropped in for no reason.

Yeah all this pearl-clutching over "deadnaming" is ridiculous. It would be like never mentioning that Caitlyn Jenner used to be called Bruce Jenner when covering that story. Especially when it's a new development, you just can't expect people to forget what the person used to be called overnight. It takes some time to get used to a change like that. Also there's something weirdly revisionist about saying something like "Caitlyn Jenner won the men's decathalon when she was 25, then she posed for Playgirl magazine." Like obviously when that stuff happened, everyone knew "her" as a man named Bruce, so it's just odd to read stuff like that. Nothing wrong with referring to someone the way they want to be called from now on, but you can't change the past.

Agreed. There was a big Wikipedia controversy a while ago over which name should be listed on this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1976_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_decathlon

I think it's pretty obvious Wikipedia got it right. Jenner was known as Bruce then, and that's what the article should say. It's equivalent to this other page Wikipedia gets right, referring to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Lew Alcindor, as that was his name at the time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_NCAA_Men%27s_Basketball_All-Americans

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

It wouldn't be a problem if names weren't gendered to begin with. My sister-in-law is named Buford, tho she generally goes by the nickname Buffy, and did so long before the vampire slayer was even a passing thought in Josh Whedon's mind. (Buford was an old family name her parents wanted to use and they weren't certain whether or not they'd have any more kids; they didn't.) So she, and she's definitely a she of the Katharine Hepburn variety in both personality and looks, does occasionally have to deal with gender confusion because of her name. Without gendered names, there would be no reason for transpersons to have deadnames. Rant aside, our language is what it is, tho for an Indo-European language it is fairly minimalist in its use of gender.

[John Dule]

Stopping in to remind everyone that Juno is one of the worst films ever conceived by a human and every copy of it should be destroyed.

[T'Chenka]

Stopping in to remind everyone that Juno is one of the worst films ever conceived by a human and every copy of it should be destroyed.

I only saw it in theaters when it came out and barely remember it. I do remember it being slightly disappointing, but I was 18 then and I wasn't a good amateur film critic back then. My main problem if I recall was the script.

[John Dule]

Stopping in to remind everyone that Juno is one of the worst films ever conceived by a human and every copy of it should be destroyed.

I only saw it in theaters when it came out and barely remember it. I do remember it being slightly disappointing, but I was 18 then and I wasn't a good amateur film critic back then. My main problem if I recall was the script.

Yes. It's a nonstop upchuck of terrible puns, cutesy wordplay, and witless one-liners. It's as though someone tried to write a script using nothing but Tumblr-isms.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

For full disclosure, I actually have several different monikers meant to serve different functions in navigating my own extremely unstable and contested relationship with my gender, and I do get a little upset when one is used in a social setting in which I prefer to use another. Thus I definitely wasn't attempting to claim in my previous post in this thread that the LGBT community etiquette around this subject is wrong somehow, only that in the specific context of journalism I can see why the imperative to make it as clear as possible to the general public who and what is being discussed would be a countervailing consideration.

[T'Chenka]

For full disclosure, I actually have several different monikers meant to serve different functions in navigating my own extremely unstable and contested relationship with my gender, and I do get a little upset when one is used in a social setting in which I prefer to use another. Thus I definitely wasn't attempting to claim in my previous post in this thread that the LGBT community etiquette around this subject is wrong somehow, only that in the specific context of journalism I can see why the imperative to make it as clear as possible to the general public who and what is being discussed would be a countervailing consideration.

IMO you articulated that rather well earlier. Now that being said, if your Atlas post went viral on Twitter for some strange reason, I'm sure a potchfork and torch mob would find some way to infer bigotry from it. SJWs are why we can't have nice things.