"[T]there is a big difference between a 'real' name and a 'legal' name. Our real name (or names) is our identity, our legal name is just something we use to interact with the state. Certainly for many, they are the same, but for many others they are hugely different. A name that may not be a legal name certainly need not be 'fake'!." -- Marla Louise, 2014-09-15
[Yes, for anyone who asn't heard in the last few days, nymwars started up again, this time with Facebook making Google's painful mistake. I guess it's time to repeat this and this again.]
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They did do some harm though, not just with the Google+ names policy, but with their "unify folks' multiple identities for them" tricks. Some trans folks who weren't G+ users but had separate identities in chat and email and YouTube discovered that they were outed to coworkers by Google before they were ready to come out. I do not know whether they've also reversed that decision or not ... nor whether there's any way to separate things out again for the folks who had their multiple online identities merged by surprise.