After being the first trans man to grace the cover of TIME Magazine, Elliot Page has primarily been filming the next season of The Umbrella Academy while absolutely living his best life, if the thirst traps he’s posted on Instagram are anything to go by anyway.
However, those peaceful times were put on hold a short while today when his dead name began to trend on Twitter. For those who don’t know, a dead name is the birth name of a transgender person that they no longer use. Sadly for the star, however, his old name was plastered across social media after an old interview Page did with Stephen Colbert resurfaced online.
The interview took place on The Late Show back in 2019 before Page transitioned. He talked to Colbert about hate crimes, LGBT discrimination, and the now-infamous former star of Empire, Jussie Smollett. Smollett was in the news yesterday after being found guilty of felony disorderly conduct due to allegedly making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019.
While many people both misgendered and deadnamed Page as the clip circulated, many came out to support the award-winning actor, so much so that his name proper began to trend with far higher numbers.
MSNBC contributor Brittany Cunningham went so far as to suggest that Twitter should not have allowed his dead name to show up in the trending tab at all.
Another user seemed to agree, feeling it wasn’t okay for Twitter to let the harassment campaign continue. As Twitter updated its Hateful Conduct Policy back in 2018 to include “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals,” they have a point.
Author John Pavlovitz was far less polite to those deadnaming Page, choosing not to mince his words.
Now that the site seemingly took down the far more harmful name’s trend, Page can hopefully return to enjoying his life. We look forward to hearing more about his voice work soon on Ark: The Animated Series when more details emerge.