Earlier this year the mega reference site IMDB was chastised for listing the birth names of transgender members of the entertainment industry without their consent. The practice is known as “deadnaming”, the outing of their birth names can bring about stress and possibly lead to harassment and discrimination.
“In response to feedback we received from our transgender customers and other entertainment industry thought-leaders, IMDb has recently updated our birth name policy,” an IMDb spokesperson said in a statement given to Deadline. “IMDb now permits the removal of birth names if the birth name is not broadly publicly known and the person no longer voluntarily uses their birth name. To remove a birth name either the person concerned or their professional industry representative simply needs to contact IMDb’s customer support staff to request a birth name removal.”
The spokesperson continued, “Once the IMDb team determines that an individual’s birth name should be removed subject to this updated process, we will review and remove every occurrence of their birth name within their biographical page on IMDb.”