Honestly considering Lynn Conway’s Wikipedia profile mentions being a transgender activist and not knowing much about either of them, I thought maybe I’d just missed that John Conway had transitioned at some point, and had now died.
It really doesn't help that the Wikipedia page doesn't currently appear to state the former name anywhere, like it often does for other people (like celebrities) who legally change their names at some point in their lives.
> If a living transgender or non-binary person was not notable under a former name (a deadname), it should not be included in any page (including lists, redirects, disambiguation pages, category names, templates, etc.), even in quotations, even if reliable sourcing exists. Treat the pre-notability name as a privacy interest separate from (and often greater than) the person's current name.
So, now she has passed away, it is allowed by policy to add her birth name to the article (assuming it can be reliably sourced, etc)
> Generally, this policy does not apply to material concerning people who are confirmed dead by reliable sources. The only exception would be for people who have recently died, in which case the policy can extend for an indeterminate period beyond the date of death—six months, one year, two years at the outside.
So some might argue that, due to WP:BDP, WP:DEADNAME still applies in the period immediately after her death – but in 2027 it won't (assuming Wikipedia leaves its policies unchanged)
This is in keeping with their gender identity guidelines.
> Former, pre-transition names may only be included if the person was notable while using the name; outside of the main biographical article, such names should only appear once, in a footnote or parentheses.
I guess the point is that she, herself, was not notable at that point, since her work was not widely and publicly known. Otherwise we'd already know her pre-transition name.
There's a whole set of criteria for when Wikipedia will and will not list former names for people who transition, which boils down to whether they achieved notability under the old name. Which Lynn did not.
There's a conversation to be had about whether the decisions Wikipedia has made about prior names and consistent use of pronouns in the biography of trans persons is the correct one for an encyclopedia. But this is definitely not the place or time to have that conversation.
she had to go to significant pains to conceal her former name because it revealed her former sex, and trans women are at significant risk of getting lynched, even more so 50 years ago
Obviously homicides are bad, and life isn't yet a bed of roses for the trans community but ... as far as I know the trans homicide rate in the USA is lower than the cis one, unless you make strong underreporting assumptions [1]?
yes, in the usa right now things are not bad; they have improved dramatically, especially in the last ten years. still, even within the usa, i think the statistics you're looking at are skewed by a variety of demographic factors
