LinkedIn Banned A Trans Woman For Using Her Preferred Name

At the end of Pride Month, trans YouTuber Sarah Burssty revealed on Twitter that LinkedIn had banned her account for not representing herself “authentically and truthfully” because she used her preferred name rather than her legal name. The Trust and Consumer Support Consultant who communicated with her, named only Shivam, said that this policy exists to ensure that profiles “accurately reflect” a user’s “personal and professional life,” and that her “appeal has been denied and your account will remain restricted."

In a followup email to Burssty following a further appeal, Shivam wrote, “We will not engage in any further discussion regarding this matter. Please note that this matter is considered resolved. Further requests related to this issue will not receive a response."

The YouTuber posted on Twitter that she was told “in no uncertain terms they are going to block all future communication with me,” adding that she was “really scared that this is going to impact my odds at the over 20+ businesses I applied to over the past couple of weeks that have my LinkedIn page on my resume. If the hiring department(s) see the dead link, they'll come to the wrong conclusion. This is really bad.”

Taking further to Twitter, she reached out to LinkedIn customer support numerous times, talking to several different employees via public tweets and private DMs in order to get an answer. While they all promised they’d look into the situation, she received no further communication.

Free Radical reached out to Burssty for more information. She recounted that the fiasco started shortly after she began using her account. “I started using my LinkedIn maybe a week, week and a half before I got banned. I was just using it to try and connect with some people.” Burssty, in addition to her work as a gaming YouTuber in which she uses the popular sandbox game Minecraft to tell original stories, also freelances as a graphic designer, social media manager, and video editor. LinkedIn proved to be a valuable asset, allowing her to connect with countless people in her industry. While she began to have good fortune in finding work, this didn’t last for long.

“Maybe I sent one too many connection requests, because I woke up one morning and for some reason my account was completely restricted. It said, ‘Please verify your ID.’ Now, I'm completely fine doing that, but I was worried that it wasn't going to get accepted because the name on my ID does not match the LinkedIn name — obviously I use my chosen name for business. And no one has yet complained about that; the HR departments and companies I've applied for have been okay with me using my chosen name.”

In spite of her worries, she complied, prompting the initial email from Shivam. She offered to prove herself as the owner of the account, but the LinkedIn representative instead indicated that she had not “truthfully and authentically” represented herself, including in her “professional life.”

“I literally am. This is the name I use on all of my job-and business-related stuff,” she remarked to Free Radical.

This prompted her to reveal the ban publicly. Numerous fans of hers attempted to reach out to LinkedIn on her behalf, going as far as to direct fake tech support questions at their Twitter before asking about the status of Burssty’s account. The official “LinkedIn Help” account deleted a boilerplate support reply it gave shortly after posting.

“It was an invaluable tool for me, especially going into media and that sort of business. Trying to get a job in media, you kind of have to be on LinkedIn — staying on top of that sort of stuff was becoming really useful because it actually ended up getting me a recommendation from someone at a company that I had applied to,” Burssty reflected. “I ended up not being selected for the position, but I was able to get an interview because of the fact that someone had seen my LinkedIn profile and flagged my application as being one of someone that they had recognized.”

In short, she summarizes, “If I don't have constant access to a LinkedIn account, I might lose out on further opportunities of that kind.”

Free Radical reached out to LinkedIn for comment. In response, LinkedIn representative Eleanor Crum wrote, “Thanks for reaching out and sharing these details. I’m going to look into this now with our escalations team.”

Less than a day later, Burssty received a message from LinkedIn confirming that her account has been reinstated with her preferred name. "You'll be able to use it moving forward on your account without further issues,” the message read. “I'll also be sharing your feedback and experience with our team so we can improve how these cases are handled in the future."

Free Radical reached out to LinkedIn to inquire as to what caused the new review. Crum said, “To protect member privacy, we can only share account details with the member. We have worked with them directly.”

“I'm glad my account is back and they're allegedly going to be using my experience as a template for future situations like mine, but at the end of the day it did hamper my job search,” Burssty told Free Radical following her reinstatement. “I most likely got passed over for my dream job in part because the LinkedIn account on my resume was a dead link. That's something that I won't easily be able to recover from, so I still have a bit of a sour spot towards them for their part in that.”

Her statement put a particular focus on how fortunate she was to get a positive resolution. “The problem is, there's so many people who have probably dealt with this and had no safety net, so I also feel for those who weren't able to get a second pair of eyes on their case.”

Other trans people report similar experiences to Free Radical. Madelyn, a trans woman who received a legal name change, described how even after her name was changed, LinkedIn refused to update the verification badge on her profile. In replies to Burssty’s posts, other individuals noted similar occurrences with LinkedIn.

This isn’t limited to just LinkedIn, too. Madison, who asked to only be referred to by her first name for anonymity, exchanged several emails with the payment service Venmo, in which they refused to update her account information with her legal name, resulting in repeated declines and weeks-long headaches. A user by the screen name of Suswave described Facebook putting them in a continuous loop of verification, even with their ID. A separate user, AshlaPike, detailed a similar issue involving Facebook requiring ID verification after reports for unrelated issues.

This even extends to specialized software. In a private exchange, a nonbinary physician — who has been granted anonymity by Free Radical due to career risks — described how the medical networking platform Doximity failed to let them use their preferred name and gender designation, leading to confusion when patients tried to look them up by the name they’re known as. They report this extending to public directories as seen on sites like US News.

While this experience is not uncommon in the trans community — especially in light of the widening persecution of trans existence in the clutch of fascism expanding worldwide — it nevertheless highlights the intense oppression experienced every day. Many times, the only way trans people can survive and get a decent job is to fight with everything they have to be recognized and accepted for who they are.

The solution will continue to lie with the community to protect our own. In instances like this, public pressure and continued outreach and solidarity often prove to be the only way these companies will take action to protect their users. Corporations and governments cannot be relied on to protect us, and in fact will be the first to fund our genocide. With how terrifying things may get, we are never going to truly be doomed. There are answers to questions of how to reorganize society in coming years — it’s time we acknowledge them.

Thank you to Ryan Fae (@ryan.staticnoi.se) for editing this article.