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Because I see that a previous addition of Laser's birth name was removed last year by an IP user, I wanted to preemptively provide my justification for re-adding it. Per MOS:GENDERID, "In the case of a living transgender or non-binary person, their birth name or former name (professional name, stage name, or pseudonym) should be included in the lead sentence of their main biographical article only if they were notable under that name." And Laser was notable under his birth name; this article existed for two years prior to Laser's transition, and he was included in the article under the name he used at the time. DavidK93 (talk) 21:08, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Side note: the article would greatly benefit from more recent images, as all images appear to predate Laser's transition. That's an area of editing I've never ventured into. DavidK93 (talk) 21:11, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I see the argument you're making, but I would like to suggest a distinction that seems relevant. You are correct in saying that Laser was known by his deadname for several years after this article was created. I do not, however, believe that he was independently notable, but only as a member of the Doubleclicks. If somebody had tried to make an article for him in his own right during that period, it would have been speedy deleted. I also don't believe that people would have gone to Wikipedia to look him up by name until he transitioned and started his solo act. (As opposed to, e.g., Elliot Page in the linked policy, who would have been looked up by name, and still might be by film viewers who are unaware of his transition.)
With that being the case, I agree that the band name "The Doubleclicks" was and is notable; I'm less convinced that Laser's deadname was notable and needs to be included now. (But also I am biased and will leave any action on this to neutral parties.) — Waffle Czarina (talk) 04:32, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think you have made a valid point and identified a genuine distinction that isn't explicitly addressed in the guidelines. I still maintain my original position, but acknowledge that it would be good if the guidelines could be amended by consensus to reflect this issue. Let me show you my thinking with respect to this and the existing guideline. MOS:GENDERID states, "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." My understanding of this is that we shouldn't use a reliable source to confirm the birth name of a transgender person who was not notable prior to transition; i.e., the birth name should not be treated as a sourced (or sourceable) piece of information in its own right. But in this case, we are using reliable sources to provide valid article content about Laser, including pre-transition, relevant to his involvement in the article subject. A great deal of biographical and professional information about Laser is sourced to articles that never mention "Laser Webber." Because of that, I believe it's necessary to connect Laser to his birth name (with a single mention and without undue weight) for the verifiability of correctly used sources. DavidK93 (talk) 16:00, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]