Comments Elsewhere

Look man, if someone changes their name and says they want you to use that new name, just fucking use the new name. It doesn’t matter whether or not you understand their reasons, or sympathize with their reasons, or whether or not you think they’re being weird. People change their names all the time, and people are weird all the time, and this is part of what’s great about people. And if you think that your being weirded out by their reasons for doing so is more important than your showing the most basic sorts of interpersonal respect toward them, then you need to ask what’s wrong with you that this bothers you so much. Not what’s wrong with them.