Touching on the recent controversy over Facebook's policy requiring that users employ their "real name" on Facebook accounts, Ellen DeGeneres gave the social media giant a chance to weigh in on the since-amended policy on her show Tuesday.
And even though Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasn't available to speak with America's favorite out daytime host, DeGeneres procured a statement nonetheless. With one of her staffers dressed up as "Facebook Vice President Josh Blankenship," DeGeneres secured an apology for specific drag queens who were affected by the policy.
The Ellen staffer, speaking inside the studio but pretending to be beamed in via satellite, can barely make it through the raunchy list of names which, at press time, aren't connected to actual drag queens -- though we fully expect "Wilma Fingerdoo" and "Angela Mansbury" to make their onstage debut in drag clubs throughout the country shortly.
Facebook's chief product officer, Chris Cox, did in fact issue an apology last week to those drag queens, transgender people, and others affected by the site's haphazard implementation of its policy, which suspended the accounts of hundreds of users flagged as not using their legal names. While Cox didn't specify the precise changes the policy would undergo, he did acknowledge that the site's enforcement of that policy was problematic and promised the company was "already underway building better tools for authenticating the Sister Romas of the world while not opening up Facebook to bad actors."
Sister Roma, a San Francisco-based drag queen and member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was among the most vocal of a group of LGBT people affected by the policy, as she planned several demonstrations at Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters and ultimately met with executives from the social network to secure the aforementioned apology and clarification.
Watch the Ellen segment below.