#HisNameIsAlex

About

#HisNameIsAlex is a hashtag used in response to a viral TikTok video of a mother deadnaming her son Alex and encouraging his followers to do the same. The video spread on Twitter and TikTok in mid-August 2020 and caused his mother to be fired from her job. TikTokers continued to update viewers on Alex's situation despite his deleted social media accounts but there has been no proof of Alex's safety.

Origin

On August 15th, 2020, Twitter user @MylesToGo5825 shared the since-deleted TikTok video of TikToker @gay_c0splay of and his mother captioned, "To anyone that sees this, we need you. A video surfaced recently on Tiktok of a mother brutally deadnaming, misgendering, and insulting her transgender son, and encouraging those close to him to do the same. This is child abuse. This is how children die #hisnameisalex #imlikealex" (shown below). The video gained over 44,300 views, 1,800 likes and 1,100 retweets in five days.

Spread

On August 15th, 2020, Twitter user @hisnameisalex1^[2] tweeted, "#HISNAMEISALEX Ok guys. I’m jsut here to spread some information about what I know on Alex. His ‘mothers’ full name is Tash R Fuller. She works at Hugry Bear Murfreesboro Tennessee. According to some people CPS has been called. Let’s hope this young man can make it out safely" (shown below, left). The tweet garnered over 220 likes in five days. A Change.org^[5] petition was created and closed gathering over 172,600 signatures in a few days. That same day, Fuller's employer Hungry Bear in Tenessee posted to their Facebook^[3] account and received over 1,600 reacts (shown below, right. The post reads:

Regarding the recent actions of one of our (now terminated) former employees: We heard and responded to the concerns. Their actions never had our support, we definitely wouldn't condone that behavior, and not sure why anyone would think that we would. Once it was reported to us we took action. We have done everything we can in this situation and now we just hope and pray that we can remain open. These are already troubled times for restaurants and small businesses. The negative reviews, because of someone outside of our business, are damaging our reputation and ability to operate. We hope for the continued support of the local community, and to not lose our new business.

That same day, Twitter user @lovevenustas reposted the video censoring Alex's deadname and said, "#HISNAMEISALEX please stop sharing the uncensored video of this abusive, transphobic mother sharing her child's deadname to all of his followers please amplify HIS name, ALEX. not his deadname this is censored. use this please. keep saying HIS name. thank you" (shown below). The tweet accumulated over 6,600 likes and 4,300 retweets in five days.

On TikTok, many people shared the hashtag in support of Alex. TikToker iiilunamoon.cos cosplay video gained over 22,900 likes in five days (shown below, left). The next day, TikToker alphabetmafia shared a video about using the uncensored original video and received over 19,700 likes in four days (shown below, right). In the video, the TikToker also claimed that because CPS was called Alex is now safe.

On August 16th, Twitter user @PastelGalaxyBo1^[4] tweeted, "PLEASE READ!!!! WE DO NOT KNOW IF ALEX IS SAFE! It has been brought to attention that his s/o has no proof of Alex being safe and multiple of Alex’s friends have stated that no one can get in contact with him KEEP SPREADING ALEX AROUND! TAG BIG CREATORS! #hisnameisalex" (shown below). The tweet accumulated over 520 likes in four days. The Daily Dot^[1] published an article on the viral video.

#HerNameIsDanica

On August 20th, 2020, 4chan users began posting to /pol/^[6] calling on others to spam the hashtag #HisNameIsAlex with the hashtag #HernameIsDanica and images of trollfaces to fill the gallery on Instagram (shown below). The next day, Twitter user @htrscke^[7] tweeted, "i was informed by my friend that trolls from 4chan had flooded the tag with an image of deku with a board saying "His name WAS Alex" or "Her name is ****" in instagram, it is people misgendering and deadnaming alex in their posts. The same picture is posted so many times, the+."

Twitter user @htrscke^[8] continued in a thread to share a screenshot of the flooded Instagram hashtag gallery (shown below, left). That same day, many Instagram users took back the hashtag by posting illustrations of Alex that typically include the trans pride flag and the text "His Name Is Alex" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References