if you a cis person are ever confused why a trans person wouldn't wanna tell you their deadname; i'm gonna give you a scenario in which you can understand and empathize with
let's say you were bullied as a young child, very young child. these people created a nickname for you that was really cruel to sort of mock and ridicule you. people just started calling you that instead of your real name to the point where it just became your nickname naturally. you stopped trying to correct people, and it's just what you go by. but it leaves an awful taste in your mouth. you have this nickname that is seemingly innocent sounding but it was given to you to make fun of you. but now it's been so long that people call you it without even knowing where it came from, but you still feel the impact from it. even though it's an innocent name
you finally get away from the town you grew up in that you earned the said nickname and you can abandon the nickname for good. you can go by your real name, introducing yourself with no fear of hearing someone call you that dumb nickname again. but you fear someone from your old life will show up and just tell everyone that name and that the new people in your life will then start calling you it too, abandoning your actual true name for a nickname that is nowhere near who you are
and so one day people find out you had a horrible nickname, not the nickname itself but just the fact you had one. they ask and pester you to tell them what it is. you wouldn't want to, would you? you'd think about it, contemplating it... "do i tell them this nickname? the name i don't even want to think of? what if they abandon my actual name for this godforsaken nickname that sounds seemingly innocent?"
the betrayal of people not wanting to see you for you, and having to question whether or not people around you would join in with the ridicule. that is the closest you will ever understand what it's like to be a trans person with a deadname. obviously this doesn't show the entire trans experience, just the part for what it's like to have a deadname.










