Silicon Valley, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – If you have an account with Facebook or Google+, you can no longer use the name ‘The Joker.’ Unless, of course, your real first name is The and your real last name is Joker (or vice versa, since in some Asian cultures, the last name comes first before the given name, like Tran James).

The pseudonym ban has been in effect on Google+ since 2011, in keeping with the company’s common names policy. But Facebook recently joined in the bandwagon, theatening to deactivate accounts using fake names or pseudonyms.

This new policy has upset Sister Jane, Sister Lovely and Sister Biatch — all members of San Francisco’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. “These may not be our real names when we’re not in our religious habit, but they are not fake names when it comes to our alter persona,” Sister Jane said.  “Who would think of me as a nun if I used my real name,” Sister Biatch, whose real name is Peter Bonavich, said.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence  is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality. At their inception in 1979, a small group of gay men in San Francisco began wearing the attire of nuns in visible situations using high camp to draw attention to social conflicts and problems in the Castro District.

The new Facebook policy seems to be backfiring.  A quick scan at Facebook accounts shows an increasing number of netizens named Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Jeremy Lin and LeBron James — real names all.