Why I Deleted My Microsoft Account
I've had a Microsoft account for a long time, since back when I worked in Xbox customer support. As an open source nerd, I have no love for them, but since I had some things that would cost money to replace on that account, I kept it alive.
I haven't logged into it since I transitioned. Today, for the first time, I had an excuse to. Some friends have a Minecraft server, and I hadn't touched Minecraft in years. But I was bored, so I thought “eh why not?” Apparently, Minecraft requires a Microsoft account to use now. So I thought “fine, I'll use my old MS account, better than making a new one” and did the account migration.
While I was in there, I figured it would be best to do all the name updates I hadn't done. Changing the name, email, phone number, et al on the parent MS account was easy enough. Same with the Xbox account, where most of the aforementioned purchases lived. But then I saw my Skype profile.
Skype
My Skype account was from long, long ago. I had to use Skype professionally in exactly one job. I don't even remember when I connected it to the main MS account, but apparently I did. And the thing about Skype accounts is, they are unchangeable.
Specifically, the Skype ID is unchangeable. I tried. I could not get my picture to change without installing Skype, and the Skype ID, which was my deadname, was greyed out. Sometime in the past, they changed it so Skype IDs were just some sort of generated thing, but legacy accounts like mine still had a Skype ID which was set at account creation. My deadname.
I checked support articles, and everything from 2019 and earlier said you could “unlink” a Skype account and remove it from your Microsoft account. This changed in 2020 apparently. Later support articles said that the only option was to delete your Skype account, but they all linked to an article for deleting your MICROSOFT account, not Skype. Articles around deleting a Skype account without deleting a Microsoft account all said it was no longer possible. I even searched for “deadname” to see if that had come up, and sure enough, every trans person who has asked about this has been told that no, the deadname in their Skype ID is unchangeable.
Clearly it was time to talk to a human.
There Are No Humans At Microsoft Anymore, Apparently
All the links to “talk to an agent” or “contact support” on any Microsoft site no longer give you contact information. They all seem to send you to some elaborate “help you find an article” system which recommends completely useless articles. Asking their help bot “How can I talk to a person” causes them to link to the support forum, the same forum that has told several other trans people that there is nothing that can be done.
I tried to game it, chose many different options over and over again, to no avail. I did all this work to keep my Microsoft account, because I would prefer not to lose my purchases.
Once I realized that there was nothing to be done about this. I marked the account for deletion.
“Diversity and Inclusion”
Microsoft has a Diversity and Inclusion page because they are apparently so progressive. So progressive that they will never let a trans person remove their deadname from their account. I think it's safe to say that they are full of shit. Microsoft does not give a shit about trans people.
Farewell To My Microsoft Account I Guess
So in order to say goodbye to my deadname, I was forced to also say goodbye to my Minecraft license, as well as my Xbox account, friends, and purchases. And one thing is certain, I won't be giving them any money again.