My name gets misspelled a lot. “It’s K-h-a-n,” I correct people. “Not K-a-h-n.”

“Oh, but don’t worry,” I say trying to make the misspeller feel better. “It happens all the time. I’m used to it.”

When I did more freelance writing, years ago, I would file my articles with my byline, typed correctly, “Surina K-h-a-n.”

“On many an occasion, it would come out in print, “Surina Kahn.”

“Does the editor think I don’t know how to spell my own name?” I would ask who ever happened to be sitting around me.

Colleagues have been known to misspell my name, too. People will invite me to conferences to speak and ask me for my bio. I send it with my name spelled correctly, but then I see Surina Kahn in the conference program.

Just last week, I got the Sun Dial, my high school alumnae magazine, in the mail. “Look there’s a picture of your class at the reunion,” Jenny pointed.

“Oh great,” I grumbled. “They spelled my name wrong.”

So it should not come as a big surprise, that in some misguided circles, I am known as a Zionist Jewish Lesbian.

I am listed on an anti-Semitic, and seemingly white supremacist, website titled, “Jewish Control of Gay Rights.”

The website notes, “The Jews know damn well that most heterosexuals aren’t at a spiritual level where they can grasp this truth, so they use heterosexual animosity towards gays to keep our Aryan peoples divided.”

Another website called, “The French Connection,” has me listed alongside a number of other LGBT “Jewish” activists. All because of sloppy spelling.

They say, “Here is an exhaustive list proving, once and for all, that the radical homosexual movement in the United States is a Jewish movement. Jews created it and run it from top to bottom. They are pushing the perversion and degeneracy that is spreading disease, sin and sickness through America like a wildfire.” I wonder if I should let them know my name is spelled K-h-a-n? Although I’m guessing they don’t like the Muslims either.

They might be interested to know that I’m not a good Muslim, or Jew for that matter. I enjoy pepperoni on my pizza, after all. (See Where’s the Beef, posted April 2, 2010) Or prosciutto wrapped around grilled figs. I drink alcohol which is also a sin in Islam. I like to sip a glass of prosecco or an old vine zinfandel from time to time. But does that make me Jewish?

Do we look Jewish? My brothers and sisters with our parents and our Nanny Saeeda, circa 1968. I am the little one in my father's arms.