1/25/09
DEMAND the Dallas Voice stops using "TRANNY"
Thank you Nikki Dreams for this wonderfully sensitive and enlightening video. I hope everyone who watches this comes to appreciates how harmful it is to the self respect of transgender people when you call us "Trannie" and unless we are a entertainer with published articles which we identify ourselves individually as a "Drag Queen or Tranny" please do not call us by these names.
The Dallas Voice and it's Web Log which bill themselves as a "LGB Paper" have been a constant recipient of my emails and phone calls to both the Editor, Tammye Nash and News Editor, John Write, both of whom I consider an allies, protesting their use of these derogatory names. I have explained that we suffer from the use of TRANNY as Black people do being called "Nigger" by non Afro Americans or Hispanics hate "Wetback" or Jewish people rail against 'Kike".....this list of bigotry inspired names is used by haters........and how others will capitalize on their insensitivity resulting in the marginalization, Victimization and violent murders of Transgender people.
I have resisted the Dallas Voices invitation to post letters to the editor protesting this because I feel it would exploitative on the Dallas Voices part. My indignation would be used as a promotional commercialization aid for the sales of this very hateful language.
!Please save lives and Take Action! Copy the message below and Send the Dallas voice a email!
Phone: (214) 754-8710
Fax: (214) 969-7271
Robert Moore, Publisher
robertmoore@dallasvoice.com
Tele. Ext.112
Tammye Nash, Senior Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
Tele. Ext.128
John Wright, News Editor
wright@dallasvoice.com
Tele. Ext.113
Ben Briscoe, Staff Writer
briscoe@dallasvoice.com
Tele. Ext.117
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Dallas Voice,
Our community is comprised of Queer, Transgender, Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Intersexed and Questioning people who deserve the same respect as your staff expects to be shown in there personal daily lives. You would scream bloody murder if I called you "Faggot" do not call our people "Tranny". We demand our own community stops leading the way for hate and violence targeting transgender people.
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DEMAND the Dallas Voice stops using "TRANNY", auto linked at
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Dallas Voice and it's Weblog and outside publications referencing articles by the Dallas Voice containing the word "Tranny"
Dallas Voice's official Blog Instant Tea responds with post"Planetransgender takes action against the word ‘Tranny’" Visit Instant Tea and leave a comment!
Hot tranny Hawaii | Aloha art
2009’s first hot tranny: Katelyn Cusanelli
January 8th, 2009
Hand Puppet Land blog postings
Oregon Live "Dallas bar owner bans drag queens and trannies"
Weblog headlines Local Gay Hate Crime and uses Tranny in later article
SHE-DICK sings 'Galactic Tranny' ... Dallas Voice DVTV News. Candi Shell
2006-2009 outside.in stories about 'lgbt' in Cityplace
Pegasus News Dallas gay bar to ban drag queens on “Trashy Tuesday”
(Dallas Myspace)theres a pic of me in the dallas voice and ive got this stupid look on my ... OMG you tranny whore shouldnt you be kissing some red necks ass right now
Crews Inn rep says drag queens allowed in on certain conditions; performers vow to continue fight
Dallas Voice Joan Rivers shares the stage with the Turtle Creek Chorale, ... recently as “halfway through becoming a trannie,
The list goes on forever and I have to go to church now.
By Kelli Busey,
Transgender Woman
January 25, 2009
planetransgender
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11 comments:
thank you for this video, i am going to post it and the contact info for dallas voice.
Thank you Queers United. You really do rock!
In England, calling someone retarded or slow is a big no-no. Has been for as long as I can remember. At one time care professionals referred to such people as mentally disabled, but this became politically incorrect and they came up with the term "people with learning disabilities." However, the English are not comfortable with such long terms, they get embarrassed before they get to the end of them. So, people say, "people with learning disabilities or whatever it is we're supposed to call them nowadays."
Now, I think it's great when you can call brothers and sisters, men or women. But transsexualism is not that simple. Calling somebody a transsexual person may be accurate but we then have a term that is cumbersome, at least for us English folk. It is also not the equivalent of man or woman - you don't call a straight person a male person or a female person - it's just man or woman.
What is needed is a snappy, two syllable term that is acceptable by all on the transsexual spectrum. I quite like "trannie" but I'm English and we are more respectful of transsexuals, but if it has bad connotations for some then it should be changed. But what to?
One huge benefit of having one descriptive noun for the whole transsexual community is that it will bring together everybody no matter how they regard themselves or how much they have changed themselves. It would stop certain transsexuals being so dismissive of others - transsexuals have had enough of that crap from some members of the gay community.
@MadPriest
i think in the general context of journalism, the word "tranny" is disrespectful. i can't think of any news article that would say "Fag arrested for jaywalking." We have to pick our words carefully, because words are weapons depending on who is saying them.
just like "nigga" is used by people of color and "faggot" is used by queer people, those words in those hands may not be offensive. in a different context, like a news article, they are very different and lead to an increase in oppression towards glbt people.
Ethan
As I said in my previous comment, if people are offended by the word "trannie" then it should be replaced by something else. My point is that it should be replaced by something user friendly and inclusive. We do have the change from homosexual to gay as a useful precedent.
Dear MP for everyone not familiar with MadPriest he is a free thinking Anglican Minister from the United Kingdom and this is is his preferred moniker. Dear MP thank you for making these transatlantic transgender trips! I love your strength and faith, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do.
I personally am happy with "Transwoman". Unfortunately we are not valued as of yet and this term would eventually be morphed into "Trannie". I also publicly identify as a "Gender Queer", a term many are not comfortable with, because it slams doors wide open and allows me to continue "transition" freely without preconceptions. I put parentheses around a lot of words to empathises all of these concepts are valuable because they are a expression of fluidity of human expression.
I do wonder however about how accepted transgender people actually are in Great Britian. I became involved in the outrage queer folk expressed over the transphobic Julie Brindle invitation by UK's Stonewall group a self agknowlaged gay and lesbian exclussive group,to be a guest speaker. I then became a member of the London based Queer Youth Network(the badge with link is to the right of this post->) in support of community. In doing so I became aware of the disenfranchisement of youth in the UK. It seems like as it is the states Transgender and queer folk in the UK are rejected and marginalized to a large extent by the established gay and lesbian organizations. A double wammy to this condition is that people who Id as Queer are mostly youth or at least youthful in thought(me).My protest locally of the indiscriminately and sensationalistic usage of "Tranny" has leaped the pond! I am blessed. Thank you.
Oh yes, there has been nastiness towards transsexuals from the gay community for as far back as I can remember. Back in the days of hi-energi and gay disco a transgender person couldn't get into a gay club dolled up and the dee jays would be really nasty about performers like Boy George because they were effeminate - it was all leather on the gay scene back then.
It may be different with the youth but for my generation in England "queer" means "gay male" and nothing else. I don't think, I may be wrong, that most transgender people of my age would like being called queer because it would lessen the absolute nature of their sexual identity.
Kelli. You seem to be certain of your sexual persona and are living accordingly. But I don't think that the transsexual community should be restricted to just trans-men and trans-women. People are born with all sorts of physical and gender ambiguity and the permutations are very varied. My question is, is there, or could there be, a term to describe everybody who lives with some sort of physical and/or mental gender ambiguity? Preferably something short like "gay" rather than one of your long American terms you lot are so fond of but makes me think of medical conditions.
I have found the word "transgender" to be the easiest word to use when discussing myself and others like me. It seems to be the most inclusive and least offensive term to use for people like me.
One would imagine that an LGBT periodical would adhere strictly to the GLAAD Media Reference Guide, which explicitly calls out "tranny" as defamatory:
"Defamatory: 'she-male,' 'he-she,' 'it,' 'trannie,' 'tranny,' 'gender-bender' -- These words only serve to dehumanize transgender people and should not be used."
It is telling that an LGB editorial board would need to be reminded of this. Are there any transgender people on the staff at the Dallas Voice? If not, that's telling, too, isn't it?
I'm a transgendered person, having been living 24/7 as Nikki for over 5 years and ........ I don't have a problem with the term tranny.
I suppose we all draw our own connotations from our own experiences but the vast majority of times the word has been said in reference to me, or even just in my presence, its been in a positive or affectionate way. I can't remember the last time I heard it said derogatorily.
I expect, Kelli, the connotation you perceive is a result of your experiences, obviously far more negative in number than mine.
Remember when the term "queer" was considered the ultimate put down ? Now one of your most stalwart allies seems to be the group Queers United.
Like the word slut, perhaps tranny was a severely derogatory term once, but I think its long lost its edge.
I DO agree with with Ethan, however. Some words, while acceptable in an appropriate conversation, are not acceptable in a journalistic context. Wouldnt expect to see headlines announcing " Fag/Queer/Dyke/Tranny/Slut Robs Bank" .
Bottom line, Kelli, I can't help but wonder, if
1)this is a personal "bee in your bonnet" your trying to drum up support for and jumping on a soap box about,
2)or whether the region your from perpetuates the derisive connotation and your fighting from that perspective
3)or whether the majority of the world and the trans people therein identify with the word the same way you do and I live in ignorant bliss in some kind of rare pocket of civility.
Nikki Belange
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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