Last week, I read the misinformed article by Jeremy Ogul in Gay San Diego entitled “One of the girls.” I immediately contacted trans-activist, and LGBT Weekly columnist, Autumn Sandeen to get her perspective about those in our community who are clueless about trans issues and seem to have no desire to learn. Ogul’s story was simply lazy, harmful pontificating by someone who thinks he knows a subject but embarrassingly does not.
You know, the Internet is a beautiful place for those who know how to use it. When I write commentary or an article about a subject, I use the Internet to make every attempt to be the smartest person in the room about the topic I am covering. Why? Misinformation kills.
Conventional wisdom says that if something gets repeated three times, it becomes truth. While that may be a stretch, the concept is a sound one. Rumor can become fact because people repeat misinformation over and over again. Remember Atlanta Olympic Games bomber Richard Jewell? Oh yeah, that’s right, he didn’t bomb anything. Who said “Let them eat cake”? Marie Antoinette? Nope, just a vicious rumor. Tokyo Rose convicted for treason after World War II. Not a real person. The woman convicted as Tokyo Rose was actually a wrongly accused American sympathizer. Tokyo Rose was the moniker for any female Japanese broadcaster who spoke English and spewed Japanese propaganda, not a particular person.
This phenomenon is why what Ogul wrote is so insidious and offensive. He describes the SRO Lounge Saturday night crowd as “many of whom are transgender women or men dressed in drag.” Where do I begin? Mr. Ogul, transgender people do not dress in drag. Transgender people are wearing clothes that express their gender. Drag is when a person dresses in the clothes of the opposite gender and exaggerates the mannerisms of that gender usually in a performance, for comic or satirical effect, or for Halloween. People who are transgender don’t qualify.
Talking about how SRO got started, Ogul says there were few options for the “gender-bending crowd.” While not as offensive as saying she-m**e or he-s**, Ogul could have selected a better term to honor some of those who patronize the SRO Lounge. He also describes one of the patrons standing in front of the bar as sticking “out like an untucked testicle.” Am I the only one that finds that offensive? I am sure it was Ogul’s attempt at being funny. So tit for tat, right? Ogul, your writing is like that of someone who just completed hooked on phonics.
I always try to take the opportunity when teachable moments present themselves, so here is a Trans definition primer:
• Transgender: A person whose self-identity does not conform to conventional notions of their gender. They are not dressed in drag. In abbreviated form Trans which over the last five years has become a preferred term. Most live 24/7 as their self-identified gender.
• Transvestite: Offensive term for a person who sometimes dresses in clothes of the opposite gender.
• Cross-dresser or crossdresser: A person who sometimes dresses in clothes of the opposite gender, colloquially drag. Generally a cross-dresser would never refer to themselves as being in drag.
• Transsexual: A person who has changed or is in the process of changing their physical sex by undergoing medical treatment.
• Cisgender: A person who has a self-identity that conforms to their physical sex; in abbreviated form Cis.
• Genderqueer: A person who identifies as neither male nor female, both male and female, at some fixed point between the two, or with a gender that fluidly varies within the gender spectrum.
• Drag Queen: A male who dresses up in women’s clothing and makeup, typically in an exaggerated fashion and for public performance.
• She-m**e / he-s**/ sh*m: Terms that mock or show a lack of respect toward the gender identity and gender expression of transgender individuals.
• Tr**ny: Offensive term used to describe a host of non-gender conforming identities, equivalent to the word ni**ger.
• Trans: The universal term to refer to people who fall into all of the gender expression categories other than cisgender.
Remember this is just a primer and is not meant to be the definitive description of the Trans community but it will help you from being offensive to members of your own community like Ogul accomplished with his story in Gay San Diego. Calling members of the Trans community “high-heeled outcasts” who found a home at SRO was beyond the pale. An outcast is someone who is rejected by society and a social group; I think that’s the entire LGBT community. What the Trans community found at SRO was an owner who understood what community was really about long before many in our community evolved. We are the LGBT community. Ogul could learn a few things from SRO.
Thanks for this 🙂