In her column last week in San Diego LGBT Weekly (issue 113, Feb. 14) Ms. Autumn Sandeen went off on RuPaul and others for using the word “tranny.” Ms. Sandeen even actually attacked RuPaul as “trans-negative” and that the word “tranny” was offensive. To whom, Ms. Sandeen?
The facts are that our GLBT community uses a lot of names and words to identify us and not all of us like or use the words and some do.
Let me give you a history lesson, Ms. Sandeen.
In the 1950s we were “homosexuals.” Around the 1960s we became “gay.” As gay men and women then in the 1970s we became “gay and lesbian.” Now, not everyone liked these names and labels while some did.
Many females like being called “gay women” and fought the name lesbian. To this very day Susan Jester (founder AIDS Walk, San Diego) does not like to be called a lesbian, but describes herself as a “gay woman.”
I remember serving on the national executive boards of the Marches on Washington and the debates and votes if we should add bi-sexual and transgender.
Now about transgender. It is a relatively new word for our community. I was a pre-operative transsexual during the late 1960s and 70s. The word transgender was not around.
All of a sudden a group of people organized and came up with the word “transgender” and a “transgender umbrella” that included everyone from drag queens to transsexuals.
The facts are that not everyone is even comfortable with this “trans-umbrella” and almost 100 percent of “drag queens” consider themselves “gay men.”
A lot of transsexuals consider themselves either women or men and hate to be called transgender, as they want to pass and consider themselves “heterosexual” after their complete operations, while others remain in the gay community and want to have the “trans” label added.
I have fought for “transsexuals” and yes, transgender people for decades as I’ve walked in their shoes and I am proud of the progress and visibility the trans community has accomplished in such a short time.
But you, Ms. Sandeen, don’t and can’t speak on behalf of the entire trans community and nor can I. And I do know this, that many of us use the word “tranny” with love and good meaning and have done so since the 1960s and 70s. Long before you began your activism.
I have worked with RuPaul on the Marches on Washington and Stonewall 25, which I was a national chair of in New York. RuPaul is, and has always been a big supporter of our entire GLBT community and you, Ms. Sandeen, are very much off-base.
“Queer.” When that word became used by the younger GLBT generation it made us of an older generation very uncomfortable. But we have learned to accept it, though it reminds us of hateful attacks by heterosexuals.
Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, questioning, pan-sexual etc., etc. are names that some accept and use and others in our community don’t.
Surveys of our community and studies show that a majority long for the time we were all called “gay.”
But we know it will never return.
Trans people call each other “tranny” in a positive, loving and, yes, fun way. So did RuPaul who is according to the “trans umbrella” under it.
What RuPaul has done for more understanding and acceptance of all of our community through the media, television and entertainment should be applauded and praised. “Drag” has always been the “fun” and “campy” side of our community and RuPaul’s show has many times put the spotlight in a positive and sensitive way to transsexual/transgender contestants who have in their own words told their “coming out” story to the world.
Ms. Sandeen, your column and attack on RuPaul was petty and uncalled for. Queer and trans, tranny etc. are names that, yes, are embraced and loved by many and not liked by others.
In closing, Ms. Sandeen, it is in the way and spirit and, yes, meaning that these names are used and spoken … period.
And who made you, Ms. Sandeen, the judge of RuPaul and us all. You need to chill out. As for me I love the word “tranny” and embrace all of my “tranny” sisters as I have since the 1960s.
Welcome to the 21st century of “labels and names.” I prefer to look at us all as God’s children and human beings.
Children’s Easter Egg Hunt: March 31
Last year almost 600 children and their families showed up at the annual Children’s Easter Egg Hunt at Trolley Barn Park in University Heights.
Sponsored by the Imperial Court, the District 3 City Council offices, and The LGBT Center (Family Matters) and supported by the GLBT community, organizations and businesses we once again need your help with donations of children’s Easter baskets or contributions.
This year the first lady of San Diego, Bronwyn Ingram and her Team First Lady are major co-sponsors and she is the 2013 honorary chair and hostess of this year’s event.
So please start thinking about collecting and donating Easter baskets. Drop them off at The Center. Last year every child (1-12 years old) left with a basket and let’s make sure once again they all leave with a smile. Further info: 619-692-1967.
Seattle, Wash.
What a great time I had; and this is one beautiful city with a very progressive outlook.
I’ll report on it in my next column. I’m off to San Francisco, Oklahoma, Sacramento, New York and Washington, D.C.
Nicole Murray Ramirez has been an award-winning columnist since 1973, and a Latino and gay activist for well over 40 years. He is currently a city commissioner and has served the last five mayors of San Diego. He is also a national board member of the Harvey Milk Foundation and chairman of the International Court Council of the USA, Canada and Mexico. Nicolemrsandiego@aol.com
I am proud to be a Lesbian-Feminist , and a Dyke !
I was on the national planning committee for the 1993 March on Washington. There was a small group of people insisting that we include the “T” in our title and mission statement. I didnt have a problem with that except this group was trying to lump transsexuals, drag queens and cross dressers under the transgender label. As a drag queen, performer, illusionist whatever you want to label it as, I never considered myself transgender. Im not a fan of the word “tranny” because in my experience people use it in a derogatory way. Maybe its a generational thing? I notice night clubs and bars in our community use the word tranny to promote a specific night or event. Back in the 90’s clubs would have had an entirely different kind of clientele if they advertised “trannyshack” etc.
I guess its all about intent of the person using the word.
PS I remember taking a couple of these photos for Nicole back in the day!!
A point of clarification. You assert that during the 1960s and 70s, “The
word transgender was not around.” That’s not a factual statement. It could be that YOU weren’t aware of it, but it was most certainly around. It meant operative transsexual in 1965 (since, at the time, transsexual was an umbrella term. See Benjamin’s Scale, Type 4 – 6 transsexual) and took on an umbrella meaning by 1974 in both the US and UK. If you click my name, it links to a usage timeline for the trans+gender lexical compound.
It is always interesting how a person can use a true statement to create a lie. All they have to do is be very absolutist in usage. The word transgender might well have been used in very isolated instances by people during the 1960s or 1970s, but for all practical purposes, it cannot be said to have come into significant usage until some time around the mid-Seventies when it was adopted as a label by certain extremists among what had been know as “transvestites,” though the term “crossdresser” was increasingly being pushed. Most of these people had no desire to change their sex, and in fact, often denigrated those who did have that need. The movement they started has since grown into the modern “transgender movement,” which, quite frankly, I want no part of.
Williams, you were not even BORN in 1965, so why don’t you just “tuck it”, where the sun don’t shine.
Its nice to see some opposition to the Tee-Gee BORG, as a legitimate woman of transsexual history and one whom I might point out is enjoying her post transition heterosexual life I am glad to see the Sandeenistas of the world getting flack for their hijacking every other group that thought of wearing the cloths of the opposite sex. While I find drag queens offensive because it is the same as white men in black face, in this case it’s men in drag acting out like cartoon females, it’s just as offensive as the racist white men in black face. How would you gay people like it if straight men and women made fun of you, oh wait, I think I already know how you would act.
Double standards sure do suck, exposing them sucks even worse.
Anne
Simply put, no one should be called anything that they do not identify as. If a person wants to call their self “tranny,” or “queer,” or such, that is, I suppose, their right. Personally, I think both of those words are highly offensive. Just as I think a certain racial epithet that I grew up hearing in the South is a vile, hateful word even when used as a term of endearment by African-Americans. I once saw a neighbor’s maid, who basically raised the kids in that family, called that by another child and I saw the look of hurt on the poor woman’s face. That was when I realized when a toxic word that was. I feel the same way about queer, as I saw people punch each other out for being called that.
And today, some insist on forcing the label “transgender” on people who do not identify that way. Unlike the term “transsexual,” which is a medical term that refers to a specific, treatable condition, “transgender” is an artificial, social/political construct that has no objective meaning. It is an identification pe should be free to choose, or reject, just as some may prefer gay woman to lesbian or vice versa.
Interesting, you speak of not being a spokesperson for all of the community, then you use the argument that all of the community should be happy with the use of tranny. To be objectionable, you act like a Christian quoting certain parts of Leviticus, but not other parts. The same with transgender, nobody can call another person transgender, only the person can declare themselves transgender. Gays, drag performers, heterosexuals can exhibit transgender traits, non-traditional gender expression traits, but that does not, as you so rightly state, make them transgender. And a woman or man of transsexual history may or may not exhibit transgender traits, but does not make them transgender or transsexual in the present. And yes, RuPaul can call me tranny to my face at a Trans community activity, but to call me one in front of my boss at work would be inappropriate, regardless of how much may have done for the Trans community.
The auther of this article has done more damage to his local transgender community than he cares to admit. Such as speaking over a Post Op at a speaking event, being otherwise rude in the typical gay man fashion.
As far as anybody knows his story of being a gurney jumper is fake, there is nobody to confirm the story. I have heard the story told in speaking events and there was never a doctor’s name given or any other details.
In short his so called transsexual experience is seen as a fraud among many in the San Diego TS community. What the transgenders thing is anybody’s guess.
Anne
Bravo Nicolle .. as for myself I’m a man who happens to be bi.
Its amazing how people complicate very simple things. Many trans people regard the use of the word “tranny” as a slur and cis people generally use it as such. I have two dear gay friends who are long term partners and married. They call each other “faggots”. I think that term is also offensive to lots of gay men. My point is that Ru Paul used very poor judgement in throwing around a word that many find offensive. What was the point other than to be controversial and hurtful? He could just as easily have said trans person or trans woman or even transgender. These arew far less controversial and demonstrate at least a degree of sensitivity. The fact that he has done a lot of good things (for which I believe he was well paid for) does not give him the right to use terminology that is offensive to the ordinary many and not just the oversenstive few. I think Autumn’s position was extreme and she most definetly does not speak for this lady, but that does not give Mr. Ru Paul a pass, not at all. He was wrong to use that language and his clear lack of sensitivity is pretty disappointing, especially if he considers himself part of some transgender umbrella (I dont, drag queens are men period, they are about as female as a football linebacker, no ,matter how fabulous they think they are).
Drag queens aren’t transsexuals. Trans women are women, not “trannies” or whatever else offensive words float around. Gay men and cross dressers can call themselves whatever they want for all I care. I’m neither. I’m a trans woman and anyone who calls me a “tranny” will get an angry rant in return.
No…”trans women” is what is known as an oxymoron, a self-contradictory statement. By modifying the word women you are basically stating that they are not women. I am a woman. I may have been born with the medical condition referred to as transsexualism, but I have been treated and cured. I am not “trans,” and most assuredly NOT transgender. If you need to cling to the past, you might want to ask yourself why?
I would never call RuPaul, or anyone for that matter, a nigger. It’s insulting and it’s a slur. There are some people who have made an effort to “reclaim” that word and they use it within thier community, but even within that community the word still provokes varied repsonses, some quite hostile.
The situation with tranny is exactly the same. Are there trans people or people who fall under the “transgendered” umbrella that use that slur? There are, and some do it intentionally to try to reclaim the word. It’s still a slur, and people within the trans community have every right to strongly state that it is NOT ok for for that word to be tossed around lightly.
Both, along with “queer” are horrible words that have caused a lot of pain. Some think it clever to “reclaim” a word, but it is not. It is childish.