RE-TELLINGS

Dan Savage: ‘Reports Of My Recent Trans Slurs Are Grossly Misleading’

I did say “shemale.” I read the question as-written, repeated the term in my response, and then used “transexual” in place of “shemale” (“transexual sex-worker,” “transexual porn”), modeling the use of less offensive terms, before circling back to “shemale” in order to unpack why some find it offensive. I never used the phrase “freaky tranny porn.” I never said the word “tranny” at UCI at all; indeed, I’ve made a conscious effort to stop using “tranny” after the memo went out last year declaring the word an off-limits “hate term.”…

… Back to what went down at UCI: It’s clear from the transcript—and it’s clear from the way that my remarks are being actively and maliciously misrepresented—that the people pushing this “Dan Savage is transphobic!” meme are not honest actors. False accusations of engaging hate speech are themselves a form hate speech—particularly in the hothouse environment of LGBT activism. Any honest reader of my column, like any honest person who attended my Q&A at UCI, knows that not only I am not transphobic, I’m pretty rabidly pro-trans.

Or: If I’m the enemy of trans people everywhere, trans people everywhere could use more enemies like me.”

– Sex columnist and LGBT activist Dan Savage responding to reports that he said “shemale” and “freaky tranny porn” during a recorded talk at University of California Irvine. The offending slurs got him glitterbombed by pro-trans student activists.

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