Lady Bunny Refuses To Bow To “Tranny” Word Police, Says To Fight The Real Enemy

Tranny is an abbreviation for transvestite and transsexual, so I’m free to use it since I fall with that category. Much as blacks can use the N-word. I know tranny from London, where they abbreviate everything — breakfast is brekkie, biscuit is biccie. Tranny is used affectionately on the club scene. Even transsexual advocates like Jayne County and Kate Bornstein have come out and said that these words aren’t necessarily slurs. I can understand how the word ‘shemale’ in RuPaul’s ‘Female or Shemale’ game could be more offensive, because shemale is mainly a porn term which stresses the male parts. But Ru’s use of shemail [as a play on mail or e-mail] is fine. I’ve used ‘shemail’ on my own site as my contact info for over a decade. It’s a silly play on words to indicate that since I’m a drag queen, my e-communications are going to be more feminine. In no way is it derogatory to trans women. I think there are a few militant trans women who have started this mudslinging and I’m sorry that Ru backed down. The same people who would bash a trans in a dark alley would probably also bash a drag queen or someone gay. I wish we could stick together as a community instead of in-fighting. Because the gay/trans community’s real enemies aren’t RuPaul or people who say tranny — it’s the people who would physically bash us. And it’s the well-funded national organizations whose agenda is to deny our right to marry and for equal opportunities for housing and employment. Fight the real enemy — not the gay community, which has always been the most accepting of trans. I scratch my head thinking how are these trans people going to use gay community centers, counseling, protection and parades, transition out of our community, and then jump back in to police our speech?  

And I’m sick of people thinking they can ban words because they make them feel bad. Boo hoo for you! Any time we choose a different path in life, we’re going to get shit for it — whether you choose to be openly gay, trans or even a straight guy with tattoos all over his face. If you don’t have the balls to take shit, then choose an easy path. And for huge gay organizations like GLAAD to join in to censor Ru or anyone else confuses me. ‘Gender bender’ is on GLAAD’s list of banned words. That’s what Frank-n-Furter, David Bowie and Sylvester were — that’s not a slur except to the most precious, uptight goody two-shoes. And no one has ever bashed a trans person and said “Take that, you gender bender, you!” It’s typical of how conservative the gay movement has become. Angling to fight in the military and getting married are totally establishment goals. Now they’re banning words? ACT UP was anti-establishment and took back offensive words like ‘queer.’ If the current gay movement wasn’t so conservative, they’d be listing the huge, national chains who regularly give to anti-gay groups to set back our movement so we could boycott them. But a year or two ago, the head of GLAAD had to step down in disgrace after taking money from AT&T to push some merger. I don’t need a corrupt motherfucker telling me what I can say.”