Response to Ru Paul’s Approval of the use of the word “Tr****y” for all Trans women
I'm a strong Black WOMAN with a Transsexual past (but remembers her roots), but I don't run around tagging myself as a "ni***er even within a black community, nor do I tolerate the word Tr****y in reference to me within a Trans community. A lot of TS/TG Women take offense to that word and being called "drag queen" because it demeans and mocks their authentic identity in public. It's awesome that we are able to deeply respect ourselves and really know who we are individually... but it is largely about educating a public held captive with a long held fit of ignorance.
I knew an uneducated gay man who was friends with one of my female roommates. I had just started sex transition and was heading out to work one day presenting as my rightful gender. He blocked my way, standing in the door, refusing to move as my so called supportive roommate giggled like a half-witted Cheshire cat on high grade Marijuana. He said "wait a minute, where are you going? are you a drag queen? perform for me, you should be performing and put your boy clothes on". Needless to say (and I sadly regret doing so) I kicked him squarely in his crotch / family jewels and said; "No, I am a woman, please respect who I am, now I need to go to work, thank you..."
Drag Queens such as Ru Paul, should not try to represent a portion of the Trans Family without consultation, just as Trans gender and Transsexual Women should not assume that they are automatically privileged to speak for drag queens or anyone else about what they should accept as a public label... especially if it is meant to belittle.
What happens when that self-confident Trans Woman is constantly called Mr drag queen or "tr**nny* on the job while trying to make a living as the woman she is, physically transitioning to appear as the woman she is. This brings to light a shred of scintillating truth: Whenever a Trans Woman or Trans Man stands up for themselves and asserts their absolute right to permanently express their Gender Identity, they are smacked down, treated as though they had committed a grievous crime... meanwhile those who would kill them for doing so, are happily acquitted by juries blinded by dazzling "dog-and-pony-show" rhetoric doled out by defense attorneys enamored with a false concept called "Trans Panic".
It's about Trans People loving and respecting themselves, their true identities, and those of others unconditionally, while teaching an abusive society to do the same.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
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Not many non-T members in the LGBTQI coalition realise that under that single letter T, is yet another coalition that has the same sort of diverse range of identies, desires and needs. We trans folk come in all sorts of labeled categories ... CD/DQ/DK/TV/GQ/TG/TS to name but a few. Just as a G does not get to speak for and dictate to L, DQ does not get to speak for and dictate to TG or TS, and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteQuite simply, "drag queens" are not at all transgender...they're cisgender...comfortable in their male identity...for them - and for that matter most crossdressers - the dress, the makeup, etc, is just gender expression...they are about performance...impersonating women as art and entertainment...and are not at all qualified to speak for "transgender women"...then again, part of being a stupid celebrity is the opportunity to pontificate about things you don't know anything about...
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