An open letter to Kevin Kauer of Nark Magazine
(Cross posted from fullcontactmuse)
Dear Kevin Kauer,
I am writing to express my concern over the name you chose for your party, "Hey Tranny, It's Tranny". As a trans woman, I am positively alarmed that you would casually toss around the word tranny, a slur used against trans women, without any apparent care.
Tranny is a word used to insinuate that my gender, and the gender of people like me, is fake or artificial; that I am not a woman, that I am less than a woman. Likewise tranny has even been used to insult cis woman like Anne Coulter, Lady Gaga, Hillary Clinton, Cher and many others, suggesting that they are as ugly as “men in dresses”.
In many cases the word tranny is the last thing heard by a trans person before a vicious attack. In 2012 over 250 transgender people that we know of--and many more that we don’t of--lost their lives due to hate. This figure doesn’t even include those who took their own lives. A disproportionate amount if these victims were trans women. How many of them do you think were called a tranny before they met their end?
You say that “Hey Tranny, It’s Tranny” embraces and loves all of the LGBTQI community. Yet you toss around a slur like tranny so casually that a lot trans people, including myself, don't feel that love. I don’t know how much thought you gave it when you settled on “Hey Tranny, It’s Tranny” as a party name. My hope is that you didn’t realize tranny was a slur; that you simply thought it was a cute and fun part of the drag queen culture. My fear, though, is that you do know about the damage that word causes and you simply don’t care.
Sincerely,
Amber Clark
Dear Kevin Kauer,
I am writing to express my concern over the name you chose for your party, "Hey Tranny, It's Tranny". As a trans woman, I am positively alarmed that you would casually toss around the word tranny, a slur used against trans women, without any apparent care.
Tranny is a word used to insinuate that my gender, and the gender of people like me, is fake or artificial; that I am not a woman, that I am less than a woman. Likewise tranny has even been used to insult cis woman like Anne Coulter, Lady Gaga, Hillary Clinton, Cher and many others, suggesting that they are as ugly as “men in dresses”.
In many cases the word tranny is the last thing heard by a trans person before a vicious attack. In 2012 over 250 transgender people that we know of--and many more that we don’t of--lost their lives due to hate. This figure doesn’t even include those who took their own lives. A disproportionate amount if these victims were trans women. How many of them do you think were called a tranny before they met their end?
You say that “Hey Tranny, It’s Tranny” embraces and loves all of the LGBTQI community. Yet you toss around a slur like tranny so casually that a lot trans people, including myself, don't feel that love. I don’t know how much thought you gave it when you settled on “Hey Tranny, It’s Tranny” as a party name. My hope is that you didn’t realize tranny was a slur; that you simply thought it was a cute and fun part of the drag queen culture. My fear, though, is that you do know about the damage that word causes and you simply don’t care.
Sincerely,
Amber Clark