(for those who have read this on The Bilerico Project, I added a new paragraph toward the end.)

I know that by expressing my opinion about this word in an article, I will make a lot of my trans friends angry. Seems that the quarterly label issue is brewing yet again and right on time. This article of mine came about because of an article my friend Donna Rose wrote on her blog called, “Tranny: Just a Word?” Please note that Donna happens to be one of my closest sisters, but like family, we can disagree on things. This is one of those times.

Human beings have a propensity for figuring out ways to verbally put down other people. Americans are absolute experts in this “field,” especially during a war with another country. In Wikipedia, you can find hundreds of words used for just ethnic slurs alone. It’s more fun for American to burn bridges rather than build them. If ethnic slurs are so prevalent, then it stands to reason that slurs directed at the LGBT community would be also in abundance. The questions now become, “Are some of these words actually worth getting upset about?” and “How do we neutralize them?”

(Break)

I tried to look up the “tranny,” or my favorite spelling, “trannie” and found out that it isn’t in Dictionary.com. However, they showed all of the various usages for the word that we find in the English language, which are also listed in the Wikipedia entry for “tranny.”

Tranny/Trannie is a term with multiple meanings:

• Transformer (electrical)
• Transgender (slang)
• Transistor radio
• Shortwave radio (not necessarily a transistor model), like the Zenith Trans-Oceanic Shortwave Radio
• Transmission on an automobile
• A term for a transgender person.
• A nickname for the Ford Transit (usually as Tranny van)
• A transparency, either a photographic slide or for an overhead projector.
• A Rock band based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• In skateboarding a slang term for “transition”.

Seems it is used for much more things than to describe us. Maybe we should be a bit more careful in getting upset with someone when we hear it being used, especially if it comes from a skateboarder, an auto mechanic or an electrician. I also found the words “trannie” and “tranny” in the Urban Dictionary, and even in there, automobile transmissions were mentioned.

Many in the trans community show outrage in the use of the words trannie or tranny. Sometimes I see this outrage as baseless at best. I hear people evoke the “N-word” as an analogy and how it outrages African Americans, even if some of them use the word in conversation. I find it not only ridiculous to say our outrage is similar to this, but downright disrespectful to the African American community and their struggles for even suggesting it’s anywhere on the same level.

The “N-word” has over four hundred years of hateful history behind it. It has over four hundred years of struggles behind it. It has over four hundred of blood and pain behind it. And, it has over three hundred years of slavery behind it. Can we even come close to that? Most of us were alive when the word “tranny” was coined, so it has very little history. Maybe we can start complaining about its usage in the year 2350. Until then, let’s put this into perspective, shall we?

Another source of outrage for the word “tranny” is the fact that it’s used on internet porn sites. Should we be surprised? If the site is used to make money, then it makes good marketing sense to use this word, because the word “transsexual” is too cumbersome. Doing a Google search, I found 2.6 million links for “tranny, porn,” as compared to 19 million for “gay, porn,” or 13.5 million for “lesbian, porn,” and 262 million for “porn.”

But, “tranny” isn’t the only word you can find porn associated with us. You can also pull up porn links using the words “transsexual, transgender, trans, transvestite” and “shemale.” The words “shemale, porn” brought up 3.58 million links. Let’s face it folks, regardless of how you want to label us, we are a category in the internet porn industry, and a rather small one at that. If you want to use online porn as an excuse for not wanting to embrace the word “tranny,” I find it to be rather poor reasoning. You would have to include all those other words in your outrage as well.

Part of this discussion also gravitates to the usage of the words “queer” and “dyke,” two words that have been successfully neutralized, and “faggot,” a word that may never be neutralized. At one time, both “queer” and “dyke” were considered highly derogatory and offensive. Even today, the people who hate try to use them, thinking it will somehow make a queer person or dykes upset. The LGB and T communities have done a good job in embracing and reclaiming these words and now they have become part of the acceptable culture we live in.

The word “faggot” has not made the transition to being acceptable to the LGBT community. It is a term directed to ALL members of the LGBT community, even heterosexual trans people. Its origin dates back to the late 16th century, meaning “old or unpleasant woman,” and the modern use may well derive from this. The word is a shortening version of the term “faggot-gatherer,” applied in the 19th century to people, especially older widows, who made a meager living by gathering and selling firewood. The word “faggot” means a “bundle of sticks for burning.” The modern usage of “fag” and “faggot” are primarily used in English speaking countries. Of course, the word “faggot” is a British term for cigarettes, because they are also a “bundle of sticks for burning.” If a British person asks you for a faggot, they’re not looking for a gay man.

The word “faggot” shows its usage to date back 500 years, most of the time having an offensive meaning. It has a well establish history as a derogatory word, but it didn’t get attached to effeminate men until the late 19^th, early 20^th Centuries. Some people in the LGBT community are trying to neutralize this word, but with no success. But, please take note of this one major difference between “faggot” and the “N-word.” Most of society, and even LGBT people, have not yet accepted or even considered changing “faggot” to the “F-word.” With that long of a history for this word, maybe we should.

Hate words are nothing more than one person using language to take control over another’s emotions. When the person uses them to be offensive on purpose, they succeed in taking control when the other person actually takes offense. Hate language can provoke some people to violence. We have proof that the word “tranny” has been used in violent acts toward trans people, along with “shemale, it, abomination” and “faggot.” Reclaiming the word will not stop the violence, but the word doesn’t cause the violence. Violent people cause the violence. We cannot blame violence toward trans people on one word.

People used to take offense with the words “queer” and “dyke,” both of which predates the words “trannie” and “tranny.” The word “dyke” is the shorten version of the word “bulldyke,” first seen in 1920 novels. “Queer” is much older, coming from the English language in the 16^th century, meaning “strange, unusual,” or “out of alignment.” These words were used to denote LGBT people for a long time, yet they have been successfully reclaimed to neutralize their emotional affect. However, they are still heard during violent acts toward LGBT people.

Many trans people are reclaiming the words “trannie” and “tranny,” and they appear to be mostly the younger people in our community. They seem to understand the need to neutralize the affect that others have in wanting to offend us. Younger LGBT people also accept “queer” and “dyke” more than older LGBT people and may actually become the ones who will successfully neutralize the “F-word.”

This is purely an emotional issue, without logic. I put words in the category of affecting our psych in the same way foods and smells do. Depending on our life experiences when it comes to words, foods or smells is how we react to them. Those three categories cover four of our five senses (words can cover hearing and sight) and our five senses are powerful “input ports” to our emotions. If people wish to say they don’t like a word, then just admit it is an emotional thing and not try to justify it with outside issues that would exist even if the word didn’t.

For me, I refuse to allow anyone to take control of my emotions by allowing them to think that the word “trannie” will offend me. Yes, I have other words that push my buttons and many who read this can easily attest to that. My faith has helped me smooth some of them out as well. We have no reason to let a relatively young and weak word take control of our emotions, when so many stronger ones out there can easily upset us. Let’s eliminate this one first.

“Tranny” is such an easy word to reclaim, because it has far less baggage and history attached to it then the others I have mentioned. This is something trans people have to do themselves, so non-trans people cannot help the reclaiming by using the word right now. It’s an issue we have to take care of ourselves. And, if the older generation doesn’t wish to reclaim the word, we don’t need to. The younger generation will reclaim it for us, whether we want them to or not. It’s the natural order of things.

“Yer a cute girl.”

“I’ll let our mechanic take a look at this.”

“You still have a penis?  Then you’re not really a woman.”

Yes, in order to communicate as a human being, we need to label things to give other people a better understanding on what it is we are talking about.  If it weren’t for labels, we wouldn’t find the right foods in the grocery store.  We have to have labels to take the correct drugs, in the correct combination and at the correct time.  Harsh chemicals need labels to keep us from thinking we can use them in our mix drinks.  Labels not only help make our lives easier, but safer.

(Break)

I’m sure the label “trannie” has a different meaning for an auto mechanic then it does for a transgender person.  However, there can be a bit of confusion when the mechanic is also a transgender person.

This need to label everything extends to labeling people.  If you thought about it, it would take you a long time to write down all the labels associated with you over the course of your life.  For those who believe that life starts at conception, then you can say you were labeled a “fertilized egg,” all the ways through to now being labeled “an old codger.”   Are you part of a family?  Then you could be a parent, father, mother, brother, sister, child, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, and in some cases, all of those.

Because of how important labels are in our lives, it is the mindset of all humans that everything has to have a label and it seems that the label they give that object is the absolute defining one as far as they are concern.  It doesn’t matter that the object has a different label for it in every language on the planet.  “My label is the right one, damnit, because I’m speaking English!”  Okay, no one really says that, but I get the impression some think it.

It appears to me that humans have a natural undying urge to label people and put them in various boxes for their own benefit and not out of respect for those people.  Because of that, many people think that you have to accept the boxes they put you in because they say it’s the absolute defining label for you.  This inflexible mindset has the most profound affect on the transgender community, affecting our core identity on a daily basis.

This being a highly patriarchal society, gender labels hinge on the present of a penis, or the lack there of.  “Iffin’ ya got one, yer a man or a boy, and iffin’ ya don’t, yer a girl.”  (Notice the word “woman” doesn’t even factor into this patriarchal way of thinking.)  This is so strongly engrained in our DNA that there are a lot of trans people today who have bought into this patriarchal garbage hook, line and sinker.  Some people seem to think that they get to decide what label you get saddled with based on a four-ounce body part no one in public should see.  The person’s gender identity or expression has nothing to do with it.

If a person wants to label me something, does that mean I have to live with their decision?  Will I die if I’m called a man?  I’m not talking about transgender hate crimes, which can result from people who hate those because of the labels they assume we have.  Labels by themselves cannot kill me, nor am I stuck with living my life based on what labels others call me or think of me.  Labels cannot harm anyone else either, yet, I get the impression all the time that a label can destroy other people’s lives simply by its existence.  I have not seen that happening to anyone as of yet.  Maybe some labels have C4 attached to them.  Does that mean terrorists will start using label for IEDs?  “Incoming label!”

Let me pick a label out of thin air to use as an example.  Let’s see . . . how about “transgender.”  No one ever talks about that label.  In some languages, the word “transgender” translates to their version of “transsexual.”  (See: http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ and try various combinations.)  When reading a translated description of a transsexual murdered in a Spanish speaking country, I noticed the label “travesit” or “travesits,” a derivative of “transvestite,” is used a lot.  To them, it’s not a derogatory label.  A prime example of this is the name of the trans advocacy organization in Argentina, called “Asociacion Travesits Transexuales Transgénero.”

There has been a successful movement by LGBT people to reclaim and embrace the label “queer.”  Hate groups can no longer use queer as a slur to most of us, so they used other labels for their nasty comments.  I doubt there will ever be a movement in the American transgender community to reclaim the label “transvestite,” especially since many transsexuals don’t even like the label “transgender.”

I have read reams and reams of web pages on why the label “transgender” is such a harmful word that should never be used, none of which can be substantiated.  This stems from the widely accepted definition of the word, “transgender,” which serves as an umbrella term for ALL people who have or are currently crossing the gender lines, either permanently or temporarily.  When use that way, some groups don’t like the idea of sharing space with people who are not labeled like them.  One person once told me, “Define the label, but don’t let the label define you.”  Some people must think this label defines them, yet they have full control over all of this.  In my opinion, by getting upset with something like a label relinquishes their control over their own identity and gives that control to others.

Some people also based their hatred toward this label on the fact that a 100 year-old crossdresser supposedly invented it, which makes it flawed.  She didn’t invent it, but she used it a lot.  Sadly, when it comes to the origin of certain labels, history gets blurred and changed far too often.  History, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.

I have also read where the label “transgender” should be used in certain context, but not in others, and that we all have to abide by this hard, fast “rule.” in the use of this word.  Why?  It’s just a label.  I read where one person said that if a crossdresser did not go out into public, then they were really not a transgender person.  Where did they get that?  A label only means something to those people who seem to be obsessed with treating them like battering rams, swords, or poisonous insects.  “No!  Don’t go into the transgender light!”  Too late.

Labels have their place in our community, as long as people don’t get married to them.  When a person commits to using one label over another, they have a tendency of spending a lot of time defending their decision and chastising those who don’t use the label in the same fashion they do.  This is where those extended comments occur on certain postings, most of which are not on subject.  This reminds me.  Are you aware that trans people are masters at trigonometry?  They like to go off on tangents.  Pythagoras must have been trans.  (That was my intentional tangent or this article.)

To me, labels are part of my “activism toolbox.”  Like other tools, I use a label to perform a certain job and when I’m done with it, I wipe it off and put it back in the tool box.  I have found that when talking to some people, they understand the word “transsexual” better than “transgender,” so that’s the tool I use.  With others, I have to switch their use.  I also use “transgender” as an adjective and not a noun, like the words “transgenders” and “transgendered.”  Transgender American is a good label for me.  But, no matter what I use, I’m not married to that label like others seem to be, nor do I let it define me.

This is a subject that will be hashed over long after I’m dead.  Some people will insist that a label is “evil,” while others will spend gigabytes of web space trying to tell others what labels are to be used, for which people and under what circumstances.  Seems a waste of time.  The only label that really means anything to me is “Monica,” since I paid money for it.  And, the best time I like hearing that label used is when my girlfriend calls me to bed.  At that moment, I could care less what other labels people want to attach to me.

“Coming, dear.”