Before I get to why I am writing you (Lauren Tousignant), I want you to know that I was Ke$ha from the act Biggie Smalls in the drag show. I am not sure if your piece was an official opinion piece, and though I don’t agree with your review of the student performers, that is not why I am writing you. You are entitled to your own opinion of the show, and I am not attacking you for that.

However, I am writing to you to point out that there were very offensive terms within your piece, and when publishing an article that has the ability to reach 12,000 undergraduate students on campus alone, you need to be much more mindful as to the heterosexist, homophobic and transphobic language you use.

I don’t know how familiar or unfamiliar you are with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and allied community here on campus or at large, but I am an undergraduate here and I am a transman, as in I was born female and have since undergone hormone replacement and surgery and fully transitioned to male. I am one of few here on campus who identify as trans, but you need to hear us especially in regard to this article. I find some of your word choices highly offensive, and you should know that the terms you used are considered offensive by the community at large.  

The first term is ‘transsexual,’ in the third paragraph. The term ‘transsexual’ is defined to be a person who has taken medical steps to physically change his or her sex to that with which he or she identifies. Historically the word has been used as a description of what was deemed a mental disorder; hence people within the trans community find it highly offensive. You very easily could have said, ‘The performers put their best gender-bending foot forward.’

The second term misusage was the pronoun used to describe Drag King Windz. I’m not sure if this was an absent-minded typo, but the correct pronouns to use would be ‘he’ and ‘him.’

The two of these offenses, however, do not compare to the offensive nature that is the phrase ‘hot tranny mess.’ First off, the word ‘tranny’ is never OK. Ever. ‘Tranny’ has just as much weight as using common derogatory words against black or gay people. It is derogatory, offensive and oppressive; and it has a history of violence and hatred. When you put that word in print and use it so nonchalantly, it perpetuates the idea that it is an OK word to use. People need to know that that is not OK.

Like I said, I have no idea how much or how little exposure you have had to the LGBTQA community, but if you plan on continuing your journalism career, you should know that The Associated Press follows the GLAAD outlines on news coverage of LGBTQ topics (very easily found at http://www.glaad.org/reference). I also suggest that you take an LGBT studies class before approaching another article on the queer community again, or you and your fellow staff could very easily go next door to the LGBT Resource Center and go through the Ally Development training.

Bryan McKinney

Syracuse University School of Architecture

Phi Sigma Pi National Honors Fraternity

 

Published on March 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm