Hi Autumn,
This is Laura Gonzales Administrator/Editor Transgender.FM

I read the statements from RuPaul and was as shocked as anyone. RuPaul comes into my transgender community nightclub (Club SHINE Saturdays athe Oxwood, Van Nuys) and other similar clubs in LA and is always pleasant and considerate. But he always comes in as a man, which he is, not a person transitioning, exploring or even considering as such. RuPaul is a gay man who makes a living by impersonating a woman in outlandish costumes and layers of caked on make-up and glitter. He is NOT a representative of the transgender community and should not speak for us as such. I wrote a rebuttal to the INSTINCT Magazine article and I would like to share it here as well. Thank you for keeping this topic alive, my hope is that RuPaul will look deep and change his opinion, I am hoping this because I like him personally. However, if he doesn’t, then I have no choice but to join in the rally cry with you. LOGO has not yet begun to hear our collective voice on this matter. Laura
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Response to RuPaul’s comment on the general use of the label: “Tranny.”
From Laura Gonzales, Administrator, Transgender.FM http://www.transgender.fm

Bigots have used certain words for generations, to belittle, insult, hurt or dehumanize a certain race, religion, or group.

Now we find a word, a label that has come to insult the transgender community and it is the term: “Tranny.” With this word, we are not men or women or even human, we are a sub-category. Transgender is used to describe those that have or are transitioning. It is primarily used as an adjective as a transgender man or transgender woman. But when we don’t know which direction a person is transitioning, we say transgender person. But “TRANNY” is used as a derogatory noun for us, it is what we have BECOME and aspire to and NOTHING MORE.

So is that, what everyone here found out about themselves at the age of 4 or 5 or 20 or 40? That you are no longer a man or a woman but a “Tranny?” No… you found you were born in the wrong body and (if in a female body) you are a MALE. If you were born in a male body, but a female inside, you are a female. Getting the world to accept and understand us is going to be a long, weary and costly battle. What we do have on our side is modern science and medicine which is helping us to make our body’s match our souls and our true gender. This physical and painful process is called “transitioning.” And …during the transitioning process is when we generally call ourselves being “transgender male or transgender female.” But being transgender is NOT the end game, matching your body to your true gender is, whether it is FULL or PARTIAL. But the word “Tranny” never gives one the chance to transition, because a “Tranny” is neither male or female, it’s an IT. That’s why we need to rid this word from general society and OUR society.

I know some of you may not agree, but when I grew up being called a “spic” in school, people told me, don’t worry about it, no big deal. But we fought for respect, tolerance and elimination of derogatory words to the Mexican-American community…and we won. We HAD too. Now it’s time to eliminate names that de-humanize us.

Unfortunately, RuPaul has joined into the fray, but on the other side. RuPaul finds it “ridiculous” that the word “Tranny” is an offensive word. But RuPaul is gay and a (by his description) a drag queen. This is how he makes his living, not living or transitioning to be a woman, but by mocking them, imitating them with outlandish make-up and wardrobes and getting paid a ton of money to do so. If that is what he wants to do for a living so be it. But he shouldn’t pretend to be a spokesperson for us, for those who fight everyday battles to survive, keep our jobs or find one and always at risk of the loss of our families and lives. RuPaul can take off the make-up and go be himself with all the benefits that people like Harvey Milk and The Stonewall Riots gave him.. maybe not everything, but better than transgender men and women have. We are still here, on the front lines of intolerance, battling just to survive and be accepted…and even within the gay community.

Give us a break RuPaul, work with us, not against us. You come to our clubs, you have friends who are transitioning. Words may seem harmless to you, but were they to YOUR parents and grandparents? Have you been out to the Museum of Tolerance lately?
Join with us RuPaul, try a little harder to understand us and help us. Drag Race ain’t going to do it.

Love you still,
Laura Gonzales
Administrator/Editor Transgender.FM
http://www.transgender.fm
Promoter: Club SHINE, Los Angeles