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RuPaul Weighs In: Approves 'tranny'
In response to a demand by Planetransgender, the blog who demanded that Dallas Voice, The Community Newspaper for Gay & Lesbian Dallas, stop using the terms "drag queen" and "tranny", Dallas Voice turned to the 'Judge Judy of Drag', RuPaul, to find out if RuPaul agreed.
"Okay, Let me put on my Judge Judy robe," RuPaul says. "People really need to get a life. And quit taking every opportunity to be offended by the world. Years ago, political correctness made it unbearable for anyone to have a laugh or be free. You can’t make the whole world ’baby safe.’ That’s really the uneducated approach to dealing with issues.
"There are more things to do in this life than to try to correct people with how they should refer to you. That’s your problem. That’s not their problem," she continues.
Years ago, RuPaul was roped into another controversy because she’s been very supportive of Shirley Q. Liquor, a drag comedian and former Texan, who was condemned by GLAAD for promoting "ugly racial stereotypes." Not that Shirley defamed gays. GLAAD caved to pressure because "Grey’s Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington (a black dude) was being spanked for saying "faggot." In short, GLAAD agreed to a prisoner exchange.
"We are obsessed with trying find areas where we get offended," RuPaul says. "And people who identify as being victims have a hard time accepting a new identity. They hold their ’victim identity’ in place. And they continue to look for people or organizations where they can point their finger at and, in essence, confirm their victimhood.
Is it possible to reclaim "tranny" and "drag queen"? The truth may be that not everyone wants to reclaim certain LGBT Terminology. From the National Lesbian & Gay Journalist Association who compiled a list of LGBT Terminology (see NowPublic Forum Topic: LGBT Terminology, here):
"tranny: Often a pejorative term for a transgender person, it is now being reclaimed by some transgender people. Caution: still extremely offensive when used as an epithet and should be avoided except in quotes or as someone’s self-identified term."
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Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States






Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 17:54 on February 5th, 2009
Rupaul was a regular at a coffee shop I worked at in the West Village!
at 19:54 on February 6th, 2009
lefty_liberated, thanks for sharing! Thank you for the recommendation, too!