Large organizations, splatteringly inclusive research studies, and vague gay-friendly position papers love to trot out “LGBT” all the time. A lot of time they even spell it out, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.” It’s such a ridiculously common phrase now that it’s turned into noise obscuring signals; you can search for “transgender” on Google, on various websites, or in long documents put out by gay orgs, and sometimes half the hits you get are for this phrase. It’s meaningless in part because it’s a catch-all for “gayness” that often doesn’t have anything to do with the “B” and the “T.” As trans activists and bisexual advocates have been pointing out for years, plastering “LGBT” all over documents or names of things doesn’t guarantee at all that anyone is actually being inclusive of trans and bi people and issues.
But it turns out that the inclusion of T in “LGBT” and of “transgender in its expanded form are really useful for one particular purpose: it makes the heads of right-wing idiots explode.
Shame on Dennis Hastert for joining tranny lobbyist firm
Did Denny Hastert Join a Tranny Lobby Firm?
(Also note, by the way, that they’re keeping Christian Siriano company in use of tacky, derogatory slang. I hope you all get by now that “tranny” is almost always a slur when used by non-trans people.)
I found these links via Wolfrum at Shakesville, and it looks like the information was originally from Open Left. Check out the glaring difference in how the issue’s framed by Open Left and what happened when the right-wing noticed it. Matt Stoller points out the hypocrisy of revolving door politics, especially with regard to gay rights. But the wingnuts are simply obsessed with the fact that anyone even said the word “transgender.” The appearance of that foulest of head-explodey words can be traced back to nerve, the sheer audacity, that this lobbying firm would include sentences like this in their corporate policy:
Dickstein Shapiro’s innovative solutions and superior client service come from the talent and diversity of our attorneys and staff. Our Firm has a steadfast commitment to fostering a diverse work environment in which racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals enjoy an atmosphere of inclusion and respect.
To you or me, this might look like yet another meaningless token statement in favor of diversity. Especially with the standard GLBT formula, it seems statistically probable that Dickstein Shapiro hasn’t employed a single trans person. But that doesn’t really matter for the purposes of wingnuttery; they have a formulaic web page that says they’re willing to include transgender people. Therefore it must be a tranny lobbying firm, ewww! I mean, for God’s sake, many people in the reality-based community might actually see it as a positive development if there was more than a single actual currently-active transgender lobbying organization in the capital, but there’s not.
I feel fairly sure Dickstein Shapiro has devoted about zero seconds to lobbying for trans rights. But basic employment protections — of the sort suggested in their diversity policy — are something most Americans support, at least according to recent polls done about ENDA. And yes, most Americans even support protection against discrimination for trans people; many respondents in a survey I’ve heard mentioned even believe such protections are already guaranteed!
The first blogger linked above, Eisenstadt, is actually one of John McCain’s advisors. His should give us a good indication of the kind of intelligence McCain can draw on, and how out of step they are with actual American values. Most Americans don’t really support firing someone, or discriminating against them in hiring, just because they’re different in some way. Despite our problems, we’re a nation composed of many groups who are “different” somehow.
Oh…noes. Not a … tranny lobbying firm.
Wow, I’m glad to know it’s so appalling that some place might want to put one word in their lipservice boiler plate is a nod to the fact that trans people have rights.
What about the children?
Uh, *as* a nod. Sorry about that. I failed.
can i be the dumb person that asks the question i should already know the answer to?
at what point did transgender become this evil thing? i remember it being a joke in various movies/tv shows… hot guy, meet a girl, then finds out she used to be a man (and the reverse, which was generally a bit cooler, when a girl finds out the boy she is dating used to be a girl and hey, at least he understands menstration…)
i just… i don’t even get why wingnuts dislike homosexuals. transgendered people, who are such a small minority – why CARE? even if you don’t want to know any, why make a BIG DEAL?
is there someplace i can go to read the history of this? i KNOW the right dislikes all of this, but not WHY…
“Tranny” is a slur? First time I’ve ever heard that. I guess the fems forgot to send the memo to the rest of us. Not that that would be the first time…
Am I the only one who giggled at the name Dickstein?
I apologize, really. That just strikes me as a last name I wouldn’t want to have grown up with.
It wasn’t a big deal when trans people were just keeping to the edges of things as a hilarious joke, but the right wing really started freaking out and plastering Washington D.C. with posters of “scary drag queens” when it became clear that trans people actually wanted things like an equal right to get a job, housing, etc. The usual excuse was “oh my god they’ll want to work in our christian bookstores and GASP maybe even come into the bathroom with us, what’s next locker rooms?” But I mean, trans people have historically been seen by the christian right as just an even scarier form of ho-mo-sekshual who you can only find in depraved godless cities. With increased media attention on trans issues in the last few years, it’s obviously a sign of the apocalypse and they’re stepping up their efforts.
It’s a classic “don’t have to take you seriously” diminutive. It gets used AS a slur all the time, c.f. “hot tranny mess.” It’s not necessarily a slur, just like one crotchety old Irish guy calling another one “hey, ya fuckin’ mick” isn’t necessarily hostile. Trans people use it with each other — and then some other people thought it would be cool to also use it to show how down they were, somehow. Oddly, a lot of them were idiots like Siriano. But in popular use, you mostly see it getting used to demean or diminish or ridicule trans people or situations involving trans people.
Fear of anything different from the accepted social orthodoxy….especially when it plays on sexual anxieties/fears.
That does not, however, justify the abject hatred of these overly sanctimonious busybodies. Not only does this undermine human rights, but also enables these busybodies to poke their noses in areas that really should be none of their business. For people whose rhetoric is filled with the theme of living the pure clean life…they sure are eager to poke their noses into the bedrooms and sex lives of others….
It’s also that the old bugaboo of same sex couples was starting to lose its ability to terrify the masses, so they had to move the bar and find some other population to dump on that they could still freak people out with. It’s all about finding an other that’s sufficiently different that their target audience can’t identify with them, because the human connection and compassion thing would ruin the whole pitch.
It is hard to please everyone in the LGBT community at all times but I think most organizations are making the effort.
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
That claim is baseless.
Oh?
http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2008/05/log-cabin-republicans-endorse-lgbt.html
I love this. I didn’t know I worked at a “tranny engineering firm” (we even have an employee that has undergone sexual reassignment surgery, and we DIDN’T tar and feather her afterwards!). I also didn’t know that I shopped at a “tranny grocery store” (which has single-stall bathrooms, and doesn’t check our genitals as we walk in the door).
“Why do they hate us?” – because they have to hate someone. People have to be distracted. It all has to be someones fault (whatever “all”, and “fault” happen to mean – it’s different things to different people). After all, you can’t blame EVERYTHING on the women / feminists / feminazis / etc, / etc,
It’s also very convenient to lump all “trans-type” – folks as “transgender” – it makes it easier for the LG folks to discriminate against MtF (and some FtM) post-ops. Lumping all as “transgender” simply means none have to be accepted as either “men” or “women”.
In many ways segments of the “enlightened” LG community further the “hot tranny mess”.
“Tranny” is the big bug-a-boo because even many LGB folks still hate “trannys” (I know they say they don’t – but, if you use the same standards used to determine a homophobe – they hate “trannys”
Fixed that for ya!
Log Cabin Republicans Endorse LGBT-Friendly Conservatives
I had to laugh when I saw this.
That must be one hell of a short endorsement list. How many “LGBT” friendly conservative republicans are there in congress, or for that matter, in state legislatures?
The title of this post rocks. Best title of the month.
As trans activists and bisexual advocates have been pointing out for years, plastering “LGBT” all over documents or names of things doesn’t guarantee at all that anyone is actually being inclusive of trans and bi people and issues.
Dear Philadelphia Gay News: Just quit doing this, ok? Because throwing “GLBT” / “LGBT” around 20 times in an article just makes you look silly and pathetic. Your commitment to the trans community is poor at best, and bisexual people hardly exist in your little world. You are a weekly paper oriented to white midde-class gay men, with barely enough coverage of women’s issues to justify the “L” in “GL”.
As an aside, I’m getting annoyed with you, Queerunity, over your comments that are basically shilling your blog. Do you ever have anything substantial to say? Because I’ve never seen anything substantial. (Holly, great correction there!)
when we started invading women’s public restrooms and locker rooms as a result of activist judges who allow us perpetrators of rape and pedophilia to accost the poor defenseless females.
funny thing, not one example has actually happened, but that doesn’t stop the fear mongering.
Speaking strictly for myself,
If you are in our community you can call me whatever you want. I watched a show when Christian said “hot trannie mess”. I didnt think much of it but thought he was kinda hot! Anyways, love ya all
(((hugs))) Kelli !
GallingGalla says: Dear Philadelphia Gay News: Just quit doing this, ok? Because throwing “GLBT” / “LGBT” around 20 times in an article just makes you look silly and pathetic.
I’m glad people are starting to notice this one.
First of all there are a bunch of different folks under that “Transgender Umbrella” Half of them are heterosexual and their transprefixed word is transvestite. Others are hetterosexual post-SRS folks.
I sometimes thing gender freedom has more to do with feminism and the liberation of gender from patriarchal imposed roles than it does with L or G.
Some of it is just freedom to be different. I kind of think we might be better off supporting Gender Pac than say HRC (Human Rights Campaign)
Can I ask something without derailing the thread too much? (Feel free to delete if off-topic.)
Christian Siriano’s “hot tranny mess” didn’t strike me as too offensive because in that context I took “tranny” to be short for “transvestite” rather than “transgendered”, making the whole catchphrase translate
“hot tranny mess” = “poorly performed drag”
where the critique is not on the impulse/desire/need to transition, or even to drag, but on the effectiveness of the performance. Now, if you use that to insult a real transgendered person, that’s really insulting and offensive (like calling Ann Coulter a man), but if you’re using it to insult a dress worn by a gorgeous cisgendered teenager, where the whole point of the show is competition on visual performance, I can’t see how it’s offensive.
Of course, the “family values” crowd could not possibly navigate this, and it is offensive as used above. Genuine transition is not mere drag, and it’s not fair to subject it to that kind of flippant insult. (I’m not that much of a Butlerian.)
If the above reads like a cisgendered girl’s attempt to be appropriate lingo that I’m not really welcome to use, please, smack me down on this.
Oh crud. I just saw the May 28th post.
Self-smackdown administered. Sorry about that.
I missed your posts Holly! Glad you are back.
I kind of think we might be better off supporting Gender Pac than say HRC (Human Rights Campaign)
i *definitely* do.