Hey, guys! Remember earlier this month when Neil Patrick Harris offhandedly used the word “tranny” and people got angry? Because the word isn’t really that funny? And because your being gay doesn’t earn you a “pass” for using certain slurs? (I mean, NPH is my patron saint and all, but let’s not be cavepeople, here.)
Yeah, well. Lance Bass was co-hosting an episode of Access Hollywood Live, and he was right in the midst of interviewing Funny or Die‘s Billy Eichner when the word just kind of tumbled out of Bass’s big mouth.
Billy Eichner was quick to call Lance out, if a little sardonically: “We’re not supposed to call them ‘trannies,’ though, did you see that?” After all, NPH got a ton of flack for that very mistake, Eichner went on to point out.
Lance Bass tried his best to play it off: “Oh, great, now I’m gonna get in trouble. Awesome.”
Then he said, a little sheepishly, “I didn’t get the memo.” The goof seemed innocent enough? Maybe? I don’t know.
No one was particularly apologetic—which is almost understandable, because copping to an error on live TV is a great way to underscore an error instead of just letting it slide off the radar where it belongs—but then co-anchor Kit Hoover wondered aloud what we’re supposed to call them now. She wondered this out loud. She asked this multiple times.
And everything had been twee till then, but when Hoover made those remarks, my jaw actually dropped. I just can’t even…!
Eichner stared at her for a long time before dismissing her question with a quip, but the whole thing was horrifying.
Let me add that, while the use of “tranny” offends me, so did Eichner’s exclamation of “Jesus Christ!” On live television. Come on, people: your daytime audience is right here in the U.S. Bible Belt. Knock it off.
I mean, it’s not like I’m tuning into Access Hollywood for champagne and caviar, but this whole thing was just tacky. Ugh. If you can’t do live television without also behaving like horrible people, use the teleprompter already.
I didn’t realize “tranny” is a slur or offensive in any way. Isn’t it just short for transsexual? Like calling people gay instead of homosexual. It’s not offensive, in my opinion. But who wants to say transsexual all the time? IT TAKES SO LONG.
I think this is a fairly common reaction! Thank you for talking about this. Here are a few arguments against the word “tranny”:
1) Hmm. I’m not sure it’s like calling someone “gay” instead of homosexual. It’s probably more akin to calling someone “homo” rather than homosexual.
2) There are a lot of ethnic slurs that are just truncations of longer words. When you are introducing people to your Japanese friend at a party, for instance, it is probably best to not shorten the word “Japanese” to save time. Just say the whole word instead.
3) “Isn’t it just short for transsexual?” you ask. Is it? I’m not sure either. When someone uses the word “tranny,” I can’t really be sure whether he means transsexual, transgender, or transvestite.
There are sensitive differences across the board, cultural and otherwise, and while perhaps nobody is obligated to know one from the next, using “tranny” as a catch-all is, at the very least, tone-deaf. (If, at the same hypothetical party, someone kept referring to sushi as “oriental,” I might get a little uneasy. If, on the other hand, someone referred to our Japanese friend as “oriental,” I might actually become angry.)
3.5) If you can’t decide which word is the correct word to use, but you still want to describe a trans person, you could actually probably just say “trans.” I know, I know! Earlier I was all like, “Let’s not truncate words,” but in this case I think it’s OK. Plus! It’s one syllable shorter than “tranny”! No excuse now.
4) Finally, for many years the word “tranny” was typically used as a disparaging term for a type of sex worker. So it is historically a loaded word, no matter how innocently people intend its use today.
“Sex worker” is that long for ho? Don’t hate, extenuate.
who cares? is it like their ‘n-word’
take the fucking negativity out of it. people and their fucking labels cum epithets.
move on