Word of caution: I went to Google images to look for a pic for this post and typed in “tranny,” that was a bad idea . . . a very, very, very bad idea.
Via Huffington Post:
Actress Gabourey Sidibe repeatedly used a transphobic slur when she recently visited “The Arsenio Hall Show” to discuss living in New Orleans.
The “American Horror Story: Coven” star said the word “tranny” no less than five times in under a minute when she appeared on the show on January 23:
Gabourey Sidibe: There was a bar that we would frequent and every time we’d go, when we were leaving every single time there was always like a gang of cops arresting trannies.Audience: [Laughter]
Sidibe: Specifically trannies.
Arsenio Hall: Yeah…
Sidibe: And I don’t know what goes on with trannies but that tranny on tranny crime needs to stop!
Arsenio Hall and audience: [Laughter]
Sidibe [chuckling]: It is tearing our nation apart!=
While Sidibe brings up a good point about the treatment of transgender people by the police (and not just in New Orleans, where the profiling and abuse of trans women of color by the police was allegedly so bad the Justice Department launched an investigation, a recent study found that “trans people across the U.S. experience three times as much police violence as non-transgender individuals” and that “even when transgender people were the victims of hate crimes, 48 percent reported receiving mistreatment from the police when they went for help”) the use of the term “tranny,” the tone of the segment and the way the segment was packaged and presented on “The Arsenio Hall Show’s” YouTube channel has many upset.
Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told The Huffington Post:
Using the word ‘tranny’ isn’t OK anymore. Using it to make fun of people is definitely not OK. And using it to make fun of any kind of violence is just plain wrong. I know she meant it in fun but that’s the problem in this case. It’s not just that she used the word ‘tranny’ but that she’s making fun of violence in a city where the police have a history of committing violence and discriminationagainst trans women of color. It’s the kind of thing that trans people listen to and say, ‘This is someone who is not thinking about our lives. This is someone who is making fun of our problems.’ Gabby is someone who has approached lots of different social issues with grace and class and so this is just such a disappointment.