MAGNET Boycotts RuPaul's Ongoing Bullying & Misgendering of Transsexual Women; 'Drag Race' October 29th Episode Mocks Transsexualism; (memo: Gay Men Don't Get Free Pass On Transphobia, Hypocrisy & Sexism)

Last night, October 29^th 2012, on RuPaul’s All Star’s Drag Race, gay male entertainer RuPaul once again used his show as a bully pulpit to mock and misrepresent what the medical condition transsexualism actually is, despite the last few years of transsexual and transgender advocates protesting his use of offensive pejoratives such as “tra**y” and “she-male” .

Comedienne Vicki Lawrence asked, “Hey Ru, what’s the difference between a drag queen and a transsexual?” 

RuPaul laughingly replies, “About twenty-five thousand dollars and a good surgeon.”

RuPaul should realize there’s nothing funny about misinforming millions of people about an oppressed community in urgent need of public understanding, acceptance and lifesaving resources. Transsexualism is actually a legitimate medical condition recognized by the American Medical Association where a woman or man is born in the wrong body and undergoes medical treatment to better align their anatomy with their mind and true gender, whereas a drag queen is a gay male dressing up as a woman for entertainment and/or professional purposes.

Ashley Love, an organizer with Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET), is not surprised, “RuPaul’s unapologetic transsexual-phobia reaches millions who feel if gay men can attack women born with transsexualism, then they can too, which further marginalizes and endangers our well-being and healthcare needs. Many gay male celebrities are very big on calling themselves “anti-bullying” advocates, yet very light on understanding that misgendering women born with transsexualism by making dehumanizing ‘trans-face’ comments equates to bullying as well. Will the ongoing hypocrisy, sexism, transphobia and bullying by RuPaul and other gay male public figures ever stop? ”

RuPaul’s unchecked mistreatment and public humiliation of women who happen to be born different must be addressed as his comments mislead society to think it’s acceptable to bully little girls, teens and women born with transsexualiusm. MAGNET calls on the mainstream and LGBT media, human rights non-profits and community members to not give gay men a free pass on bullying transsexual and transgender people. Until RuPaul and his show’s production company, World of Wonder Productions, take responsibility for their ongoing public assaults on the dignity, accurate narratives and well-being of women of transsexual medical history, we ask all allies to join our boycott against RuPaul’s misgendering and bullying of our community.   

TAKE ACTION In 3 Steps:

1: BOYCOTT RuPaul’s Drag Race:

- Urge your friends and family to stop watching this show

- Post MAGNET’s boycott announcment in your social networking sites and email to ally groups:
http://themagnetsource.blogspot.com/2012/10/magnet-boycotts-rupauls-ongoing.html

2: JOIN COVERSATION:

-  Join Facebook Group: ‘Boycott RuPaul’s Bullying, Transsexual-phobia & Misgendering’ :
LINK: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/427114894015880/?fref=ts

Let’s talk about it, together! United we can end the misgendering and bullying that harms transsexual and trandgender people!

3: WRITE & CALL RuPaul & His Production Company, World of Wonder Productions:

-          EMAIL World of Wonder Productions CEOs Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey: 
        Barbato:  rbarbato@worldofwonder.net   Bailey: fbailey@worldofwonder.net  

-          ADDRESS (World of Wonder): 6650 Hollywood Blvd # 400. Hollywood, CA, 90028.

      -          TELEPHONE (World of Wonder): 323-603-6300

 For more information/press inquiries:

Contact MAGNET: MAGNET.Advocacy@gmail.com

Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET) is an anti-defamation organization dedicated to educating the media about transsexual, transgender & intersex issues, as well as pushing for more authentic and positive portrayals of transsexual, transgender & intersex people in the media.

MAGNET's Panel on 'Accurate Coverage of Transsexual, Transgender & Intersex Issues' at the NLGJA Convention Sparked Dialogue about Misrepresentation

Last Friday MAGNET gave an education presentation at the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) Convention entitled ‘Transforming the Dialogue: Accurate Coverage of Transsexual, Transgender & Intersex Issues’. Following the presentation MAGNET organizer Ashley Love moderated a panel which included Eden Lane (hosts programs for PBS, was ‘outed’ as transsexual when she was covering the Democratic convention), Kimberlain O’Driscoll (expert on the transsexual medical condition) and Sarah Blazucki (editor of Philadelphia Gay News).

Session description:

Transforming the Dialogue: Accurate Coverage of Transsexual, Transgender & Intersex Issues

Transsexual, transgender and intersex (TTI) communities are finally coming into the media full time. As the last five years have shown, a steady bombardment of images, regular TV characters, frequent news stories and mainstream transsexual celebrities have made their way on to prime time. This revolution of visibility is an exciting crossroads for these communities. However, many mistakes in reporting are still made. A major concern is the misrepresentation and undermining of the transsexual medical condition by transgender sociopolitical ideology. This session will celebrate our growth and then address concerns.

The first half of the session Ashley gave an overview of the terms transsexual, transgender, intersex, gender queer, cross dresser, transvestite and drag queen and explained why grouping all these extremely diverse groups into one label “transgender” is problematic and intellectually dishonest. She explained why this reservation ideology ignores and endangers the unique social, political and medical needs of transsexual and intersex people. The topic of ‘misgendering’ was discussed, as well as the unethical trend of many media outlets (both LGB'T' and mainstream) of using transsexual people’s ‘pre-transition’ name, which is a form of misgendering and invasion of medical history privacy.

The second part of the session Ashley invited the panelists up. Eden Lane discussed how she was ‘outed’ during the Democratic Convention years back, how her agent dropped her and how she sometimes “becomes the story”, when she is actually just trying to “cover the story”. She talked about how GLAAD’s media guide could be fairer to transsexual people. Eden discussed why it’s important to not mislabel people who are transsexual “transgender”.

Kimberlain O’ Driscoll, an expert on the medical condition transsexualism and who has been a nurse for over thirty years, said in her presentation:

“…Although the portrayal of transsexuals in the media has improved, there is still confusion over the difference between a transsexual who is an individual with an identified chromosomal medical condition and someone who enjoys cross-dressing or performing on stage…… Cross-dressers, transvestites, stage performers and those who refer to themselves as gender queer have been placed under one collective group known as the transgender umbrella. Those with the transsexual medical condition do not belong in this group, yet their portrayal in the media rarely makes note of this. Men and women with the transsexual medical condition are struggling to survive. Insurance companies and lawmakers refuse to assist them because they do not understand the difference between someone who has this particular chromosomal anomaly and someone who perhaps cross-dresses for an evening and returns to their regular life the following day. Accurate and compassionate media portrayal can help correct this.”

Sarah Blazucki was asked about a recent quote given in Curve Magazine concerning Mark Segal, the owner and publisher of the magazine that Sarah is editor at, Philadelphia Gay News. A Philadelphia based trans activist was quoted in Curve saying,

“Last year, at the Pride parade, the out-of-touch owner of the Philadelphia Gay News stood up in front of hundreds of people and asked how many ‘gay and lesbian’ people were in the crowd, but failed to mention the B or the T. I stood there, annoyed and shocked. To be honest, carving out a place for the T in LGB space continues to be a struggle, and Pride month is no different.”

Sarah’s reply to that was that the Segal “was just not thinking”. However, the issue is the problematic practice of ‘T’ erasure in LGBT settings, and the use of “gay community” by many gay and lesbian people as the umbrella term for the LGBT coalition.

Ashley then discussed with Sarah about why transsexual women are feeling slighted in the newer transgender ideology movement, and explained why NLGJA’s current revision of the definition of transsexual is inaccurate, and a subtle attempt to co-opt transsexualism into the transgender ideology agenda.

Justin Tanis, a former employee of NCTE, kept on heckling the entire session. He was upset that the moderator pointed out the inaccuracies and anti-transsexual sentiment in the alleged survey “Injustice at Every Turn”, which Lisa McDonald, a transsexual activist, calls “Inaccurate at Every Turn”. The survey seeks to appropriate and misgender people with transsexualism, and erase their medical legitimacy. Since Tanis was one of the writers of the “survey”, he had personal interests in attempting to discredit anyone or organization that unveiled the intellectually dishonest and manipulated data that was concocted into this survey. Whereas Tanis believes in the “gender deconstructionism umbrella” theory, transsexual people do not.

At the end MAGNET asked people to remember that whenever a colony seeks to emancipate themselves from those who misrepresent and oppress them, that there is sure to be a push back from those who want to keep them co-opted and silenced, which is why some transgender and LGBT opinion leaders and bloggers have been so militant in trying to vilify and discredit those in the transsexual community who are resisting the erasure and misrepresentation of their medical condition's narrative and legitimacy.

The good news is that the toothpaste is already out of the tube....and there is no going back. Now all the transsexual community has to do is organize, educate and correct the misinformation that is currently being distributed by non-transsexual people.

MAGNET is grateful that the NLGJA allowed a session in their programming that went against the grain, and we hope we can aid them in clearing up a lot of the misinformation about the transsexual medical condition in journalism, TV news shows and in both GLAAD's and NLGJA’s media guide defintions of transsexual.

After the Public Outcry against GLAAD Mislabeling Janet Mock’s Medical Condition, GLAAD Edits Their Inaccurate Term “Transgender” to “Transsexual”

May 21, 2011

Shortly following MAGNET’s outreach to GLAAD and MAGNET organizer Ashley Love’s open letter to Marie Claire magazine, GLAAD concedes and edits their inaccurate labeling of Janet Mock as “transgender” and replaces it with “transsexual”.


Janet Mock, an editor for People.com, opened up this week about her transsexul history
In a public comment made yesterday by Janet Mock on her fan page that she addressed to Ashley Love, Janet writes:

"Hi Ashley - I read your open letter and was so so intrigued. GLAAD graciously contacted me this morning to ask how I wanted to be identified and amended their headline to Transsexual."

This week Janet Mock, an editor for People.com, disclosed her transsexual medical condition in an op-ed in Marie Claire magazine. Both in her article and on her website, JanetMock.com, Janet only uses the term transsexual to refer to her condition. However, in a blatant disregard for Janet’s testimony, GLAAD mislabeled her as “transgender” in their coverage, which provoked numerous LGBT news sources to follow the inaccurate labeling as well. The appropriation of Janet’s transsexual condition by gay and transgender politics sparked a public outcry by many transsexual advocates and organizations, who demanded that GLAAD cease and desist from rewriting the transsexual narrative into a gender queer and cross dresser agenda. Transsexual advocates explained that trangenderism is about deconstructing gender, activities, behaviors, lifestyles, fetishes, drag queen stage acts and or/ dismantling the gender binary. Janet is absolutly none of these identities or lifestyles. She is a heterosexual woman who was simply born with a medical condition in which she had corrected and treated ten years ago. She is not a “3rd gender” or gay male drag queen. She is a woman. Period. We ask GLAAD, the gay establishment, transgender ideology and the far right to respect this.

On Thursday, May 19th MAGNET reached out to GLAAD asking them to retract their inaccurate labeling of Janet because the transgender term misgenders and objectifies women born transsexual, jeopardizes their medical legitimacy, impinges on their civil rights, confuses the public, gay appropriates them and invalidates their womanhood. GLAAD continued on with their misrepresentation.

On May 20th, with GLAAD still choosing to enforce transgender ideology onto Janet, MAGNET organizer Ashley Love wrote an open letter to Marie Claire thanking them for doing right by Janet and other Americans born with transsexualism, which she posted on Marie Claire’s website under Janet’s article and on Love’s blog Trans Forming Media.

Later that morning GLAAD contacted Janet to ask her the name of her condition, although she had already said in multiple media outlets that she was of transsexual experience. Janet again told them she was of transsexual experience, after which GLAAD edited their website to accurately refer to her as such.

Ashley Love responds to GLAAD’s edit,

“MAGNET applauds GLAAD for admitting their mistake by editing their coverage to respect the reality of Janet Mock’s medical condition transsexualism. We hope this development leads to GLAAD reforming their media guide to accurately represent Americans with transsexualism, for as it stands now, the guide co-opts, misgenders, de-medicalizes, offends and invalidates their reality. We acknowledge GLAAD’s small step forward, though much work needs to be done changing the problematic way the gay and transgender establishments depict transsexualism. We ask people to keep their sociopolitical agenda out of the doctor’s offices and narratives of human beings with transsexualism. “

MAGNET asks people with transsexualism to please contact GLAAD executive director Jarrett Barrios to thank GLAAD for finally making an effort to satisfy the thousands of Americans with transsexualism who protest being called transgender. Contact Jarrett Barrios: barrios@glaad.org

We are confident that this new development will lead to more discussions which will bring about the authentic and non-sociopolitical representation of the transsexual medical condition by the LGBT establishment.

Anti-defamation Group MAGNET Demands Apology from NBC/Comcast for Dehumanizing SNL "Trans-Face" Skit

Saturday Night Live Mocks & Dehumanizes the Medical Condition Transsexualism

On Saturday night, Saturday Night Live (SNL) aired the most horrifying and dehumanizing mocking of women who are born with a transsexual medical condition. The segment, called ‘Estro-Maxx’, ridiculed the medical transition that women with a transsexual/and or intersex birth challenge go through. NBC/Comcast has yet to reply to the human rights advocates who are outraged that they would allow the writers of SNL to create and air this hateful propaganda towards such an alienated minority group.

SNL trans-face recap (WARNING: extremely offensive and dehumanizing): http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/estro-maxx/1279560/

Ashley Love, an organizer with Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET), explains, “For NBC/Comcast to allow SNL to ridicule human beings born with a transsexual and/or intersex medical condition in such a dehumanizing media assault is equivalent to how racist white men used to paint their skin black and perform “black face”, in which they stripped away the humanity and dignity of African Americans. Likewise, allowing the “trans face” skit to air is just as cruel spirited, appalling and will no doubt incite misunderstanding, fear, marginalization and violence (in that order) onto Americans with a transsexual and/or intersex condition. I’m shocked and disappointed that NBC/Comcast could be this socially irresponsible by allowing such bigotry on their platform. It’s 2011, not the medieval times; it’s unbelievable that such a tele-hate-vision crime would air on a public network.”

Instead of showing the female characters as women who were legitimately undergoing medical transition to have their mind in alignment with their body, they were blatantly mis-gendered and depicted as “men in dresses” and transvestites. Note: a transvestite is a man who wears women’s clothes for either a lifestyle or a sexual fetish (which is how the characters were shown to be), whereas a woman with a genuine transsexual (and/or intersex) medical condition is actually a woman who was born in the wrong body, and therefore takes medicine and has gender affirmation surgery to correct her birth defect.

MAGNET asks NBC/Comcast to apologize for their poor judgment in allowing such transsexual-phobic and dangerously stigmatizing content to air on their station, and to remove the segment from the future airings and Internet. Dozens of Americans with a transsexual and/or intersex birth challenge are murdered annually due to the fear and violence that messages like the ‘Estro-Maxx’ skit provokes. At this time the transsexual, transgender and intersex communities are desperately seeking human rights, acceptance, safety and understanding. Unfortunately, a highly visible media attack on their humanity like this skit is a major set-back, therefore we feel it’s not too much to ask for compassion and accountability. An apology and an edit would be simple to do, but would give hope to many. NBC/Comcast: It’s never too late to do the morally right thing.

For questions, media or to get involved in MAGNET's anti-defamation projects, please contact:
Ashley Love, MAGNET Organizer: magnet_right_now@yahoo.com

Join the Facebook group: "Demand NBC/Comcast to Apologize for SNL 'Estro-Maxx' Trans-Face Skit": http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1735278775162&set=a.1473220223862.2062968.1034352207#!/home.php?sk=group_150560178333091

Please Contact NBC and let them know your concerns, (but be more polite to them then their SNL skit has been to us, it’s always best to be the bigger person and be professional):

NBC Entertainment
Rebecca Marks: Executive Vice President, Publicity
818-777-3030 Rebecca.Marks@nbcuni.com

NBC Universal
Kathy Kelly-Brown
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & Media Relations
212-664-3457 Kathy.Kelly-Brown@nbcuni.com

CQA & MAGNET present "'Where's the "T" in Media?". Panel Discussion October 13th @ Columbia University

New York LGBT Community & Students Host Panel Discussion on Images of Trans People in the Media at Columbia University

What: “Where’s the “T” In Media: Exploring the Mis(representation) of transsexual, transgender and intersex People In the Media” is a panel discussion presented by Columbia Queer Alliance (CQA), Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET), Quam 2010 and GendeRevolution. After the panel discussion there will be a Q & A from the audience

Who: Panelists:

· Ashley Love - an organizer w/ MAGNET -Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People
· Noah Lewis - Staff Attorney at Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund
· Deb Sprague -Writer-Producer: Premiere Radio Network
· Kyle Lukoff - Barnard alum

When: Wednesday October 13, 2010 @ 7pm

Where: 304 Barnard Hall, Columbia University, NYC (see directions below)

Why: In honor of Gender Rights Week, this discussion will focus on the depictions of transsexual, transgender and intersex images in the media. With an abundance of trans images in the last 5 years, are these images affirming trans people, or dehumanizing them? Noted trans leaders and college students offer the facts, and their opinions.

refreshments will be served

RSVP is not mandatory, but is appreciated. RSVP to magnet_right_now@yahoo.com

For more info or press inquires: magnet_right_now@yahoo.com

MAGNET’s website: http://www.themagnetsource.blogspot.com/
Columbia Queer Alliance’s website: http://www.cqanyc.com/

DIRECTIONS:
(1) Take the 1 train to the 116th St stop.

(2) Cross to the west side of Broadway Avenue, opposite the entrance to Columbia University's main campus.

(3) Walk north, until you reach a set of open gates on your left. Barnard Hall will be inside the gates, immediately to your left

MAGNET Panel about Misrepresentation and Exploitation of Transsexual Women Inspires Healthy Community Discussion.

Post Event Release

MAGNET’s positive panel discussion ‘Women Demanding Change Now’ has successful outcome.

‘Women Demanding Change Now: The Dehumanization of Transsexual Women through the Gay Male Hollywood Lens’ was a controversial, yet healthy and much needed discussion concerning the stigmatizing portrayals of transsexual women in the media, particularly those produced by Gay Male Hollywood.

An extremely diverse group of LGBTQI and allies spoke on the panel such as teachers, activists, film/TV producers, journalists, writers and actors.

Though the topics were confrontational, we needed to be honest about the realities affecting the most vulnerable portion of the LGBT community.

The reality is that there are very few opportunities for trans roles in Hollywood, so when gay men get into positions of power to make those few times count, it is extremely disappointing, stigmatizing and hierarchy creating when they put images of “trans face” into the public eye, therefore dehumanizing and marginalizing transsexual women in mainstream society.

Some of the footage from the event will be in Ashley Love’s upcoming documentary concerning media reform for transsexual women.

A outline of what was discussed at the event will be available next week.

The reason MAGNET elected to specifically target the negative images created by gay men is since transsexual women are listed under the LGBT umbrella, then it is even more damaging when the most privileged part of the LGBT community (affluent gay men) gives mainstream society ‘permission’ to oppress us. Transsexual women are not ‘property’ of the privileged white gay (or straight) men who continue to makes millions off exploiting them in the media. They do not have the right to make a minstrel show out of of transsexual women's lives. Gay Male Hollywood's "trans face" images are causing harm at a time when trans women are trying to gain acceptance and civil rights.

Thank you to all supported the trans community’s protest against defamation, misrepresentation and exploitation

MAGNET Honors Sylvia Rivera's Birthday Today

Sylvia Rivera never stopped exposing Gay Inc for excluding trans people, impoverished LGBT people, homeless LGBT youth and queer people of color.


Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People


July 2nd, 2010

MAGNET Honors Sylvia Rivera’s Birthday


Today, July 2nd, is LGBT pioneer Sylvia Rivera’s birthday. MAGNET honors this heroic woman, who is credited by historians as being the person who “threw the first heel” in the Stonewall Inn that fateful night in 1969, when the LGBT community decided to fight back against police brutality. Rivera and many other transgender and gender non-conforming people of color at the inn that night were “guilty” of having “gender inappropriate” clothing, which is the excuse the police used to exercise their prejudice with violence. The police were surprised when the guests at the bar decided to fight back! This riot catapulted the modern LGBT movement, and Rivera and other trans people were responsible for kicking things off.


Rivera continued to advocate for LGBT equality, particularly those disenfranchised and homeless. Sadly, after the gay establishment was done using her to get publicity to raise money, she was abandoned by the gay community, and actually died impoverished. They expressed that “transgender issues are too extreme”. Even the lesbian separatism “angry feminist” community would exclude her from women’s conferences, and she was one time escorted out of a queer women’s conference by enraged lesbian separatists who were transphobic. She was banned from the New York Gay Center for publicly asking them to take better care of homeless queer youth . When Rivera used her voice to call out the oppression of trans, poor and/or people of color from Gay Inc, she was blacklisted from many organizations, media outlets and social circles. Though the Gay Male Media Mafia tried to silence her truth telling, shortly before she died she foretold the future saying, “One of our main goals now is to destroy the Human Rights Campaign because I'm tired of sitting on the back of the bumper. It's not even the back of the bus anymore — it's the back of the bumper. The bitch on wheels is back.”


Today, a new documentary is making the festival circuit called “Stonewall Uprising”. Not surprisingly, the white gay and lesbian people primarily responsible for making the film totally “white washed” what really happened, by mainly interviewing white subjects, to having only white men on the promo poster. And it gets even more inaccurate and appalling, the films totally belittles the involvement not only LGBT people of color had in initiating our movement, but it downplays the significant role trans people had in igniting the flame that Stonewall accomplished. Sorry Gay Inc, no matter how hard you try, your desperate attempt to rewrite history, therefore oppressing trans folk and people of color, will not work. There’s a new Stonewall happening, and this “oppress our own pattern” is getting harder to maintain as the people continue to speak out. Before there was Harvey Milk, there was Sylvia Rivera.


If Sylvia Rivera were alive today, how would she feel about the current status of transsexual, transgender and intersex people in the LGBTQ community? How would she feel about the cries of LGBT people of color (www.getequalnow.org) who are protesting that their voices and needs are not being appreciated or included by the gay hierarchy?


On this special day honoring Sylvia Rivera’s birthday, MAGNET calls on all gay and lesbian people to remember who started Stonewall, and to try to be more understanding of your trans brothers and sisters. MAGNET calls on Gay Inc to remember that it was not the privileged assimilationists who first stormed the gates making it possible for this 40 year campaign for equality, it was lower income people of color who bravely returned transphobic and homophobic violence with such a resistance that the whole world knew the LGBT community had had enough.


Happy Birthday Sylvia Rivera, and thank you for taking a stand!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Rivera

Ashley Love's Huffington Post Critique of "Ticked Off" Film

Read MAGNET Organizer's Ashley Love's critique of transphobic film "Ticked Off With Knives" published on The Huffington Post:

Ashley Love
Trans Advocate and writer
Posted: April 23, 2010 03:54 PM
BIO Become a Fan
Comments 10
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-love/an-image-id-rather-forget_b_549995.html

An Image I'd Rather Forget: A Critique of Ticked Off Tra**ies With Knives

The film Ticked Off Tra**ies With Knives (TOTWK), spreads fear, misogyny, and hateful ideology. I have seen the film and it's very upsetting that people unfamiliar with transsexual and transgender women will walk away from the film with a stigmatizing perception of trans women. This film is dangerous propaganda, whether intentional or not. TOTWK leaves the viewer with the false impression that transsexual and transgender women are unauthentic in their gender identity and really "gay men in drag." The film portrays all trans women as hyper sexualized, jokes, murderous and/or unstable. This is not only inaccurate; it's offensive and incites further misunderstanding and violence.

A student of oppression in the media, I'm an organizer with a trans anti-defamation group named MAGNET-Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Trans People. MAGNET supports the thousands of people who signed GLAAD's petition urging Tribeca to remove this film or who joined the Boycott TOTWK Group. They're warranted in their protest/boycott of this film whether or not they saw the entire movie. The clips available to the public were reason enough to take action. Here's why:

• Use of the dehumanizing pejorative and anti-trans slur "tra**ie" in the title.• Insensitively mentioning real trans victim's of hate crimes names in the trailer (A reedited trailer removes the victim's names).• Exploiting, devaluing and making light of the crisis of violence against trans women.• Director Israel Luna's misrepresentation that the film's about "transgender women" but often insinuates that the characters are not women - but rather men drag performers, "caricatures" & "impersonators."

While we have great respect and admiration for some of the actors in the film, we have great concerns with the director misappropriating oppressed minorities for entertainment, and with Tribeca's irresponsible decision to showcase this film. GLAAD's analysis of the film maintained the following:

Because of its positioning as a transgender film, viewers unfamiliar with the
lives of transgender women will likely leave this film with the impression that
transgender women are ridiculous caricatures of 'real women.' It demeans actual
transgender women who struggle for acceptance and respect in their day-to-day
lives and to be valued for their contributions to our society.

Many stand with GLAAD's statement. Trans women are just that: women. They're fighting to pass ENDA, gain APA/GID reform and health care rights, and establish acceptance in society. TOTWK threatens that acceptance immensely. The unhealthy stigma that this film encourages generates misunderstanding and resistance against trans Americans in a country that seriously lacks education, rights and acceptance of trans people.

Tribeca would never present a film with a title having the "n" word, an anti-Semitic slur, the misogynistic "c" word, or many other pejoratives. Tribeca considers the content of films they give a platform to. It's disappointing that the humanity and safety of trans women was devalued by Tribeca's programming department. It's a sad sign of the times that our concerns about depiction and well being are not considered on par with other minorities. Trans people need the same anti-defamation protections other oppressed minorities receive from Tribeca. We are exercising our freedom of speech by boycotting this film. "Cries of censorship" are just a diversion to take attention off the true issues, which are responsibility, accountability, humanity and oppression.

I find it biased and unethical that many male journalists/bloggers have failed to address the feminist side of this debate. The violence, objectification and dehumanization of women in this film are also being protested. It's disappointing that this film's controversy has spotlighted the issues of ignorance, transphobia and misogyny internalized within some in the gay men's community who have opposed our protest, as well as society at large.

Characters in the film, performers in a drag queen show, explain: "We have female qualities and characteristics... [and] straight male personalities." This description isn't the definition of a transgender woman, and provokes prejudice. That idea is one of the roots of anti-trans sentiment: the falsehood that trans women's gender identity is "fake". This propaganda is the same that the religious right has been preaching in their campaign to slander trans Americans, denying them equal rights (for instance, their "Do you want men in dresses teaching your children?" campaign), and now this film is doing their job for them! This isn't a "women's clothes fetish movement" for crying out loud! It's about "internal" gender. Luna would have had fewer problems if he would have named his film "Ticked Off Drag Queens With Knives" (yet there would still be issues). Inaccurately, he decided to market the film saying it was about transgender "women," yet portrayed them as over-the-top "impersonators" - actually mocking femininity. It stands to reason that transsexual and transgender feminists feel slighted, their identities misrepresented and attacked.

Merriam Webster defines a drag queen as "a male homosexual who dresses as a woman especially for comic or theatrical effect." On the contrary, a woman of transsexual experience is "a woman in which the sex-related structures of the brain that define gender identity are exactly opposite the physical sex organs of the body. Put even more simply, a transsexual woman has a mind that is literally, physically, trapped in a body of the opposite sex." A person from the "transgender umbrella" is "someone whose personal idea of gender does not correlate with his or her assigned gender role." The sociopolitical identity umbrella term "transgender" is good for gaining legislation to protect the broad community, yet the diversity of sub groups (who are equal, but different) within the broad community cannot be ignored. Certainly diversity is the spice of life!

Much of the dialog in the film is not only offensive, but effectively teaches the viewer an inaccurate perception of transgender individuals. At one point the performers allege that when God created Adam and Eve, he allegedly "created a third creature named Ava." Most trans women I know identify as "Eve's daughter," or with the "woman gender," not a "3rd gender," or as Luna writes, "a 3rd creature." Depicting trans women as "others," "neither, ors," "creatures" and "impersonators" is influential in adding to the segregation and misrepresentation of trans women. While some people identify as "gender queer and 3rd gender," none would wish to be characterized as a non-human creature. The film even introduces a new term - "tran-imal" (trans person = animal = not human) which may be the newest trend slur of the season!

One of the characters expresses that sexual assault "turns her on." This is sickly morbid and disturbingly insensitive, especially given the high rate of sexual attacks and violence against trans women. In another scene a nurse is sexually inappropriate with another character who is recuperating in the hospital after surviving a hate crime attack. In this way Luna's script trivializes the crisis of violence against trans women which is horrifying and disempowering to all women.

Some of the drag queen characters have a "trans face" act that is comparable to "black face" of decades past, when white men painted their faces and depicted black people as minstrels and subhuman. Likewise, "trans face" is just as dehumanizing to actual trans WOMEN. Their "trans face" act is "hyper sexualized, vile talking, flamboyant, gay man with women's clothes on. "By the end of the film, most of the characters are dead or brutalized. The film ends with a "drag diva" asking the others, "Do you know what the difference is between us and them [the dead men on the ground]?" The answer expressed: "I don't know. me either" And the film ends.

So there you have it folks, "transgender women" are no different than "murdered men."

And that last sentence pretty much sums up the message of the film.

"An Image I'd Rather Forget"- Ashley Love's Critique & Synopsis of TOTWK

Note: If you'd like to read my more detailed/longer synopsis of the film, email me at magnet_right_now@yahoo.com

The film “Ticked Off Tra**ies With Knives” spreads a fear, misogyny and hate stemmed ideology. I have seen the film and it’s very upsetting that people unfamiliar with transsexual and transgender women will walk away from the film with a stigmatizing perception of trans women. This film is dangerous propaganda, whether intentional or not. TOTWK leaves the viewer with the false impression that transsexual and transgender women are unauthentic in their gender identity and really “gay men in drag.” The film portrays all trans women as hypersexualized, jokes, murderous and/or unstable. This is not only inaccurate, it's offensive and incites further misunderstanding and violence.