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Tranny is an offensive and derogatory slur for a transgender individual, [1] often specifically a transgender woman. [2]
During the early 2000s, there was some confusion and debate over whether the term was considered as a slur, was considered acceptable, or a reappropriated term of unity and pride, but by 2017, the term had been banned by several major media stylebooks and was considered hate speech by Facebook. [3] [4]
Roz Kaveney wrote in The Guardian in 2010 that tranny had recently appeared to be undergoing reappropriation to be used with pride by trans activists, but "it didn't take", due in part to the word's continued use as a term of abuse. [5] After using the slur in 2011, Lance Bass said he had thought the term was not a slur after having heard it used on RuPaul's Drag Race or Project Runway , but he apologized for using the slur after learning that it was not acceptable. [6] GLAAD's 2011 Transgender Resource Page said the term is "usually considered offensive and/or defamatory to transgender people". [7]
Singer-songwriter Justin Vivian Bond and writer Kate Bornstein, both transgender, have historically advocated for use of the term, [8] with Bond saying in 2014 that banning the word does not eliminate transphobia but rather "steal[s] a joyous and hard-won identity from those of us who are and have been perfectly comfortable, if not delighted to be trannies." [8] Bornstein claimed the word was used in the 1960s and 1970s in Sydney, Australia by trans people as "a name for the identity they shared", but said no one should think Bornstein was giving them permission to use the slur to describe anyone without first knowing the term they used for their gender identity. [9] In Tranny: An Evidence-Based Review, Cristan Williams reviewed historic use of the slur and found the first published instance in 1983, originating among gay men. [10] Williams expressed doubt that the word was popularized long before then. [10]
In 2014, the Tranny Awards changed its name to the Transgender Erotica Awards, citing feedback from the "extended trans adult community" as a reason to stop using the term. [11] In 2017, Facebook's anti-hate speech algorithms started blocking posts containing tranny, as well as the slur for lesbians dyke and the slur for homosexual men fag . [3]
In December 2024, U.S congresswoman Nancy Mace used the slur both on social media and out loud with a bullhorn at the US Capitol to further provoke queer protestors of her transphobic policies. [12]
Pre-internet and in the early years of the internet in Australia, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, the term was used as an informal in-group identifier amongst people who would now use the term trans or transgender. [13] [14] The term did not have the strong negative connotations that it has today.
The word cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is not transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 as an antonym to transgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender. The term has been and continues to be controversial and subject to critique.
Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to social gender roles. Transphobia is a type of prejudice and discrimination, similar to racism, sexism, or ableism, and it is closely associated with homophobia. People of color who are transgender experience discrimination above and beyond that which can be explained as a simple combination of transphobia and racism.
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is different from the sex assigned to them at birth, although some non-binary people do not consider themselves transgender.
Shemale is a term most commonly used in the pornography industry to describe trans women or other people with male genitalia and female secondary sex characteristics acquired via hormones or surgery. Many people in the transgender community consider the term offensive and degrading. Using the term shemale for a trans woman may imply that she is working in the sex trade.
GLAAD is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since expanded to queer, bisexual, and transgender people.
LGBTQ slang, LGBTQ speak, queer slang, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others.
Sexual attraction to transgender people has been the subject of scientific study and social commentary. Psychologists have researched sexual attraction toward trans women, trans men, cross dressers, non-binary people, and a combination of these. Publications in the field of transgender studies have investigated the attraction transgender individuals can feel for each other. The people who feel this attraction to transgender people name their attraction in different ways.
Roz Kaveney is a British writer, critic, and poet, best known for her critical works about pop culture and for being a core member of the Midnight Rose collective. Kaveney's works include fiction and non-fiction, poetry, reviewing, and editing. Kaveney is also a civil liberties and transgender rights activist. She has contributed to several newspapers such as The Independent and The Guardian. She is also a founding member of Feminists Against Censorship and a former deputy chair of Liberty. She was an editor of the transgender-related magazine META.
Sheila Jeffreys is a former professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, born in England. A lesbian feminist scholar, she analyses the history and politics of human sexuality.
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Grooby Productions is a company founded in London, England in 1996 and operationally based in Los Angeles, California, that produces transgender online adult entertainment. It established itself as one of the pioneer companies of online adult transgender entertainment with its website Grooby Girls, "the first transsexual pay site with original content". The company owns a number of transgender adult websites, produces its own DVD line, and has other interests in forums, blogs and social networking in the transsexual niche genre including the Transgender Erotica Awards.
Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives is a 2010 American rape and revenge exploitation film written and directed by Israel Luna. The film follows a trio of trans women who exact revenge on the men who brutally assault them and murder two of their friends. The film is split into five chapters, one of which is a missing reel.
CeCe McDonald is an African American trans woman and LGBTQ activist. She came to national attention in June 2012 for accepting a plea bargain of 41 months for second-degree manslaughter of a man she stabbed after McDonald and her friends were assaulted in Minneapolis outside a bar near closing time. The attack, a year prior, was widely seen as racist and transphobic, and became physical when McDonald was struck in the face by the man's friend with "an alcoholic drink" glass causing a bleeding gash that needed stitches.
Transgender pornography is a genre of pornography featuring transsexual or transgender actors. The majority of the genre features trans women, but trans men are sometimes featured. Trans women are most often featured with male partners, but they are also featured with other women, both transgender and cisgender.
TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term TERF was originally used to distinguish transgender-inclusive feminists from a group of radical feminists who reject the position that trans women are women, reject the inclusion of trans women in women's spaces, and oppose transgender rights legislation. Trans-inclusive feminists assert that these ideas and positions are transphobic and discriminatory towards transgender people. The use of the term TERF has since broadened to include reference to people with trans-exclusionary views who are not necessarily involved with radical feminism. In the 2020s, the term "trans-exclusionary radical feminism" is used synonymously with or overlaps with "gender-critical feminism".
Portrayals of transgender people in mass media reflect societal attitudes about transgender identity, and have varied and evolved with public perception and understanding. Media representation, culture industry, and social marginalization all hint at popular culture standards and the applicability and significance to mass culture, even though media depictions represent only a minuscule spectrum of the transgender group, which essentially conveys that those that are shown are the only interpretations and ideas society has of them. However, in 2014, the United States reached a "transgender tipping point", according to Time. At this time, the media visibility of transgender people reached a level higher than seen before. Since then, the number of transgender portrayals across TV platforms has stayed elevated. Research has found that viewing multiple transgender TV characters and stories improves viewers' attitudes toward transgender people and related policies.
Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout is an autobiography by Laura Jane Grace, co-written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi and published by Hachette Books on November 15, 2016. Informed by extensive journal records, it covers Grace's childhood and early involvement in anarcho-punk, and her role as frontperson of Against Me! from the band's founding to her publicly coming out as a transgender woman in 2012.
Laura Kate Dale is an English video game journalist, author and activist. She is known for writing about the transgender and autism communities in relation to video games and for her video game industry leaks. Many of her topics tackle accessibility for disabled players and LGBTQ+ representation.
Sam Feder is a transgender American filmmaker whose work is focused on the exploration of visibility regarding race, class, and gender. Feder is concerned with bringing visibility to trans peoples experiences, and prefers to be identified with gender-neutral pronouns. They are best known for the 2020 Documentary Disclosure. Their films have been nominated for and received multiple awards, including the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, the GLAAD outstanding Documentary Award, and the Peabody awards.
On November 18, 2024, Nancy Mace introduced an anti-transgender bathroom bill in the US House of Representatives to ban newly elected member Sarah McBride from using bathrooms other than those of her sex assigned at birth. Two days later, US House speaker Mike Johnson declared that Mace's ban was being ushered in.
