AN AUTOMOTIVE PRIMER
Trannies 101 : An Automotive Primer
Growing up, I had a few uncles and cousins who were really into cars and their inner workings. Some were just weekend tinkerers and tweakers, while others were fully certified mechanics. As a result, I must have heard the word "tranny" a gazillion times by the age of 12. Then again, later in life as I began to drive and bring my cars in for service, a gazillion more times. Yup, you guessed it..."tranny" (or "trannie") is automotive slang for the transmission of your car. Unfortunately, some people use these words when referring to transgender people.
Although some people may refer to themselves as "tranny" or "trannie", mostly as a re-appropriation of the term "transsexual'" and its derivatives, a great proportion of transgender people don't particularly care to be referred to as such, and view it as a slur. By default, transgender is the adjective you want to use should the need arise...the extension to that rule is to use the language, pronouns and name the person you're dealing with wishes - afterall, you wouldn't call someone Julie knowing their name is Rachel, would you? If in doubt, j u s t a s k.
As for the terms "shemale", "he-she", "chick with a dick" or colourful variations thereof...? Please DON'T... if it isn't yet clear why, just take my word for it in the interim.
As a whole, LGBTQ+ people are more likely to suffer violent crimes of all kinds solely by dint of their identity. Such crimes against the LGBTQ+ community are very deeply rooted in misogyny; anyone who isn't cis-hetero-normative is perceived as a threat to masculinity - therefore, by extension, the patriarchy itself.
To drive the point home from the perspective of a transgender woman living in North America ... in a study conducted from 2016-2018 of 629 transgender women(*), nearly half reported experiencing a transphobic hate crime (including physical assault: 39.8% , battery with weapon: 37.3%, sexual assault: 19.3%, and robbery: 3.6%), women of colour being disproportionately targeted. Granted, the sample size is relatively small - however, in light of the fact that the study was conducted in San Francisco (widely viewed as the LGBTQ+ capital of the US), those statistics aren't likely to be less alarming across the transgender population. More on point is the NATURE of these crimes. The Human Rights Campaign tracked 50 transgender and non-binary homicides in 2021; how many do you suppose were transphobic hate crimes? To highlight another alarming fact - that statistic represents a near 150% increase since 2015(***), undoubtedly due in no small part to the anti-trans legislation, rhetoric, disinformation, and outright lies that have become so pervasive over the intervening years.
November 20th is Trans Day of Remembrance, and may have passed by the time you read this; it’s a day observed by the trans community and its allies to mark the passing of brothers and sisters who lost their lives just for existing. At the very least I hope that after reading this, going forward, should you feel the urge to use any of these offensive terms, consider that they are often the last words a transgender person hears just moments before being attacked.
It really is time to leave the tranny under the car where it belongs
References:
*Gyamerah, A.O., Baguso, G., Santiago-Rodriguez, E. et al. Experiences and factors associated with transphobic hate crimes among transgender women in the San Francisco Bay Area: comparisons across race. BMC Public Health 21, 1053 (2021). doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11107-x
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