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Tranny is an offensive and derogatory slur for a transgender individual, often specifically a transgender woman.

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.

Usage

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. 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. GLAAD's 2011 Transgender Resource Page said the term is "usually considered offensive and/or defamatory to transgender people".

Singer-songwriter Justin Vivian Bond and writer Kate Bornstein, both transgender, have historically advocated for use of the term, with Bond saying in 2014 that banning the word does not eliminate transphobia but rather "steal a joyous and hard-won identity from those of us who are and have been perfectly comfortable, if not delighted to be trannies." 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. 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. Williams expressed doubt that the word was popularized long before then.

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. 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.

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.

Regional Variations

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. The term did not have the strong negative connotations that it has today.

References

1. "Tranny". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). 2017. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
2. "Tranny". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
3. ^ Dottie Lux; Lil Miss Hot Mess (14 August 2017). "Facebook's Hate Speech Policies Censor Marginalized Users". Wired. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
4. "Transgender Terms". GLAAD Media Reference Guide. 22 February 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
5. Kaveney, Roz (30 June 2010). "Why trans is in but tranny is out". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
6. Bass, Lance (23 December 2011). "Why We Shouldn't Use the Word 'Tranny'". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
7. "GLAAD's Transgender Resource Page". Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Archived from the original on 3 January 2011.
8. ^ Lowder, J. Bryan (30 May 2014). "Is "tranny" a slur or an identity? Who decides?". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
9. Bornstein, Kate (12 July 2009). "Who You Calling A Tranny?". Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
10. ^ Williams, Cristan (28 April 2014), Tranny: An Evidence-Based Review, The TransAdvocate, archived from the original on 15 May 2017, retrieved 18 May 2017
11. Molloy, Parker Marie (14 March 2014). "'Tranny Awards' Changes Its Name, Not Its Nature". The Advocate. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
12. "Nancy Mace, a Sitting Congresswoman, Is Openly Using Slurs Online". Yahoo News. 6 December 2024. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
13. "The Australian Good Tranny Guide". 13 December 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
14. Noah Riseman (26 September 2023). Transgender Australia. ISBN 9780522879322.

External links

• Transgender culture
• Cross-dressing culture
• LGBTQ-related slurs
• Pornography terminology
• English words
• Transphobia
• Pejorative terms for women
• Pejorative terms for men