Hello friends! I'm back! Did ya miss me? I apologize for my extended absence. Family always comes first with me, and I've been sucked into enough family drama to fill ten seasons of a reality show. With the most recent loss of my closest and dearest biological relative, there is, quite frankly, an enormous hole in my heart. Let's fill that fucker! It's time for the Chazonator to get back to work!
If you know me, you know I tell it like I see it, and I've been seeing some very disturbing trends online lately amongst our own LGBT family. There's trannie hating, fem bashing, HIV discrimination, racism and religious superiority happening within our own "community" and this stupidity has to stop.
Today's topic: Trannie Haters
I have more transsexual friends than anyone I know. I can easily identify with all of their experiences with discrimination and people who just don't "get" them. And while I openly joke around with a select few friends I call "trannies", it doesn't give license to any listener to take the word trannie out of context and use it to hurt anyone. Sexuality and sexual identity are very complex, personal issues. Please take the time to educate yourself if you don't know whether the word you're using with any given party could be construed as an insult. That's our own personal responsibility. Many trans folk simply choose not to identify as transsexual at all, and why would they have to? Physical transition is like any other elective surgery, in the sense that it simply puts organs where they should go, not where they were genetically placed. If I believed that I was born a woman, my penis would be about as useful to me as my appendix. The mind doesn't change, the body does, and the conjunction creates comforting normalcy to those who seek it. Who are we to judge another's quest for normalcy in this mad world? As a gay child, I experienced gender identity issues myself. It wasn't until I reached my 20's that I really fell in love with having a penis and accepted my manhood entirely. And the androgynous features I proudly displayed in my youth are forever captured on film and photo. I whole heartedly embrace my feminine side and although I rarely find the occasion to dress up, I am a fierce muthafuckin drag queen!
Drag Queens
Can we stop dissing queens and clumping them together with transsexuals? Drag queens are entertainers, most with flair extraordinaire! RuPaul is a drag queen. She puts on an elaborate, couture costume, made just for her. She wears five thousand dollar, lace front wigs, which lay so perfectly on her shaved head that it looks like fierce, natural hair. Her make up is not cover girl, it's Mac, because Mac covers BOYS. Costumes can be very intimidating. The first time I had a professional make up artist paint my face in drag, my little brother William, who was also gay, instantly became enraged at the sight of my face. He said I looked so bitchy that is freaked him out. I could never really understand that. I've always been drawn to fierce, strong looks and almost nothing has intimidated me since I was sixteen. Grace Jones, Boy George, Pat Benetar, David Bowie, Jagger, Annie Lennox, Pink, and especially Madonna. I can't help it if full, glamour make up transforms me into a Diva with a look that can stop traffic and raise the hair on anyone with a penis and eyes. That's what drag does. It's a costume and nobody should be scared of it, and yet so many gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and yes, even transsexuals bash drag queens. Why? Because they've been taught to judge others as they have been judged. It's our own brand of self hate. Like RuPaul says, "Love yourself, because if you can't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?" And I'm here to tell you that we all need love, no matter who you are.
And while I probably haven't cleared up every misconception or addressed every nuance of the inner bigotry that has infected our LGBT population, world wide, I have said my piece. When you see a transsexual person, and you make fun of him or her, it makes you a bully. Chaz Bono is a respectable man who has a successful career in the entertainment industry. Anyone who cannot respect him will get no respect from me, and the same goes for all of my transsexual friends. The main reason equality has been such a long time coming is because of our own lack of unity. When we finally all come together and stand, side by side, as the brothers and sisters that we truly are, only then can we achieve the equality we deserve and demand.
Peace
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