Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Transgender News or Tranny News?

Transgendered individuals have been becoming more vocal and visible within the media of late, and now the US has appointed a trans woman as part of his congress.

US President Barack Obama has appointed a trans woman to the role of senior technical advisor to the Department of Commerce. Amanda Simpson is on the board of directors of the National Centre for Transgender Equality and has worked in the aerospace and defence industry for 30 years.

In a statement, she said: "I'm truly honoured to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me. "And at the same time, as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others."

Simpson holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration along with an extensive flight background. She is a certified flight instructor and test pilot with 20 years of experience.

Way to go Amanda!

On the other side of the Atlantic, news was made when one individual took offense to a slang term used in a local newspaper headline.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has ruled that a Belfast newspaper breached the press code of practice for calling a trans woman a "tranny". Keira McCormack complained she had been deeply insulted by the November 1st 2009 article in the Sunday Life which described her as "burly". She had worked as a rape counsellor in Belfast between 2005 and 2009 but the newspaper questioned whether the "5ft 10in transsexual" was suitable for the job.

The article, titled 'Tranny worked in rape centre', was found to be discriminatory and in breach of Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors’ Code of Practice. The Sunday Life argued that no offence had been intended in the use of the word 'tranny' which it considered to be "widely used" in articles about trans people.

McCormack said that the term 'tranny' was generally used by transvestites or cross-dressers but was deeply insulting to transgender people. The PCC considered that the use of the word ‘tranny’ was a needless abbreviation which many found offensive. It ruled that the word was pejorative and the complaint was upheld on this point.

I believe this could be a case of who uses the term and in what context. Perhaps a transgendered person could get away with calling another a Tranny, similar to a gay man calling another the "F" word or a black person calling another the "N" word.

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