Words Hurt…

Once again Ru Paul shows his disdain for the trans-community on his show.

RuPaul Stokes Anger With Use of Transphobic Slur
The controversial drag queen makes use of the transphobic term 'shemale' in a segment reminiscent of Maury Povich's 'Man or Woman?' episodes.
The Advocate
By Parker Marie Molloy
March 18 2014

Last night's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race featured a contest many on Twitter are calling transphobic. The game, "Female or Shemale," pitted the contestants against each other in a quest to determine whether they were being shown a picture of — as RuPaul phrased it — "a biological woman or a psychological woman."
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The show has a long history of using the term "shemale" in various plays on words, most notably during a segment called, "You've Got Shemail." In last night's game, contestants saw pictures of cisgender women Christina Aguilera, former WWE wrestler Chyna, and "Tan Mom" Patricia Krentcil, alongside photos of well-known drag queens.

"Shemale" is a word that historically refers to transgender women, most prominent in pornography. The word originated with transgender porn and doesn't have roots in "drag culture," as some have argued is the case with the word "tranny."

At night he goes home, takes off his make-up, and becomes Andre Charles a gay man. I do not have any problems with drag queens and I am friends with many drag queens, what I have a problem with is his use a derogatory words for trans-people. In addition, he knows that the words that he uses hurts the community and creates an atmosphere where cis-gender people think it is okay to use those words. He knows that the words have the same effect on many of us the “N” word has to the black community. He knows that we hear those words when we are being attacked.

Remember that words that denigrate or marginalize groups tend to become part of the common lexicon unless we speak up.