So my gay ass—already pretty sparkly—got glitterbombed at the University of California at Irvine last Monday. This went up on Bilerico yesterday:
According to my source at the event, Savage was in the middle of answering a question from a student who was wondering if her boyfriend was a freak because he watched porn featuring trans women. Savage suggested that her boyfriend was a freak, while freely using the terms “shemale” and “freaky tranny porn.” That is when two individuals ran up and threw glitter on him yelling “Transphobe!”
So: a “source” says that I stood on a stage at UCI and “freely” tossed the word “shemale” and the phrase “freaky tranny porn” around and called someone who was into trans porn—and presumably attracted to trans people—a “freak,” comments which inspired two “individuals” to run up and toss glitter at me. Now there’s a Change.org petition—I’ve already signed it, won’t you?—scolding me for my use of “trans-phobic language” and demanding that I apologize for being a such naughty cissy.
The folks who’ve signed the petition—most with their hearts in the right place—have been misled.
Here’s what went down: I was doing a “Savage Love Live” Q&A at UCI. People submit questions anonymously, just like they would for a regular column, using whatever language or terminology they’re comfortable with. I read their questions aloud—verbatim—and offer some on-the-fly advice. Here’s the complete transcript of my “transphobic” comments at UCI (the italics indicate when I’m reading the anonymously submitted question):
DAN: [READING FROM CARD] My boyfriend is straight but he enjoys anal sex and he asks me to make love to him in his butt all the time. [ASIDE:] You have no one to blame but yourself. [READING FROM CARD] Also, he likes watching she-male porn. Could you tell me why he is acting like this? [ANSWER:] Um, I’m gunna go out on a limb here and say it’s because he likes shemale porn and he enjoys anal stimulation. He’s acting like this because he’s a very freaky boy. If you’re into him, and you’re willing to go there for him, there are a lot of straight guys who are into transexual sex-workers, transexual porn, she-males for lack of a better term, although some people think that’s very offensive—
It was at that moment—just as I was beginning to address the problem with the term “shemale”—that I was glitterbombed.
I did say “shemale.” I read the question as-written, repeated the term in my response, and then used “transexual” in place of “shemale” (“transexual sex-worker,” “transexual porn”), modeling the use of less offensive terms, before circling back to “shemale” in order to unpack why some find it offensive. I never used the phrase “freaky tranny porn.” I never said the word “tranny” at UCI at all; indeed, I’ve made a conscious effort to stop using “tranny” after the memo went out last year declaring the word an off-limits “hate term.” (Mike Signorile wrote a good post about the rapidly changing take on the word “tranny” here.)
As for “freaky boy”: that boy is a bit of a freak and anyone who reads my column knows that I’m pro-freak, pro-kink, pro-porn, pro-just-about-everything. I’m a freak myself, as I’ve said numerous times, I married a freak, some of my best friends are freaks. “Freak,” in the context of “Savage Love,” is a freakin’ compliment. More to the point: I didn’t tell the girl who asked the question to dump her boyfriend because he enjoys trans porn; indeed, I urged her to keep dating him if she was into him and willing to go there (anal, allowing him to enjoy his porn). And this is nothing new with me: I’ve long taken the side of people who are trans or attracted to trans folks. Here’s a column I wrote about trans issues in 1999. (Try not to get bogged down on the headline, thought policepersons, as columnists don’t write their own headlines.) And the advice I was giving to trans/trans-attracted people in 1999 isn’t much different from the advice I gave earlier this year. (Is this the kind of advice that a transphobic sex-advice columnist doles out? Is this? Or this?)
Back to what went down at UCI: It’s clear from the transcript—and it’s clear from the way that my remarks are being actively and maliciously misrepresented—that the people pushing this “Dan Savage is transphobic!” meme are not honest actors. False accusations of engaging in hate speech are themselves a form hate speech—particularly in the hothouse environment of LGBT activism. Any honest reader of my column, like any honest person who attended my Q&A at UCI, knows that not only I am not transphobic, I’m pretty rabidly pro-trans.
Or: If I’m the enemy of trans people everywhere, trans people everywhere could use more enemies like me.
UPDATE: Someone who was at the UCI event describes in his own words what went down in a comment at JMG. The commenter misattributes “freaky tranny porn” to me, based on the Bilerico report, but he gets the rest of the details right.
UPDATE 2: This just in from someone who signed that Change.org petition:
I signed this petition at the request of a trusted friend and, after I signed it, I immediately regretted it after I realized the nature of the petition. Please accept my apologies… I should have been more careful with what I was signing. Thank you for your continued efforts and all that you do. You have been a great influence on my life and those around me.
UPDATE 3: Some folks are slamming trans activists and trans people generally in the comments thread here and on some other blogs. Please don’t do that. And for the record: not one of the folks who’ve glittered me—one at Eugene, three at UCI—is actually trans. I know, right? They’ve all been “allies” of the trans community. (Allies of? Or embarrassments to?) That self-righteous, attack-your-allies, too-angry-to-listen bug isn’t unique to Ts; it’s been documented in Ls, Gs, and Bs too. (I myself have succumbed on, oh, one or two occasions.) Also for the record: the day after my talk at UCI, I met and spoke with a trans student—hey there, C—and we had a perfectly delightful, perfectly rational, and mutually enlightening conversation about transphobia, porn, sex, whether “shemale” is ever okay, his coming out process (recent), my coming out process (not so much), and how he needs to stop smoking. (Really, C. Stop smoking.) It was the best conversation I had at UCI, it was a private conversation (it wasn’t filmed), and it was with a trans man.
So, non-trans commenters, please don’t make generalizations about all trans people based on the actions of a few… non-trans people. [Scroll down: apparently one of the GBers is trans.]
UPDATE 4: More damning evidence of my transphobia emerges! A commenter at JMG:
Dan Savage raises over $5000 (from his largely “straight” readership, mind you) for an African American trans woman’s funeral after her murder.
Dan Savage raises over $2000 (from his largely “straight” readership, mind you) for a young trans student kicked out of the same school in Mississippi that Constance McMillan was kicked out of.
Here’s his support of a brutally beaten trans woman in Michigan.
Dan Savage raises the remaining needed funds (from his largely “straight” readership, mind you) for trans porn star and acitivist Buck Angel to finish a documentary about his life/work.
Like I said yesterday: If I’m the enemy of trans people everywhere, trans people everywhere could use more enemies like me.
And if I may address this piece of batshittery:
You may notice that Dan Savage managed to get the glitter bombers arrested, which tends to be a particularly dangerous experience for trans people. If cis folk with the privilege not to get so badly harmed once they do inevitably get arrested were willing to do it, more power to them.
I didn’t get anyone arrested. There was security at the event—there’s always security at television shoots because the presence of TV cameras brings out the crazies—and campus police officers went looking for the GBers while I was briefly backstage getting de-glittered. I went back on stage and continued with the talk. I didn’t know that someone had been arrested until the talk was over 90 minutes later when the police came backstage and told me they had caught one of the people who “assaulted” me. I laughed when they said “assaulted” because, you know, we were talking about glitter. The cops asked if I wanted to press charges, I said no, and I asked them not to hassle the GBer they’d nabbed. I’ve had no further contact with the police.
And this is my favorite comment:
Savage is so addicted to attention and also seems to have such few scruples that I wouldn’t be surprised if he hired this last group of glitter-bombers to do what they did just so he could play the victim and also create this post with impunity. I would not put such behavior past him. Its already been revealed they were not transwomen.
I glittered myself! And the GBers weren’t brave cis folks putting their privileged bodies on the line in defense of their trans allies! They were working for me! And I had one of them arrested!
UPDATE 5: Oh, right—the glass jar.
I was at the Eugene, OR filming. I hope this doesn’t upset some of you.
I think DSWC is a bio female, and straight. My friends know her, and while they have gone to pains to say she is an ally of the LGBT community, she was wrong here. She has been known to be an ally in LGBT causes before, and is well liked. But this is really unfair to Mr. Savage.
I don’t remember enough about the Eugene, OR speech to say whether Dan had said anything that night to deserve the glitter bomb. I do remember it happened early and she yelled something about being a rape apologist. The thing I find really bad on her part is that she threw the large heavy glass container at his head after she threw the glitter. It made a very loud “clunk” when it hit the floor that could be heard throughout the auditorium. After the talk some other students looked and there was a dent in the stage floor where it hit. It barely missed Mr. Savage’s head. If it would have hit him, she could have done serious damage to him. A concussion or worse. She doesn’t seem to be showing any shame on the blog post that this author, has linked to, but this was seriously dangerous.
Just as the witness from the other school commented, once Mr. Savage was cleaned he went on with his conversation and we all laughed, groaned, blushed and had a really good time. Dan spent a few minutes talking about trans issues as well. All very sex positive.
Just thought you all should know. Someone out there is not telling the truth. Whether it is DSWC or the author of this post.
If I hadn’t have ducked, or if I didn’t see it coming (which I might not have, what with glitter in my eyes and all), that glass jar would’ve hit me square in the face. As luck would have it, I did see it coming, and was able to dodge it. So there was that too.
UPDATE 6: The Eugene GBer Tweets that she’s a trans woman and demands a correction:
Rose was the GBer who threw the jar at my head but she wasn’t the GBer who was arrested; that was one of the GBers at UCI.
UPDATE 7: A reader writes…
I just want to add one more voice to the chorus of sane and reasonable trans folks who respect what you’ve done for the T in GLBT. I’m a long-time fan of the column/podcast, and I think that queer folks who think that you’re the enemy need to get some serious perspective (and I tell the ones I know that, though I doubt they listen). I’m always wary of the “X doesn’t speak for ME!” cries, because in most cases no one ever fucking said they did, but it worries me a little to see the reactions in the comments threads and to see people piling on trans folks for the insanity of the glitter bombers—I promise we’re not all douchebags!
And of course there’s still some room for improvement in how you talk about trans issues, but you know that, and it doesn’t detract from all the real and concrete support you give to the community. So, thanks again for all your hard work.
At least glitter isn’t much of a punishment for someone of your fabulousness. Glad you ducked the jar.
Wendell
This is a waste of bandwidth.
The fact that you think you can clearly identify trans people further erases those who have to pass as cis to survive. I hope you rethink demonizing activists who were actually intimately affected by your words. Know that there were tears shed by this entire ordeal (but moreso at the comments of your fans on blogs than what you actually did). I appreciate your 3rd update.
@98, I have no interlized transphobia. Perhaps it’s you who has interlized lexophobia?
Consider that carefully: maybe you’re the one who is afraid of words, because you think they’re “baad” even in a vacuum? That is what I’d call “lexophobic”.
@106 then you’re not an ally to the trans community, at the very least. Because if a trans person (and I’m sure most would agree with me) is hurt by a word or an expression, and you think it’s ok for someone (including yourself) to use it, not only is it inconsiderate, but it’s blatantly ignorant (or even willful).
@105, the fact you think you can identify transphobic people just by looking at words further erases your friends and supporters — those you don’t know you have. I hope you rethink demonizing words as a means of achieving social change — it didn’t work in Soviet Russia, it isn’t going to work here.
Know that tears are shed also when hate is used against mere words.
Your heart is in the right place. Your mouth isn’t. That’s all. And this is not likely to change. Thanks for your input, and have a nice day.
@107, if one of my trans friends were hurt by a word, I’d worry about this person and his/her feelings, not about the word. I’d also worry about the intention of those who tried to hurt him/her, again not about the word.
If you insist in fighting against words, you’ll never save people. As simple as that.
Speaking as a transsexual, I’d LOVE to have many more “enemies” like Dan and far, far fewer “allies” like those glitterbombing morons!
@107, some people (in my country even) are offended by the word “American”. Does this make you an inconsiderate, or blatantly ignorant (or even willful) every time you use it?
Words are empty puffs of airs; what they’re used for is what is important. Your problem is not words. It’s people and what they think and do. Concentrate on the real enemy, not on some paper tiger made of imagination and wishful thinking.
Toasting in a reactionary bread.
@110, I wished kamheron above would pay attention to transgendered people like you. To him, you’re invisible, because he’s so sure of his holy doctrine he can’t really see you!…
Ah. Guess we won’t get to 300 posts after all; it seems like this one has mostly run out of gas.
Unless ankylosaur posts another 200 comments, of course, which is always a possibility.
I believe Dan because whenever I’ve read claims that he’s prejudiced against any group backed up by link, quote or other evidence, I’ve always found it to be either a misinterpretation, a matter of context (e.g. dan being sarcastic, a qualifying statement left out) or a matter of the critics personal opinion (that isn’t generally agreed upon even by the group in question).
Really, C. Stop smoking.
Cause 20% of smokers get HIV.
And that’s bad.
@114, if you help me we could do it. 🙂 After all, this would be good fro transgender visibility, right?
Edit: Oh, or a statement he retracted once he knew better.
@84 Can’t give you that one. Freak gets tossed my way all the time, as a disabled individual. I’ve used the word myself — and never in a context of transgenderism. Sometimes it’s not all about you.
What’s a little odd is that you used the better term transsexual twice and followed it with “she-male for lack of a better term.”
jesus christ why are some trans people so sensative? meh get some counseling if you’re so fucking fragile.
@110, The one thing to hope for is that, despite the glitterbombing and the lack of understanding of some transgender activists, Dan will continue his advice-column-turned-activism-sorta in favor of sexual minorities.
Does a man-made vagina look like a can of spam dropped from a great height?
The typical PC police. e_e
@79,
Sadly I must state that I am disinclined to accept your request…
“all 76 people above should kill themselves for being fucking morons and posting in these comments”
I’m hopeful that this was your attempt at ‘humor’? I’m inclined to think that degrees in biology and chemistry, in addition to post graduate work, is indeed an indication of my being an excellent example of a “moron”. Thank you. 🙂 As for the “posting in these comments”, you have also committed this ‘sin’. Anyway, I hope your day improves.
Kind regards,
k
Long time fan and have probably read everything Dan’s ever written from his early days as a columnist when the column was called “Hey Faggot” to his published books to his blogs.
1. I agree that the glitter bomb was a premeditated act. Those bombers were lying in wait for anything Dan might say regarding the trans community to glitter bomb is ass, and like a poster above, the very question itself may have been planted as an excuse to glitter bomb Mr. Savage. Just say’n.
2. I don’t get why some in the trans community would get their silk panties/cotton BVD’s all twisted in a bunch for the use of of tranny. One of the best gay clubs in San Francisco (arguably the most PC place on the planet) is Trannyshack. From the website:
“Trannyshack, San Francisco’s infamous drag performance night club, shocked and delighted packed audiences every Tuesday night at midnight for over twelve years. Defying all expectations, Trannyshack incorporated everything from low brow trash to high brow performance art, and became famous (or, infamous) worldwide as the quintessential San Francisco experience. No visit to the City was complete without a stop at Trannyshack.
The club has been featured in Out (which named it one of the top 10 reasons to move to San Francisco), Genre, Instinct, and Paper magazines and won numerous Best of the Bay awards, and was filmed for an independent feature length documentary , titled “Filthy Gorgeous: The Trannyshack Story” . Trannyshack is now branching out its empire, with shows in LA, London, Waikiki, Seattle, Portland, New Orleans, and Reno enjoying great success.”
I’ve been to it in both SF and LA and each time the place has been packed with everyone from audience and performers alike having a great time. In LA where i live the longest running gay event is a themed party called “Dragstrip 66”, where the term “Tranny” is often integrated cleverly in its themed nights. Maybe all these trans gendered folks don’t go clubbing much but they should try it, these events are the bomb (grin).
3. I’ve noticed for some reason that Dan has become something of a lightning rod topic on some gay sites. Recently on both Towleroad and Queerty – Dan’s glitter bombing episodes have been met with some much vitriol that its surprising (on Queerty last week there was over 300 comments re: Dan’s glitter bombing). Dan is out there fighting the good fight with humor and aplomb, using words like fag, freak, faggot etc, but still articulating excellent arguments for GLBT rights.
So dissenters, unless you’ve got some connections that’s going to get you on CNN, Bill Maher, MSNBC or any other national media outlet and once on, you can speak eloquently about GLBT issues and often against anti gay bigots who have “god” on their side, why don’t you haters just STFU and go after those who really hate us all.
Dan’s a hero in my book. Dan please keep up the good work!!!!!!
Wow. Ankylosaur, you are insufferable, not to mention obtuse.
@ 114, we still have six hours. But yeah, that was an impressive outburst by the anonymous troll, wasn’t it?
Speaking only for myself as a trans person, I find Savage’s transphobia evidenced less by his specific choice of language and more by the fact that he has given some extremely transphobic responses to transpeople who have written to his column over the years, and more recently he has been buddying up to notorious transphobe Alice Dreger, even going so far as to attack trans readers who try to point out to him how she is harming the trans community with her misguided “advocacy.”
Voldemort!
I love your work and admire you so much. Clearly, the glitter bomber was prepared to glitter bomb you and just couldn’t wait to find an opportunity to do so. That was dumb. No one is a greater champion of people who are self-identified as, or perceived to be, anything other than vanilla heterosexuals.
Lots of fucking cowards on this thread. Otherwise, they wouldn’t post their drivel anonymously. I’ve heard that the glitter-bombers weren’t even trans. As a member of the trans community, I’d just like to say that glitter-bombing Dan Savage is not being a good ally.
128
yeah.
we rule.
132
you must be new here.
@76: People who want to change society so often get trapped in the wrong wars. Changing words instead of hearts and minds — that’s one of Satan’s most efficient traps to get people to do bad things even when they have good, nay the best, intentions.
Well put and too true.
This whole discussion is giving me horrible flashbacks to teaching college classes in African American studies as a group of students were attempting to ban the n word from the campus. Sometimes I think I have PTSD from the sheer exhaustion and frustration of all those pointless harangues against one’s allies.
My personal favorite was when a white student told me that I needed to remove the Civil Rights Movement from my course on the 1960s because “We can’t discuss the Civil Rights Movement unless there’s a black person in the room.” A PC monitor–yeah, I’m sure said black students relish that unpaid work.
Fucking Sigh.
Dan,
I appreciate your ‘clarification’ to the incident but what I fail to understand and is why you are not actively engaging trans community activists in a dialogue or attempting to bring in Trans folks to guest comment on your column or go to other lengths to show that you are actively working to ‘get better on Trans issues’. As Joe Ippolito pointed out on your last post there are two amazing Trans conferences you could attend, one right in Seattle – Gender Odyssee one in Philly – Philly Trans Health Conference. Even your use of Transsexual rather than Trans woman or Trans porn shows that your language is stuck in the 1980’s. Trans people in general stopped using “Transsexual” as an umbrella term in the mid-90’s, that’s now nearly 15 years ago. I’m not going to nitpick, I appreciate your call to cool down your rabid fans from baselessly slinging slurs at Trans people and or mischaracterizing our reactions as ‘rapid’ or needing ‘prozac’ which only further reenforce demeaning cultural stereotypes. As a kinky fag you should know best. What people say matters. I have on no less than 20 occasions listened or heard you attack right-wingers for their language and ‘not getting it right’. I get it, you used ‘word for word’ from cards. At similar events I generally rephrase for the audience. As a public figure you have an obligation to model for your audience. I have a hard time imagining you reading word for word the N word to describe people of color, the C or B word to describe women, W-B word to describe Mexicans, and so on if they were ‘word for word’ on a card. I think it is reasonable that Trans people are asking you for a public apology and at least SHOW that you are making positive steps towards being more educated about Trans issues as the US public generally accept you as an “Authority” on all things kink, queer, and trans. Can you not follow the examples of people who have said other slurs (even if they claim they were taken out of context?): Isaiah Washington. Brett Ratner. etc..etc..
@135, I’ve had a couple of similar experiences (though nothing as bad as your n-word-banning war). You have my sympathy.
So many people are so animistic they think “wrongness” is in symbols or objects — the whip is bad, not the whip-holder;
My impression is that there simply always are too many people who want to tell others they know better. “I know what you think; evidence: this symbol here, which of course can mean only one thing…” Or even, “my language use is better than your language use.”
Don’t the modern-day snobs love to be superior, even when they are not? And they know better than that. I’m sure they know Rick Santorum wouldn’t become a friend or ally simply by changing all his vocabulary use to suit their preferences. Ricky would still be comparing them to animals — but in PC terms. What a big step forward, eh?
@136, I disagree with some of what you say; among other things, that a certain group of people gets to decide what the language use of others should be; that’s not how language works. What people say does matter, but what matters is what they say, not the specific words they chose. Context.
But I certainly agree that it would be a good idea if trans activists (especially if they’re trans people themselves) were invited to co-host the podcast or to guest-blog on slog. In fact, now that you pointed this out, I myself wonder why Dan never did that.
Dan, how about it? Sounds like a good idea to me.
@36
I have a feeling even if Dan did do everything Trans activists ask, they’d still find a way to be mad at him. Just look at the reactions to the It Gets Better project. Even when he does something good they find a way to twist it. Over at Bilerico they even referred to the google commercial featuring IGB as “blood money.” Dan is damned if he does damned if he doesn’t.
Superfreak! Superfreak! She’s super freaky!
(reclaiming the word ‘freak’ since the 1970’s)
I just have to say that it’s very disturbing how fascist the supposed progressive left seems to be getting regarding censorship. As was said earlier: “People who want to change society so often get trapped in the wrong wars. Changing words instead of hearts and minds”
Personally, I often hear things that I find offensive to me. But I always try to “hear” what is being said in context. I ask myself, “does this person MEAN to be offensive?” If the answer is no, then I do not take offense.
Seriously, there’s nothing inherently offensive about the word “tranny.” What I care about is whether someone is actually going to insult me or discriminate against me, not whether they’ve picked the correct word-du-jour.
@138 Dan had Buck Angel answer questions on the Lovecast: http://www.thestranger.com/SavageLovePod… and the column: http://www.avclub.com/articles/june-8-20…
What i’d like to hear is,
“I’m always working to better my understanding of the complex human relations that i claim to be an expert, in addition to further refining how i express myself so nobody can be confused or hurt by my statements.”
Not, “I was misquoted”
I’ve read enough “Savage Love” to know that your heart is in the right place and you’re right 98% of the time. That doesn’t mean you don’t occasionally say dumb shit. If you’re not learning from this episode, it’s probably going to happen again.
@142, he -was- misquoted. You shouldn’t have to apologize for something you didn’t actually do.
The attention whores, errrr, glitterbombers obviously planted the question so they could make a spectacle. You don’t go to a Dan taping with glitter and a plan to get removed and then leave it to chance if trans issues will be discussed. They probably think they are actually doing something constructive.
For the person on Bilerico that says Dan should have, “changed the word,” well, they obviously don’t understand how quotations work. In his answer, Dan did change the word. The only time he did use the word shemale was to preface a discussion on why the word was offensive. Seems like he was fighting the good fight, as usual.
Some people don’t understand the difference between being active and being constructive. I mean, these people live in Orange County, and they find Dan offensive? They can’t really find greater enemies to trangender rights in Orange Fucking County?
Oops, I meant tranny. Not shemale.
@142: Poor, insincere critics don’t lead to revelations.
If someone’s going to make legitimate points, that’s one thing. “friends of the family” who malign based on outright lies aren’t interested in him learning, either. They just want to humiliate and gain attention/praise for their works.
It’s pathetic and these people deserve nothing for their efforts.
You should probably read the article again without skimming.
Wasting a perfectly good glitterbomb on Dan-fucking-Savage is wrong and misguided. Does any really think he’s transphobic? He probably has a transgendered nanny for his kid. Somebody brought glitter to the hall and just waited for an off-color remark. Diminishes the purpose and intent.
@142
“…so nobody can be confused or hurt by my statements”
Fuck that. It’s never gonna happen unless you are silent.
@148: “REG: Right. You’re in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the
Romans are the fucking Judean People’s Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah…
JUDITH: Splitters.
P.F.J.: Splitters…
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People’s Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters…
LORETTA: And the People’s Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters…
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People’s Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We’re the People’s Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People’s Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He’s over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!”
Man, I almost wish Responsible Doc would show up.
And Tobi Hill-Meyer at Bilerico is soooooo sorry. Really, Dan.
Here’s the humble apology:
“Further Update: Dan Savage has posted a response and a copy of the transcript from the event. I would like to apologize because, as if often the case with eye witnesses, my source appears to have gotten some of the details wrong.”
No. Tobi Hill-Meyer got it wrong. Didn’t ask Dan’s camp what happened. Just, you know, wrote the story based on “my source” and vetted it with the mob. Hmmm. Sounds unprofessional and broke all 3 of the rules of journalism, which are:
1. Get the facts.
2. Get the facts.
3. Get the facts.
This kind of reaction comes with the territory of gaining fame and being successful as an “accidental gay leader.” I would not be surprised if the glitter-bombers were not conservative plants. In any case, anyone who has read your column knows that you are not transphobic. I am sympathetic to people who are sensitive to language, but context is everything. Your original column, “Hey F—–,” was in its time striking and helped to destigmatize the epithet; it would not be appropriate now. Similarly, our sensitivities toward other words have also evolved, so it isn’t fair to take things out of context.