I find 'queer' offensive. We need to stop using that word too. Oh, and 'gay' as well. Yeah.

I think it's a good move. If the name is detracting from the show among its potential audience then there's no reason not to change it, other than its longevity. For many people like me who know nothing about SF's club scene, the longevity doesn't really count for much.

I do think the name is misunderstood. I understand "tranny" to be a perjorative of transvestite so the name to me doesn't seem too off base referring to drag performers. Especially if self applied. Implying a transgender or transsexual person is a transvestite is what's offensive, but I don't see that happening here.

Still it's a distraction. A band like the Fuck Buttons thrives on the controversy of their name, but presumably that is not the goal of Tranny Shack.

@1: It is offensive because being in drag and being trans are completely different things. I think drag performers really need to be careful to ensure that they aren't doing trans blackface (and they often cross the line with names like Trannyshack or RuPaul's use of 'tranny' and 'shemale').

delirian,

It is offensive because being in drag and being trans are completely different things.

Yes, but being in drag is being a transvestite, so historically the "tranny" may have made sense. "Tranny" is offensive to trans* people, but not necessarily to transvestites, if they want to embrace the term. A bit like the gif going the rounds about the "big pussy coming out of that big p***y".

Great move, also interesting how this embracement of transpersons is flushing out the more regressive elements in drag culture.

Now some in the gay community, at least John Aravosis, are calling for the end of "homosexual". Criteria? It makes him feel bad, it's used by right wing folks and tests bad in surveys of same sex marriage. http://americablog.com/2014/05/time-holo…

#8: this far, far predates Aravosis. "Homosexual" hasn't been used to describe people for a long time, except amongst homophobes.

i can't keep up..so i'm just gonna call everybody people.. unless the 'p' means something i didn't know about.then.. well i'll just wink..until winking...

Has everyone forgotten the power of word reclamation? I mean Dan famously used it for years ("Hey Faggot") to normalize and dilute the pejorative surrounding the term. Censoring only gives bigots more power when they intend the offense behind the words they use to intimidate and bully their targets.

@9 I hear people use "homosexual" who aren't homophones. Sure, they are not super connected to the gay community, maybe I'm the only gay person they know, but it's certainly not a slur.

@2 I believe it's a pejorative of transexual, not transvestite, and like the n-word and various other epithets it's been used to dehumanize people and other them. Time for us non-trans folks to drop it.

Little Miss Adventure.
Ivana Johnson.

@7 FTW

@11: Reclaiming is totally awesome and I love when it happens. However, that doesn't mean that a reclaimed word is open to everyone. If non-trans folks are using it, and the trans community objects, it's just polite to make a change.

I understand Heklina's frustration with people's impatience with re-branding, though.

So if homosexual is to be dropped/ then heterosexual to follow?
" A Rose by any other name..."

Mr Sauvage - It can serve as a marker in the way you describe. I've come across ideas that it could serve a useful purpose for a certain subset of Gs, only finding agreement about which subset would be difficult.

Word reclamation has to be driven by a visible disfavored group adopting and using an epithet that is used against them. However, I think that for trans people, being out, or visible, is not quite the same as for GLBs. If the whole point is to pass--to be read and treated by society as the gender you are, not the one you were born--being identifiable as trans is a thing.

I think that will change. I think it is possible that within 20 years [maybe sooner, but I'm constitutionally pessimistic] most of us will take for granted a more full meaning of gender, and one's chromosomes won't be considered so authoritative. Then the trans community can take back tranny if they want to. Until then, I only use it when discussing the word itself.

LavaGirl @16, in a previous thread there was a discussion of gay/homosexual v. straight/heterosexual v. ?/bisexual. I, for one, think we bis need a more marketable moniker. What groups are called has a measurable effect. However, it is very hard to use straight or hetero as a pejorative, so those terms are unlikely to be considered insensitive.

So what, we go with gay and straight?
Though opposite(?) to gay is miserable.
Opposite(?) to straight is crooked.
Opposite to knowledgable is ignorant/ which I am,
In these matters. I'll just go with DUOC ( dried up old cunt), no
Make that DUOWC ( dried up old white cunt)..
Then nobody, nowhere can ever offend me.

@12 "I hear people use "homosexual" who aren't homophones." Your typo made me laugh out loud.

I give Heklina a lot of credit for approaching this thoughtfully and carefully. Her heart is in the right place. She spent 20 years building a brand around a term that was common in the drag community at the time and wasn't deemed offensive at the time -- if it was, transgender activists certainly would have told Heklina 20 years ago. (I've seen more transwomen in the audience at Trannyshack than any other drag show anywhere ... combined.) Now she's facing having to change her brand, and she's doing it carefully and with good intent. I respect the hell out of her.

Also, I know a drag queen here that goes by Camille Toe. That must have been a fun scene to brainstorm names for.

I really appreciate what Heklina is trying to do. It's the right move. I hope her show does well here!

much respect goes to Heklina. I can see she struggle with this and felt torn as we all do when thrust in to situations where one must make a decision and bare the conscienceless and take a hit. Its like "you're damned if you do and damned if you don't" and Heklina after much brain gymnastics and heart tugging made a choice that will start a ripple that will become a waves which when it finally reaches the shore of reconciliation we will once again be united communities that can enjoy shared spaces without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable or saying something that's potentially hurtful...to anyone. You didn't only "Rebrand" you started the process of healing. All jokes aside thank you for understanding and showing great empathy and leading by example. That took a lot of I wont say it I'll just say "guts". <3

Since we've taken taken PC to the extreme anymore I no longer think gays should be called gay: it's offensive. I prefer that men who enjoy sex with men be called " cum guzzling cock pig whores". Calling us anything else IS OFFENSIVE!!!

For me (out since I was 16 in 1981, children) "tranny" always meant both drag queens/transvestites and transsexuals. Remember, too, that there are LOTS AND LOTS of heterosexual transvestites often married men with children. Harvey Fierstein has a play on Broadway about that subject right now.

If some transsexuals don't want to use the word, then don't use it. But it seriously trans people are not the only group "tranny" refers to.

Just back from a weekend away so I'm a bit late to this but ... Kitty Bukkake? Tammi Tickleclitz? Am I the only one who'd like a copy of the "Miracle!" script?

Should have gone with a minor change:

Trannvshack: (Pronounced: Tran-vee-shack), as the word "transvestite" is still appropriate and unoffensive for someone in drag, right?

Could have even just scratched out Y's stem (or penis) to make the V, which also is kind of a fun play on a man transformation into a woman's appearance/mannerisms.

T-shack reminds me too much of teabag, which before the political movement, was a perfectly fun name as well.