Who we are can’t belong to you.
*Trans- is always, enduring, true.
**Drag ends when the show is through.
Your drag each night is fresh and new,
Painted on with brush and hue,
Frail like frost and clear like dew,
But we’re still here when you fall through.
You’re not us and we’re not you.
We’re more than blush, lipstick, and shoe.
There is no mask we can unglue,
No stage persona to unscrew.
So listen up and get a clue:
Don’t speak for us like that, dear Ru.
You rake the cash when you’re true blue.
And run when thing look down for you.
You’ve pay the bills? Well good for you.
We know the cost when friends are few.
Since trans- persists when bills are due,
We’ll still be trans- when you fall through.
* I’ve highlighted the word trans- because of very complicated nature of the word. I’ve used it as a prefix, because I think as a prefix it introduces the trans- community instead of trying to encapsulate it. This is my particular usage of the word, other people use Trans or trans on its own. The trans- community is a very diverse community of people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. This may include people who identify as transgender, transsexual, third sex, third gender, intergendered, intersexual, etc. This contrasts specifically with cisgendered people, people who identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Drag is not trans-, particularly because a cis-, heterosexual person can dress up in drag and that’s okay, and probably should be encouraged. However, once they take off the drag, the drag ends, there is no point at which they were not men even during the drag. Drag is therefore not an identity. Drag performs a vital role in society, and should be protected and respected, but not at the cost of trans- issues. Drag is a performance. Trans- is an identity. There is a lot to be said for gender queering and genderfucking, but this is ultimately still gender tourism at best and needs to be done with respect and subtlety, particularly by cis-, heterosexual, white, wealthy, privileged, able-bodied, religious men. Remember, trans- people persist when the joke is over.
**If the trans- community has highlighted an issue, such as the use of the word “tranny”, the drag community has no right dictating to us what that words means or how that word is used. They cannot adopt or appropriate the word and pretend at contexts or point to examples of “bitch” and “whore” being used among women, or “faggot” being used among the gay community, or the n-word being used among people of colour. These examples aren’t even analogous amongst each other, never mind the use of “tranny” and “shemale”. These words have done damage in the trans- community to which the drag community has limited access to, limited understanding of, and limited experience of. A cis- man who dresses in drag, such as RuPaul and his many supporters (people who perform specifically as drag artists, many of them identifying specifically as cis-, and not trans- people), go to bed at night as men. They get naked and they remain men. The trans- community are people who are trans- regardless of whether they’re wearing a dress or jeans or whether they are naked in the shower. We don’t go to bed becoming secret men (I love this twisted image of the “secret” sex, and I will post a link to where I read this image first if I find it again, because the person who wrote it needs to be acknowledged). We don’t pretend at trans-, we are trans-, and the failure of understanding that is exactly what’s wrong with RuPaul and his many supporters and their persistent defensiveness, divisiveness, and transphobic language. Roy Haylock performing as his drag persona Bianca Del Rio attacked Carmen Carrera after Carrera criticized RuPaul for transphobic language on RuPaul’s show and his consequent unwillingness to understand. Haylock’s abusive language is a prime example of the transphobic attitude in the drag community: “Maybe she should take what’s left of her dick and stick it in her mouth and shut the fuck up.” Haylock has “apologized” and written off his various statements as a “joke”. It’s not particularly funny is it? Also, regarding the claim that trans- people such as Carrera owe RuPaul something, let me be clear: the trans- community owes nothing to RuPaul Andre Charles. We exist despite him, not because of him. Had he never come about, the trans- community would have endured and we have found other ways of creating awareness. He should be thankful to us for having used so many trans- people to further his own career and deepening his own pocket.
-o0o-
