Tranny

    Tranny. It's a word you won't often have seen me use here but something I read this morning was the straw that broke this particular camel's back.
    Helen Boyd should I think know better than to compare the use of 'tranny' with the use of the N-word.
    I am observing a divergence of language between US English and UK English on the subject of 'tranny'. In both cultures it has the same meaning and broadly similar usage. It's an insult from outsiders - though be serious, it's a pretty mild one! - and we prefer that non-trans people don't use it towards us, though it's widely used within the community. Its etymology is not offensive, it is simply a contraction of 'transvestite'.
    The divergence I am observing between the two dialects stems from the way the 'problem' is being approached differs on each side of the Atlantic. A word that is being busily reappropriated here seems from my linguistic point of observation to be in the process of being turned into a hate word by trans activists on the other side of the pond. I find that to be a particularly unfortunate direction because it simply creates an ever more potent weapon for those who would find such a hate word to be of use against us. Censoring vocabulary is an ineffective weapon against prejudice.
    Back to the N-word use that prompted this piece. Maybe it takes a white Brit to point this out to a white American but I think anyone making such a point would be well advised to study a bit of American history and in particular the history surrounding both words before making such a comparison. There is simply no parallel between the two experiences.
   Perhaps reading Huckleberry Finn would be a good place to start. If being reminded of the reality isn't a mite uncomfortable, that is.