Dear Ryan Murphy,
I support your protest against Newsweek for publishing the "Straight Jacket" article by Ramin Setoodeh. It insensitively assaults gay male actors playing straight roles in a way that offended many gay men and their allies.
However, as an organizer of the anti-defamation organization MAGNET- Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual and Transgender People -I need to point out that you are hypocritically guilty of the same crime that you have called out Newsweek. Your works continue to marginalize transsexual women on your show 'Nip/Tuck'. The sad truth is that many transsexual and transgender women are offended by your own irresponsible and dehumanizing depictions of trans women on that show. We expect this from people who are ignorant of our community, but as a gay man who purports to be an ally of everyone in the LGBT community, (and I would hope that includes transsexual women as well, not just gay men of privilege), you are held to a higher standard of behavior.
Images of women of transsexual experience should not be appropriated by gay male producers in a way that makes a mockery of our lives and further stigmatize us.
We unveil your hypocrisy because the oppression of transsexual women in the media is dangerously alienating. These poorly conceptualized images of transsexual women are not just created by straight producers alone. In many cases these offensive media images are created by gay male producers. This says volumes about the transphobia and/or ignorance that is evident within our own LGBT community. We hesitate from airing internal community issues publically, but since Hollywood is projecting all these sensational, inaccurate and harmful images of transsexual women in film and TV, we feel compelled to expose the double standard. Your show "Nip/Tuck" has been charged by many with negatively stereotyping transsexual women as hypersexualized, deceivers, mentally unstable, murderous, "gay men with wigs on", perverts, confused and dishonest in their gender. This hurts more than you apparently know.
In Gina Kleinzeller's blog, "Skip The Makeup", she writes that,
"...[some LGBT organizations] back off dealing with transphobia when its source is from....someone with clout in the gay community (like Barney Frank or the producers of "Nip/Tuck"). When a perceived gay icon like Candis Cayne does a highly transphobic "Nip/Tuck" episode about detransition basically equating a trans woman as being a confused gay man, [some LGBT organizations] ignores it even after being notified about complaints."Many LGBT organizations turn a blind eye when gay men with external power and influence oppress trans people. I can see why some writers say Candis Cayne's Nip/Tuck character was a disservice to our movement, and played into the harmful myth our detractors spread that trans women are "really gay men with women's clothes on". This is identical to the propaganda our political enemies are spreading to keep us from gaining human rights, proven in the religious right's smear campaign to try to block ENDA from passing, especially with protections for trans people. It pains us to think some in our own LGBT community want transsexual people pigeonholed as a way of advancing only the gay and lesbian community's personal agenda.
You say Newsweek's article suggests gay men
"... should only identify themselves as "queeny" people (a word used by Setoodeh in the article) who stand at the back of the bus and embrace an outdated decades old stereotype.", yet your own show reinforces every negative stereotype about transsexual women, and we too are fed up with the "back of the bus". You seem not to like the word "queeny", but your show used the offensive pejorative "tra**y". GLAAD and large segments of the trans community agree that the "t-word" is a derogatory slur. Even your friend Dustin Lance Black supports the trans community's protest of that pejorative, recently telling The Advocate "...the word is hurtful....Why is this the same treatment the n-word has in the black community?"
Mr. Belli, a gay male actor with an offensive "transface" act, in which he mockingly impersonates transsexual women, was also on "Nip/Tuck". Belli's character has the drag queen name "Cherry Peck", sees oneself as "gay" and is called a "tra**y". The "Ava Moore" character in Nip/Tuck is a transsexual woman who is depicted as mentally unstable, a deceiver and is even accused by her own son of incest, implying she's a "pervert". It's unbelievable that someone in the LGBT community could allow us to be depicted like this.
You wrote in your open letter to Newsweek journalist Ramin Setoodeh that he
"...published such a blatantly homophobic article,"yet, you can't see that you produced a blatantly transphobic television show.
You complain that Setodeh's article is,
"As misguided as it is shocking and hurtful,"but have failed to realize that "Nip/Tuck's" depictions of transsexual women were not only unkind, but over the top sensational. It was so misguided, one has to wonder if you did anyresearch on sensitivity and medical transition or consulted with any transsexual women before allowing these horrid "caricatures" to hit the screen.
You ask,
"Would the magazine have published an article where the author makes a thesis statement that minority actors should only be allowed and encouraged to play domestics?"
I ask you, "Would you produce a show that was just as offensive to gay men as "Nip/Tuck" was to transsexual women?"
You state that the article was a
"...damaging, needlessly cruel, and mind-blowingly bigoted piece." -Likewise, many transsexual women have written that your show's portrayals of their community were all these things you excoriated Setoodeh for.
You slammed Mr. Setoodeh as being
"a gay man deeply in need of some education".Many people say that you, Mr. Ryan Murphy, are a gay man in dire need of accurate education concerning transsexual women, especially before exploiting them on television for shock value, ratings, objectification and financial gain.
You accuse the journalist of writing with a "poison pen", however, the toxic message your show sends its viewers is just as poisonous to the acceptance of transsexual women in mainstream society.
Nip/Tuck caters mainly to heterosexual men, and statistics show they perpetrate the most violence on trans women, resulting in hundreds of murders, sexual assaults and hate crimes annually! This epidemic is only encouraged when inhumane media images plague us. Producing a show with story lines and characters that only incite more misunderstanding and negative stereotypes against women of trans experience is irresponsible of the producers of Nip/Tuck.
Just last month, the film "Ticked Off Trans[phobia] With Knives" was deemed transphobic, and boycotted by many in the trans community, their allies and GLAAD. Oddly, many of the gay male media outlets accused the trans community of "censorship" and insensitively told the women protesters to "lighten up". Yet, just weeks later, when you and many in the gay male community boycotted Newsweek for being homophobic, the same gay male media outlets did NOT cry "censorship" or say "lighten up" to the gay male protesters. Instead, they supported their anti-defamation cause. It's hypocritical though that they left the trans community behind in their time of need. This double standard is very telling.
Please understand this letter isn't a personal attack on you, we're just holding your television show accountable like you're holding Newsweek accountable. Perhaps you're a well intentioned guy and ally, and were unaware that your show's stigmatizing portrayals impede our progress when it comes to us gaining civil rights and social acceptance as transsexual people. The LGBT family wants authentic equality. We need to step outside our own letter in the acronym and understand each other so we can truly move in unity.
If you do include a trans woman character in your new show, "Glee", please don't hire a gay male drag queen to impersonate a trans woman. Please cast an actual trans woman in a realistic and humanizing role.
Sincerely,
Ashley Love
www.TransFormingMedia.blogspot.com
email: magnet_right_now@yahoo.com
Also, to me, it's a reminder that T belongs with LGB only for political and social action, regarding human rights...and most folks are not at all aware of the distinctions... just the other day I had to correct the Urban Dictionary's definition of "transexual"...which some idiot had logged as, essentially, "guy-in-a-dress"...duhhh!
Increasingly, it appears to me, as I've said elsewhere, that "transgender" - true transgender, not drag-artist expression - is the ultimate taboo...
I appreciate your efforts to educate all communities about the experiences of transgendered persons. I, for one, was unaware that "tra**y" is unacceptable and will refrain from using that term going forward. But, in so doing, please do not single out "gay male drag queens" as your enemy. Maybe I have misread your statements, but it seems to me that you are equating "gay male drag queens" with white men in black face. I don't think it's a fair comparison.
There is also the fact that a good number of trans people are GLB and a good number of GLB people face discrimination due in part to perceived issues around their gendered expressions (Butch women/ fey men). There is a fair amount of overlap within the two groups to justify the current "community".
The perceived complexities around trans people and trans issues can be resolved by non-trans people (gay and straight) simply listening to what we say about ourselves and our lives. Conflict between the T and the GLB can be resolved when people refrain from using us to prove or disprove theories about sex and social gender and to speak for us instead of allowing us our own voice.
There seems to be much unawareness of the multifaceted trans community, that comes from gay, straight and bi, or people who are defined by the gender they wish to be, not the gender they are. Where one would hope the gay community would welcome with open arms those who are fighting for their own rights, mainly to just be treated with respect, as they as a communtiy have, it is disheartening to see name calling, abject phobia and nastiness.
This is not from all the gay community I must stress that, but at the same time, walking with trans friends through the gay quarter and having some nasty names thrown in their direction is very uncalled for.
I am all for equal rights for all, but agree with Ashley's assessment - fine, show up the phobia towards gay people by Newsweek and other media but also take a look in your own stable and see where you can clean up your own act - it works both ways.
Gender Identity Empowerment Coalition