GLAAD Reaches Out to Blog That Dehumanizes Transgender People
June 26, 2009 by Andy Marra, Senior Media Strategist @ GLAAD
As the result of constituents contacting GLAAD, we have reached out to the site owners of a blog that dehumanizes transgender people and their experiences. Tranny Alert is a website that posts pictures of people who are perceived to be transgender and encourages readers to submit photos of perceived transgender people for the blog to publish and provide commentary. It is unclear whether the site’s subjects have provided consent to have their pictures taken and published in this context.
Lateisha Green
GLAAD has reached out to the blog about the defamatory nature of their content with their problematic language including the words “tranny,” “trannie” and “he/she.” We also expressed our concerns about the potential danger the site’s subjects could face as a result of having their gender identity and gender expression shared without their consent.
Given that transgender people are disproportionately targeted for violence, willfully subjecting them to this kind of online scrutiny could very well put their lives in danger. We need not look far to know how violence disproportionately impacts transgender people. Recent examples include Angie Zapata and Lateisha Green.
A Call to Action against Tranny Alert was started by a Livejournal user named gudbuytjane and it appears to have been quite effective. The blog’s Facebook page has already been taken down.
Tranny Alert remains active on Twitter. Some Twitter users have been tweeting #trannyalertfail to express their alarm and concern for the site’s questionable content.
Initially, @TrannyAlert tweeted the following in response to readers submitting their concerns:
Tranny Alert will be releasing a statement in the next 24 hours regarding the recent backlash.
Later, the blog sent out another tweet about readers concerns:
Wow people really need to get a f*cking sense of humor.
If you would like to share your own concerns about Tranny Alert and their content, you can email them at:
mayday@tranny-alert.com
You can also share your concerns about their problematic language and content with Blogger, the blog service that currently hosts Tranny Alert. You can contact them with your concerns here.
Blogger’s policy specifically states:
Blogger strongly believes in freedom of speech. We believe that having a variety of perspectives is an important part of what makes blogs such an exciting and diverse medium. With that said, there are certain types of content that are not allowed on Blogger. While Blogger values and safeguards political and social commentary, material that promotes hatred toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity is not allowed on Blogger.
Please stay tuned for more details. Please check back with us for updates on this developing story.
Have an update to share with GLAAD? Send Senior Media Strategist Andy Marra a Tweet at @andy_marra
[...] leave a comment » I’m not much for the energy at the moment, but passing this along via GLAAD: [...]
[...] AWESOME UPDATE: GLAAD has gotten involved and is reaching out to Tranny-Alert, which is a good thing. Thanks GLAAD! Thanks gudbuytjane! http://glaadblog.org/2009/06/26/glaad-reaches-out-to-blog-that-disparages-transgender-people/ [...]
[...] against Tranny Alert was started by a Livejournal user named gudbuytjane and circulated widely by GLAAD and a chorus of other [...]
Playing the “Where’s your sense of HUMOR?” card is an automatic FAIL; it indicates that the blog is in fact engaging in bullying behavior. Putting people’s lives in danger is not a comedy routine.