Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I Don't Do Drag Queen English

One of the things that irritates the hell out of me and other trans people is when cis people speak to us as if we were contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race spouting nonstop stereotypical drag queen gay lingo.   

When we tell you that transwomen are women, we mean that.  We know projecting our femininity to the world also includes how we speak to it as well.  That means that for me and my sisters who take our evolving feminine persona seriously, we speak the Queen's English, not RuPaul Drag Queen English.

Note that I am a proud, Texas born African-American college educated award winning blogger and trans human rights activist who is proud of her Houston roots.  While I have much love for my sisters in the drag world, I live 24/7/365 (366 in a leap year) as Moni and have for over 17 years. 

The only time I will defer to someone calling me Miss Monica is when they are a youngling who is doing so to show me respect as their elder. 

Somebody my age doing that multiple times in every other sentence in the conversation smacks of either someone not getting their Trans 101 on or an intentional on the down low insult.  If I pick up on the fact that it's being done by the cis person to be insulting, the verbal pimp slapping and rebuke will commence with the quickness.  

Bottom line is that I am a proud transwoman of African descent.  If you wish to have a conversation with me, you'll find the best way to accomplish that is to speak and hold an intelligent conversation with me like you would any of your cis girlfriends.   

You'll discover that I am quite capable of doing so and will easily converse with you on a wide range of subjects that not only include trans issues, but sports, fashion, pop culture, politics, history, current events and other issues that pique my intellectual curiosity.   

And yes, I am a good listener when you need to vent or a shoulder to cry on as well.   .

Keep that 'I Don't Do Drag Queen English' rule in mind when speaking to me or any other transwoman and we'll be just fine. 




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