Know what? Call me a tranny, and I don’t care. It’s not the worst think someone has said to me. Fag, shemale, he-she, it, queer-been called all those things too. I don’t like it but I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of getting to me. Because if I went after everyone who’d insulted me, there wouldn’t be a big enough cemetery for all the bodies.

But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, or that I think it’s acceptable. Especially by people who ought to know better. Like the gay men who think that transgender people have too thin a skin because some object to being called a tranny. That we ought to just suck it up. Because they’re okay with being fags and queers, you know?

But see, I know gay men who hate being called fag, or queer. So I don’t do it, out of respect for their feelings and because in the end, it’s wrong. So why can’t they understand that if we don’t want to be called trannies, you ought to respect our feelings and accept that we just think it’s wrong?

It’s not all gay men. It’s the ones who got ugly after RuPaul got called out for it by the transgender community. It’s the ones who think that transgender people ought to “man up” and take it. It’s the ones who think I should “own it” just like they’ve taken to owning fag and queer. Empowerment, you know?

No, wrong…I shouldn’t HAVE to take ownership of a word I find repulsive. You ought to just shut the fuck up, okay? Get the words out of your vocabulary. You can do it, you’re an adult.

And if you really need a label for me, I have one. It’s Zelda. Get used to it.

*”Fuck You, You Fucking Fucks”–attributed to the late Ashley Morris, interpreted by John Goodman on the series “Treme”