5/4/10

GLBT Wedding and Anniversary Expo Dallas Texas

Few things for a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgendered GLBT couple in a committed relationship is more exciting than their BIG DAY.

Some may call it a Pride Wedding, Holy Union, or Commitment Ceremony; either way it is a trade-marking event for any relationship.

Daniel Lewis, celebrity stylist and national fan favorite of Bravo’s Shear Genius and founder of Green Peridot Salon to host the 2010 GLBT Wedding and Anniversary Expo.

Planning this special day or just planning an anniversary celebration will exhaust every talent and effort to get all the many details complete from ordering the cake to planning the honeymoon. Our GLBT Wedding & Anniversary Expo, billed as a one-stop shop to assist couples, will showcase wedding and travel vendors, introduce specialists, present ideas and host a fashion show to help with the celebration. You’ll find an extensive array of wedding specialists at the Expo. All the major categories of wedding planning may be covered: photographers and videographers, function facilities, bridal and tuxedo shops, florists, cake bakers, DJs/bands and limousine companies may be in attendance.

In addition, you will find travel specialists ready to help you plan that special romantic honeymoon. Many vendors will be giving away items as a promotion of the show, and you can only benefit from these if you attend. Also join us for fabulous raffles, door prizes.

Sunday, May 16, 2010
Time: 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Dallas Warwick Melrose Hotel
Street: 3015 Oaklawn Ave. Dallas, TX
(214) 521-5151
Map

Vendors are still being accepted, but hurry space is limited!!

Tickets are $10 can be purchased at the door or online at WhyWouldWe.org or buy.ticketstothecity.com

For more info: Kimberly Truax at (214) 924-9302

You may RSVP @ GLBT Wedding and Anniversary Expo Facebook Event Page

Girl Talk: A San Fransico Cisgender and Trans Woman Dialogue

Queer cisgender women and queer transgender women are allies, friends, support systems, lovers, and partners to each other. Trans and cis women are allies to each other every day -- from activism that includes everything from Take Back the Night to Camp Trans; to supporting each other in having “othered” bodies in a world that is obsessed with idealized body types; to loving, having sex, and building family with each other in a world that wants us to disappear. Girl Talk is a spoken word show fostering and promoting dialogue about these relationships. Trans and cis women will read about their relationships of all kinds – sexual and romantic, chosen and blood family, friendships, support networks, activist alliances. Join us for a night of stories about sex, bodies, feminism, activism, challenging exclusion in masculine-centric dyke spaces, dating and breaking up, finding each other, and finding love and family.

Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: S.F. LGBT Community Center - Ceremonial Room
Facebook event page Girl Talk: A Cis and Trans Woman Dialogue
Tickets: $12-$20 online at Brown paper tickets.com

CAST BIOS:

D. Rita Alfonso teaches LGBT and Queer Studies at UC Berkeley, and offers LGBT seminars to the queer public under the rubric of www.LGBTStudies.ning.com. Photography is another of her passions, and you will often see her about town documenting queer and trans events and performers; her photography can be found at dralfonsophotography.com.

Ryka Aoki de la Cruz is a poet, performer, and composer who has been honored by the California State Senate for creating Trans/Giving, LA’s only art/performance series dedicated to trans, genderqueer, and intersex artists. Ryka’s long poem “Sometimes Too Hot the Eye of Heaven Shines” has won RADAR Productions’ first Eli Coppola Memorial Chapbook Contest, and is forthcoming from Inconvenient Press. Her current project is Trans Office Hours, which matches trans-identified professors with trans-identified students entering or re-entering college. Ryka has a third-degree black belt in Kodokan Judo and is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.

Daughter and granddaughter of anarchist feminists, Danielle Askini is a feisty high femme hailing from all over. A queer activist since the womb, Danielle grew up doing battle with big boys--and winning. As a Trans activist Danielle has focused her work on creating safe schools, depathologizing trans and femme identities, and liberating health care for all people. Her writings have included "Social Work or Sex Work?" a critical examination of class inequality in social work education, and "Gender Refugee" a chapbook of poems and essays on gender transition and migration. She is fluent in Dutch and working hard on Swedish. Stockholm is her second home.

Annie Danger is a fierce and fearsome performer. Raised in the desert by a pack of drag queen werewolves who were themselves a litter produced by Leigh Bowery, Marina Abramovic, and Andy Kaufman, Ms. Danger wants nothing more than your allegiance to the tenets of your own thoughtful ethics and a sturdy but flexible sense of humor. She is a transsexual woman who lives and loves in the San Francisco Bay area mostly. You can find out more at: www.anniedanger.webs.com

Gina de Vries is a queer cissexual femme woman, a Paisan ex-Catholic pervert, and a writer, performer, and activist with a long history doing political organizing in and with queer and trans communities. As an activist, she is especially interested in the intersections of intersex, trans, reproductive justice, sex worker, multi-cultural, cross-class, and disability activism; and using art, writing, and performance as political tools. Gina's writing has appeared dozens of places, from the academic to the pornographic – recent publications include Issue #4 of Bound to Struggle: Where Kink and Radical Politics Meet, Girl Crush, and The Revolution Starts at Home. Gina has performed, taught, and lectured everywhere from chapels to leatherbar backrooms, and recent university appearances include Reed College, Yale University, and Harvard University. She is the founder and facilitator of Sex Workers' Writing Workshop, a writing class for current and former sex workers at San Francisco’s Center for Sex & Culture (where she also serves on the Advisory Board). And, she’s currently pursuing her MFA in Fiction Writing at San Francisco State University. She likes glitter, the color fuchsia, leopard print, and political discussion as foreplay. Find out more at queershoulder.tumblr.com.

Julia Serano is an Oakland-based writer, performer and trans activist. She is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Seal Press, 2007), a collection of personal essays that reveal how misogyny frames popular assumptions about femininity and shapes many of the myths and misconceptions people have about transsexual women. Julia’s other writings have appeared in anthologies (including BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, Word Warriors: 30 Leaders in the Women's Spoken Word Movement, and Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape), in feminist, queer, pop culture and literary magazines and websites (such as Bitch, AlterNet.org, Out, Feministing.com, Clamor, Kitchen Sink, make/shift, other, LiP and Transgender Tapestry), and have been used as teaching materials in gender studies, queer studies, psychology and human sexuality courses in colleges across North America. For more information about all of her creative endeavors, check out www.juliaserano.com.

E. Rose Sims, a Filipina-Ashkenazic mixed-class trans dyke mestiza, is a writer, religion scholar, medic, and survivor from rural Oregon. Dedicated to the projects of media justice, radical love, and community building, she writes online as "little light" at http://takingsteps.blogspot.com and elsewhere, serves on the advisory board of the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, and was a charter member of the Speak! Radical Women of Color Media Collective. She has recently performed with such diverse organizations as Detroit's Allied Media Project, Seattle's TumbleMe Productions, the National Queer Arts Festival, and the Bay's own Mangos With Chili. Her writing has found its way everywhere from law school classrooms and academic conferences to bathroom mirrors and protest marches. Rose is currently busy being in good stories and getting preachy in Portland, Oregon, and is moving down to the East Bay this fall; she carries a pen, her ancestors, and the mismatched ID of a citizen of the borderlands with her at all times.

Zarah Ersoff is a queer musicologist, Southern dyke, teacher and activist. She divides her time in academia between exposing college students to the pleasures of camp, codes and concealment in LGBT popular music, and writing about the relationship between same-sex desire and colonialism in 19th-century French music. Originally from Winston-Salem, NC (illustrious home of Krispy Kreme donuts and Camel cigarettes), she now enjoys living richly without riches in Los Angeles with her lovely and talented partner Lauren Steely.

Meliza BaƱales aka Missy Fuego writes books, sews clothes, and makes movies. She has toured with Sister Spit: The Next Generation and Body Heat: The Femme Porn Tour. She is currently working on a spoken-word album with Crunks Not Dead Records and another collection of short stories, Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific. She makes art in San Francisco.

***This event received a Creating Queer Community Commission from Queer Cultural Center funded through the San Francisco Foundation.***

Facebook event page Girl Talk: A Cis and Trans Woman Dialogue

5/3/10

Dallas Voice Belching Trans Toxic Trash again

Dallas voice attacks me. Again. At least this time they had the guts to call me out by name.

I stand accused by the Dallas Voice author Arnold Wayne Jones of promoting the San Francisco event called 'tranny Fest' while simultaneously protesting the movie 'ticked off trannies with Knives'. Presumably the offence is having a double standard because both events contain the word 'Tranny' in the title.

Yes I did publish that story about 'TrannyFest' I was asked to do so by a transgender person living in San Francisco who deeply wanted the this event to succeed.

In San Francisco it seems unlike most of the rest of the county, the word "Tranny" is more accepted by transgender people. It is used often casually within the transgender community while addressing each other with dignity and respect.

GAY PEOPLE, READ THIS!

Within the transgender community we occasionally use the word tranny to show affection in the same way some of my black friend call each other "Nigger".

Like the 'T' word, the 'N' word often makes me uncomfortable and I tell my friends so. None the less I have been called the 'N' and 'T' word on occasion by my friends and when they do, my chest pumps up with pride, because they are acknowledging me as an equal and as a confidant. I am proud to be considered their equals because in my heart I know I can only admire many of there qualities and aspire to emulate them.

That is what dignity is. That is what respect for yourself and others earn you.

I recoil in disgust when white people gather in little groups and hate on black people calling them "Niggers". God I despise that. I recoil in disgust when gay men gather in there little building to hate on transgender people. Same thing.

The Dallas Voice published a story here once again attempting to drag me to their pitiful depths all because I had once again asked to be interviewed so I might present a local transgender persons side of this issue. This has never been allowed by the Dallas Voice. And when I accused John Write the "News" editor of misogyny because he positioned a wonderful considerate and well written synopsis by transsexual advocate Ashley Love's on the movie TP*WK" as "Scathing'.

Reading that, Wright in a redux of 2009, puffed himself up and warned me "Do you know who I am?" Yes john you are a misogynistic pig and only a coward would encourage others to hurt people and then attempt to obscure themselves behind their Blogs coat tails. When I questioned him about this article he replies 'it's the blog and I don't feel anything ether way about it.' You are a low life coward John Wright.

You are the news editor of the Dallas Voice. The DV banner on your blog clearly indicates it is the Dallas Voice who publishes this tripe. You IP address indicates it is the Dallas Voice who publishes this blog.

Own Up.

I have to come clean. I'm ashamed to admit but I called John Wright's blog author a faggot at that point. Well you are what you are. I will be confessing this to my pastor tonight.

No john wright Ms. Love's dissertation about TO*WK was not scathing. It is a centralist and moderate response to gay peoples efforts to dehumanize and marginalize us.

The word controversy began in 2009 because the Dallas Voice used the word 'Tranny' repeatedly and intentionally in a defamatory manner.

The first paragraph in my first article explained my position when I asked them to treat transgender people with respect.

I wrote: "I hope everyone who watches[reads] this comes to appreciates how harmful it is to the self respect of transgender people when you call us "Trannie" and unless we are a entertainer with published articles which we identify ourselves individually as a "Drag Queen or Tranny" please do not call us by these names."

The promoters of "TrannyFest" identified themselves as 'trannies' a word I still find to be derogatory mainly because of gay people who love to sling it around in a demeaning and insulting fashion.


Wit the Dallas Voice.

I do not live in the vindictive hateful depths that these people seem to so thrive in. I will not revert to using slurs against the writer of this article or the Dallas Voice.

I will allow them to illustrate to the world once again who they truly are. They can do this filthy work themselves.

5/2/10

Translations 2010 - The Seattle Transgender Film Festival

$50 for a festival pass
$8 for single tickets
$6 for single tickets for Three Dollar Bill Cinema Members. Limit twotickets per member per screening.
$5 youth & senior discount (youth are 21 and under, seniors are 65and over). Youth and Senior discount is only available day of show at the boxoffice. Must present ID.
Reality TG is a free program.
Buy your tickets in advance and save $1 per ticket! (not available for passes or the youth/senior discount)

Buy a Festival Pass! Get into every screening at this year’s festival for just $50.

Translations: The Seattle Transgender Film Festival

Venues

The Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave.
Seattle, WA 98122

The Erickson Theatre
1524 Harvard Ave
Seattle, WA 98122

Capitol Hill Library
425 Harvard Ave. E.
Seattle, WA 98102

Reality TG
Thursday, May 13
6:15pm
Capitol Hill Library
FREE

Is visibility a means to social acceptance? Do the drawbacks of too much (or unchecked) visibility outweigh the good it can accomplish? There has been an explosion of transgender people on talk shows, dramas, and especially reality television. We’ll screen some recent episodes of reality programs that feature transwomen as cast members and discuss how this representation affects the whole trans community.
Watch some TV and then join Sara Michelle Fetters, film and TV reviewer, and Three Dollar Bill Cinema Executive Director Rachael Brister for a discussion on this fascinating broadcast trend.
This is a FREE event. No tickets are needed.


Riot Acts
Friday, May 14
7:30pm
Erickson Theatre

Seasoned musicians, music aficionados, or anyone interested in world of music will enjoy this film about the transgender people who play it. RIOT ACTS follows the careers of some of the best and brightest musicians playing across North America today. With interviews and performances by first rate musical acts such as The Clicks, Coyote Grace, Katastrophe and The Degenerettes, RIOT ACTS explores the passion these musicians have for their craft, the impact gender has on their careers and their perspectives on a wide array of topics from their audience to their lyrics. Through interviews with artists across every genre and gender, RIOT ACTS gives transgender bands and musicians the chance to speak (and sing) from their own experiences, illuminating the challenges and triumphs of transgender people putting themselves out there by taking the stage.

RIOT ACTS,
Madsen Minax;
2009; US;
72 min.

Following the exhilarating screening of RIOT ACTS director Madsen Minax and featured musician Adhamh Roland will give an exclusive performance during our Opening Night party!
Madsen Minax is a filmmaker, musician and multi-media artist come hell-raiser currently living and working in Chicago, IL. He currently plays with the technically savvy and emphatically suave triad, The Homoticons, and actor slash model, a group that draws from vaudville, folk, and bluegrass roots.
Adhamh Roland is a guitar strummin’, accordion squeezing, whistling warbler who fancies reminiscing about his Midwestern roots while devising collective strategies for liberation. Adhamh has coughed up 4 solo albums in the last several years and is collaborating with musicians in his new home of Berkeley, California to form a Euro-folk inspired trio that has yet to be named.


Diagnosing Difference
Saturday, May 15
1pm
Northwest Film Forum

Most of us know that Gender Identity Disorder, or GID, is a disorder listed in diagnostic manuals used by the medical community and insurance companies to categorize transgender people. While some in the transgender and gender variant communities support the purpose of a GID classification, others say it’s completely useless and some believe it’s outright harmful. DIAGNOSING DIFFERENCE examines the issues surrounding Gender Identity Disorder through interviews with some of the best and brightest in the transgender and medical communities. This topical, informative, and occasionally humorous documentary brings an important issue facing the trans community front and center.
DIAGNOSING DIFFERENCE, Annalise Ophelian; 2009; US; 63 min.

Preceeded by:
DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
A student produced news report on the signing of the historic, gender identity inclusive, hate crimes bill and a memorial to those who lost their lives to anti-transgender hatred.
DAY OF REMEMBRANCE, 2009; US; 3 min


Forever's Gonna Start Tonight
Saturday, May 15
3pm
Northwest Film Forum

In her heyday, Vicki Marlane was part of the first wave of people on the performance circuit of what we currently understand to be drag. But Vicki is not just a drag queen. In fact, Vicki’s not in drag at all. Vicki is Vicki: a performer in her 70s who still works in San Francisco’s nightclubs, bringing down the house with her seductive routines and putting female performers more than half her age to shame. This revealing documentary follows Vicki’s wild journey through life, from carnival sideshows and romantic road trips to present day San Francisco. With both regalement and touches of sorrow, FOREVER’S GONNA START TONIGHT tells the story of an unparalleled woman and the losses, loves, and places that filled the spaces between her hot and racy burlesque performances.
FOREVER’S GONNA START TONIGHT, Michelle Lawler; 2009; US; 54 min.

Preceeded by:
JANENE
Seattle performer Anita Goodman plays a lonely escort, enjoying the last few hours of her day before a rendezvous with a sailor.
JANENE, Joriah Goad; 2009; US; 5 min.


Mainstay
Saturday, May 15
5pm
Northwest Film Forum

In the wintry landscape of rural Maine, Fischer has just returned home upon hearing of his ex-lover Hannah’s sudden death. After a two-year absence from his family, Fischer is well into his transition from female to male – an experience that he shared only with Hannah. With the loss of this source of validation, Fischer begins to rebuild his fragile relationship with his brother and mother. In the public realm of the small town, Fischer must engage with the people of his past, thus forcing him to negotiate the tenuous boundaries between his queer identity and his perceived “straight” male body.
MAINSTAY, Elliot Montague; 2009; US; 50 min.

Preceded by:
AMATEUR
A withdrawn country boy goes on a camping trip and becomes interested in a confident gender-bending girl named Sam. When she forces him to question his true feelings, he must confront his own insecurities before he can accept Sam and himself.
AMATEUR, Daniel Trevino; 2009; US; 15 min.


Maggots and Men
Saturday, May 15
7pm
Northwest Film Forum

In Russia, the Kronstadt sailors had a long tradition as radicals and courageous fighters. MAGGOTS AND MEN is an experimental historical narrative set in a mythologized, post-revolutionary Russia that re-imagines the 1921 rebellion of the Kronstadt sailors with a twist of gender anarchy. The film is set in the all male environment of a Russian naval base, but cast with actors from a range of masculine gender expressions, resulting in a film that redefines male, challenges the binary gender construct, and intentionally creates confusion. And acknowledging a long tradition of homosexuality amongst sailors, the film has provocative sex scenes that evolve organically out of teamwork in close quarters.
MAGGOTS AND MEN positions the struggle for gender equality within a larger struggle for peace and justice, while bringing together both transgender and queer communities. It documents a rapidly evolving transgender community and illuminates the gender revolution currently taking place in our society.

MAGGOTS AND MEN, Carey Cronenwett; 2009; US; 53 min. (in Russian & English)


Dinah East
Saturday, May 15
9pm
Northwest Film Forum

Have you ever heard the rumor that larger-than-life actress and icon Mae West was actually a man? DINAH EAST takes that story and runs with it in this campy cult classic from the 70’s. Jeremy Stockwell and Warhol superstar Ultra Violet star in this sexy and scandalous rags-to-riches story of a girl who makes it in Hollywood while hiding an explosive secret about her “true” identity. The movie itself spawned a new spate of rumors – did the real-life West have the film pulled from distribution and all copies destroyed, as the producers claimed? Or did she see it ten years before her death and find the whole thing hilarious? While it helps to have a sense of humor and imagination to enjoy DINAH EAST for what it is, at its core is a refreshing story focusing on the importance of individual human relationships, while steering away from labels and the conjecture of identity.
DINAH EAST, Gene Nash; 1970; US; 90 min.


Queerly Canadian
Sunday, May 16
1pm
Northwest Film Forum

These short films from our neighbors up north present two unique perspectives on gender queer experiences.

COMPROMISING POSITIONS presents a world where gay-bashings and trans-bashings menace, yet scrappy young queers willingly risk injury in one another’s hands in queer wrestling. This unruly combat sport is a sub-cultural phenomenon popping up in urban centers cross-Canada. Jimmy Stray and Johnny Trouble, two genderqueer rascals with a passion for kicking ass, embark on a filmmaking adventure to explore queer identity through combat. Along the way, they confront a series of unexpected demons and discover what they are truly wrestling.

AND THE REST IS DRAG, explores gender from the perspective of drag kings who consciously and politically queer their gender, both on and off stage. Using an eclectic mix of performance footage, still photography, and interviews with members of the Alberta Beef Drag King Troupe, the film draws audiences into the sexy, rebellious, and sometimes humorous world of drag kinging.

COMPROMISING POSITIONS, Auden Cody Neuman & Mik Turje; 2008; Canada; 35 min.
AND THE REST IS DRAG, Melisa Brittain; 2009; Canada; 31 min.


Love Interests: Short Films
Sunday, May 16
3pm
Northwest Film Forum

This collection of transgender short films examines the dynamics of love in myriad relationships. Calpernia Adams plays a woman unsure about coming out to her new boyfriend and goes through a hilarious process to make her apartment TRANSPROOFED. CAT’S CRADLE uses a childhood game to represent our relationships to others and ourselves. REMEMBER ME IN RED is the wish one woman tries to fulfill and to rightfully honor her friend’s memory, while a secretive SEƑORITA leads a double life to be a guardian to a young boy in her care. GOSSAMER WALLS shows an abstract memory of family and childhood through the negative lens. A rumination on the dangers of first crushes, BLINK also reveals the habits of sea cucumbers. And AMATEUR is about staying in the moment, taking a risk, and learning to forgive.

TRANSPROOFED, Andrea James; 2009; US; 14 min.
CAT’S CRADLE, Raymond Rea; 2010; US; 4 min.
REMEMBER ME IN RED, Hector Ceballos: 2010; US; 15 min. (in Spanish)
SEƑORITA, Vincent Sandoval; 2009; Philippines/US; 15 min. (in Tagalog)
GOSSAMER WALLS, Malic Amalya & Peter Miller; 2007; US; 5 min.
BLINK, Silas Howard; 2009; US; 11 min.
AMATEUR, Daniel Trevino; 2009; US; 15 min.
Total Running Time: 79 min.


My Buddy Claudia
Sunday, May 16
5pm
Northwest Film Forum


For over thirty years Brazilians came to know Claudia Wonder through music, magazines, and film. She was a transwoman from SĆ£o Paulo who managed to come out of the newspapers’ crime section to become a highlight in the culture pages. MY BUDDY CLAUDIA follows this remarkable woman from her difficult childhood (she spent 15 days in jail by order of her military grand-uncle), to her role as the first travesti to act in ’70s mainstream soft-core, to her days of activism and being a rock star in the ‘80s. Through the film we learn much about Brazil itself, while being exposed to Claudia’s many facets from courageous to profane.

Warning: Contains brief nudity and sex on screen.
MY BUDDY CLAUDIA, DƔcio Pinheiro; 2009; Brazil; 86 min. (in Portuguese)


Open
Sunday, May 16
7pm
Northwest Film Forum

Winner of the Special Jury Award for LGBT film at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival, OPEN presents a visually striking and emotionally moving portrayal of relationships for a new millennium.
When the young hermaphrodite Cynthia meets Gen and Jay, a couple recovering from plastic surgery, she learns of Pandrogeny, in which two people merge their facial features in order to reflect their evolution from separate identities into one unified entity. Inspired by this, Cynthia abandons her husband and suburban life to embark on a road trip with Gen through anachronistic America.
A young transman, Syd, meets a young punk, Nick, and after a sexual encounter they find themselves falling in love. But are Syd and Nick ready to deal with the implications and consequences of their unique romance?
OPEN’s cast of real hermaphroditic, pandrogynous, and transpeople bring authenticity to this story of emerging possibilities for human connection.

OPEN, Jake Yuzna: 2009; US; 90 min.

Translations: The Seattle Transgender Film Festival

4/28/10

Ticked off trannies with Knives: Controversy Dogs Ticked off in Texas

Israel Luna's 'Ticked off trannies with knives' returns home. Transgender activists poised to protest.

Many cisgender men and a smattering of transgender people in north Texas beleive TOTWK has established an important new genre, camp transexplotion and are defending what they perceive as an attack on freedom of speech by trans activists opposed to TOTWK. Many of movies supporters and actors also feel the transgender community is over reacting to this violent revenge flick and have commented that they should just "lighten up" because it's 'just a movie'.

BBC Amrica interview of Transsexual woman Ashley Love and Israel Luna


Transgender people are not amused.

Conversely the transgender community has protested vigorously denouncing the commercial exploitation of the systemic violence committed against transfolk so graphically and gratuitously depicted in TOTWK as unethical and immoral. Most transgender people are also upset over the pejorative "tranny" in the tittle and have persuaded Luna to leave blank the letter 'n' in tra**y, ostensibly in a effort to obscure the dehumanizing effect of the movies title.

WNYC NPR Fresh air interview of transsexual activist Ashley Love and Israel Luna about the Transgender Controversy at Tribeca Film Fest

Controversy dogs ticked off trannies in Texas.

Tod Camp artistic director of Q Cinema Ft. Worth TX, the next stop for ticked off tra**ies defended his rational for featuring TO*WK in June despite the outraged local transgender community while commenting on a public facebook note:
Camp wrote..."I think the fundamental disagreement we have is what this film is actually about. This is NOT a film about the trans community, it's a film about drag performers, some of whom are transexuals, who call themselves "trannies," as many of them do. They're not PC, they're drag queens " Camp reasons.... "It is no more about the transexual community than "Boat Trip" is about the gay community. "As to his overriding the transgender communities objections.... "I will not be dictated to by anyone as to what i screen at this festival. You are welcome to protest, debate, preach and opine my decision to screen it, but know that this film will be screened."
The Texas transgender community is somewhat relieved that Tod Camp 'Gets it'. However his unlikely comparison of Boat Trip to the murderous characters of "ticked off' leads me to wonder if Camp truly grasps the differences between having light hearted fun poked at you and the end of a baseball bat slamming into your face.

The transgender community has a few small 'successes' to show for their efforts to this point

Luna has removed the references to real murdered transgender woman in the trailer and obscured the titles defamatory slur and in this way tacitly agreed with Camp's opinion that "This is NOT a film about the trans community, it's a film about drag performers". Sadly, however the misconceptions seeded by the tittle and information supplied by the producers still leads one to believe it is about transgender people.

As noted social commentator C. L. Minou recently wrote "This isn’t standing up to oppression. This is fucking illustrating it."

The North Texas community has identified the need to educate the greater LGB and straight community and will do so by holding a educational protest/rally on the opening night of TOTWK.

Protest/Rally information

Facebook event Protest 'Ticked off Trannies With Knives' at Q Cinema FT Worth

Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies call to action.

4/25/10

Religious Leaders Take a Stand against "Ticked off trannies with knives'

A transgender person of faith responses to "Ticked off Trannies with Knives".

There comes a time when people of faith must look beyond ourselves and to our God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit solely for direction. There comes a time when our religious beliefs must be allowed to guide us past our earthbound alliances and interests.

That time is now.

There is a movie written and directed by a Dallas gay man, Israel Luna called "Ticked off trannies with knives"(TO*WK). This movie sensationalizes the murderous violence committed everyday against transgender woman. This movie commercializes on a fantasy concocted by Luna in which violent retribution is subsequently committed by these 'hot, sexy and fierce' transgender victims.

The movie TO*WK misrepresents transgender people as comical caricatures of females who intentionally "fool" men into believing they are 'real woman' who desire heterosexual sex. Upon being discovered by their intended partners as 'men in women's clothing' the transgender woman inconceivably allow themselves to be willing victims of these murderous men. These transgender victims are then transformed in the last moments of the movie into vigilantes who then violently exact revenge on the original perpetrators of the violent acts.

This movie lends credence to the discredited and abhorrent 'transpanic' defence. Prior to the trial of Alan Andrade for murdering Angie Zapata this tactic was successfully and often used in defence of the killers of transgender woman. Andrades claims that he murdered transgender woman Angie Zapata because she had 'fooled' him were not allowed by the court and he received the maximum penalty.

The 'Transpanic defence' has not been attempted since and the reality of receiving equal punishment for murdering a transgender person undoubtedly has played a major role in the demented minds of those considering this violence.

Israel Luna incensed the transgender community by placeing Angie Zapata's name in the begining of the TO*WK trailer and remained there untill he was forced to remove her name by outraged transgender people.

"Ticked off trannies with knives".

Nothing could be further from the truth about the transgender experience. Nothing could be more dehumanizing or damaging to transgender peoples welfare. The uneducated will be terribly misled and transphobic people, regardless of sexual orientations, will use this tragic movie to further there own hateful agendas.

Religion and "Ticked off trannies with knives."

Despite my objections my pastor is attending the showing of TO*WK at the Fort Worth Q Cinema in June and plans to engage in dialogue with other movie goers about it afterwards.

I contend that the a Cisgender male pastor of a MCC church should not enter into a discussion that normalizes the usage of 'tranny', a pejorative so dehumanizing, harmful and hated by transgender womankind.

I contend that the message that TO*WK communicates should not be supported by the Metropolitan Community Church in any way. My Church, Trinity MCC Arlington Texas, does this by supporting Q Cinema, which is featuring TO*WK at it's film festival despite the transgender communities pleas that it does not.

I contend that the primary mission of a pastor at a MCC Church or any other Church, is the well being and safety of their congregations and this priority should not be ignored so as to preserve a social association or obligation outside of the Church.

Will Trinity and all of the other Churches in North Texas who claim transgender people as welcomed by god and by their congregations as equals, sit in silent acquiescence to the damaging misconceptions of TO#WK?

Will Metropolitan Community Churches defend ALL of it's congregants, or will it's allegiance to a earth bound agenda prove more important.

I invite all LGBT welcoming Churches to consider this a invitation to take a stand against the transphobic violence inspiring misogynistic message of TO*WK. I invite all transgender inclusive churches to come to the informational rally at the opening night of TOTWK at Q Cinema in Fort Worth.

Kelli Anne Busey
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies

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