The Transgression of Neil Patrick Harris

Some of the idiots running around accusing me of being transphobic pointed to my use of the word "tranny" in this blog post as evidence of my transphobia.

It didn't matter that I was quoting a dishonest blogger who falsely accused me of using the word (a blogger who used the word herself), that I denied using the word (because I hadn't used the word), and then stated that I had made an effort to stop using the word after the memo went out about it. My use of the word "tranny" in a blog post about how I didn't use the word and try not to use the word? Just a sneaky way of using the word! (Example of this strain of logic here: "And yet by trying not to say the word 'tranny' anymore, he says it over and over in that post...") SO! Hate speech! Proof of transphobia! Because the word "tranny" is so toxic, so hateful, and so harmful to the trans community that it can't be used in any context, at any time, by anyone, ever! (The dishonest blogger who used the word when she stuffed it in my mouth? She gets a pass because, um, it's okay to use the word so long as you're lying about someone else using the word?)

Using the logic—if I may call it that—of the dishonest blogger, GBers, and furious commenters... the person who wrote this blog post going after Neil Patrick Harris for his use the word "tranny" on television is a transphobic bigot. The blogger uses the word four times, after all, and remember: context doesn't matter. So it's irrelevant that the blogger has an entirely legit point about why NPH's use of the word is troubling—NPH thoughtlessly invoked the spectre of trans women as sexual predators—because the word can't be used in any context, at any time, by anyone, ever, anyone who uses the word is a bigot, and the blogger uses it over and over and over in that post! So the blogger is a bigot. (When you're ready to apologize, Neil, the cissies at GLAAD are ready to help you play Grovel Madlibs. You too, blogger!)