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The University of Minnesota-Morris has suspended a student radio show from the air after they used the word "tranny" during one of their shows.
The radio show, which goes by the name "Deplorable Radio" was yanked off in the air mid-broadcast over their use of the word "tranny." A video recording of the moment was published online following the incident.
"You know, you can definitely,
you see one tranny that's trying to punch someone," one student said during the broadcast. "You know it's automatically that one guy that you know I'm talking about. I bet you know. I'm not going to dox anybody and name them on air.
But you two know if I say the tranny who looks like he's going to punch someone. Yep."
"About fifteen minutes later," host Brandon Albrecht
told The College Fix, "the student station manager came into the studio with a UMMPD officer and told us to leave. She said
we had violated FCC law by saying a word that was never allowed on air, 'tranny.' So we packed up and left the studio."
"Hey guys, I am just going to have you leave. You said a couple words that break FCC violations," the manager says in the video. "And so for today, I am going to have you stop your show. Specifically tranny.
That is a hate slur it is not allowed on the radio. I need you to leave."
"Did you really have to call the police?" one of the students asks.
"Yes," she responds in the video clip.
"It's a violation, you are breaking the law," she added as the hosts packed their things to leave the station.
A week after the show, the students were told they were "permanently suspended from the radio station."
The use of "tranny" on the air isn't prohibited under the FCC's "indecency" rule. "The officials are wrong," First Amendment and media lawyer Bob Corn-Revere explained to the College Fix in an email. "Neither [saying the word 'tranny' nor broadcasting while under the influence] is a violation of FCC rules."
The station's board was forced to acknowledge that they had falsely accused the students of violating an FCC rule. In an email to the students, they admitted that the use of "tranny" did not constitute an FCC violation. "Upon further consultation with University officials, we have come to the conclusion that our language concerns have been determined to not be in violation of FCC community standards," the email from the station's manager read.
The student hosts claim that during a meeting the following week they were
asked by the radio's board to voluntarily resign from the organization. If they choose not to resign, they will be subject to a board vote on whether or not the show should be allowed to remain on the air.
A few years ago a friend and I were listening to old Rocky and Bullwinkle's from the '60s and '70s, or so I thought, on YouTube.
He had his laptop on the dining table and I was at the other end of my long living/dining room working on something when I heard Natasha (Fatale) say to Boris (Badenov), "No Borees, I'm not tranny I just haf narrow heeps".
Thinking I was listening to a '70s episode I about died laughing.
Subsequent digging revealed that she'd done Natasha for many years and the script we heard was likely from the '90s or early 2000s.
People were less touchy about things then it would seem, even though that was rather a slur it wasn't meant that way I don't think.
On the other hand, there is this legitimate piece from Fran Blanche [Link]
Fighting for Legitimacy (Feb. 2011)
It can very well be that the hardest thing for a transperson is the constant battle for legitimacy. It is one of the strongest motivations for deep stealth, and the bane of any transperson who chooses to live out in the open. The too often perceived ultimate weapon for those who wish to 'expose' an abhorrent transsexual is the symbolic hand grenade of an improper pronoun, or other derision of one's gender to belittle, usually lobbed in the transperson's absence amongst their peers.
Despite being a woman my entire adult life I still get hate mail at 44. I will not make references to specific insults, as that would only serve to add notches in the belts of my bullies, but it still astonishes me that I inspire the kind of anger that I do just by being who I am. In the past even those very close to me, long time friends, and yes - even transgendered partners, have desperately pulled the pin out of the gender slamming hand grenade to my shock. I have found that the worst derision has sometimes been volleyed by those closest to me when they are faced with the scrutiny of their own families and friends, and in defending their own virtue the result is that bomb of defamation being lobbed in my direction. It always catches me off guard, and I have found it to be a hard price to pay for having a public life.
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