Jack Dailey here, writing to say how utterly appalled I am by Monday’s coverage of the Totally Fabulous Drag Show. Attaching my good drag name to the editorial opinion of the author is really inappropriate. Daily Orange, did you learn nothing from the Kanye West Video Music Awards debacle?  Unflattering. Very unflattering. Gentle Gentleman is a great dancer, a new friend of mine and a fabulous king. This is a friendly competition to raise money for queer-positive community programs, and I had nothing but fun during the entire event. The attempt to undermine their title and create drama to amp up the story angle is uncalled for and fails entirely to capture the purpose of the event: raising funds for The Q Center, Sage Upstate and the Queering Educational Research Institute — none of which were mentioned in the article.

Moreover, and most importantly, the uncritical use of gender terminology is unacceptable. In addition to uncertain and inconsistent pronoun issues and the phrase ‘hot tranny mess,’ which is just completely offensive, you ‘neutrally’ describe the performers as ‘transsexual.’ This is not only an outdated, medical label, but it is also the incorrect term to describe drag and drag identity. If the D.O. staff would like to learn more about being less of a heteropatriarchal jerk, I recommend Kate Bornstein’s ‘Gender Outlaw;’ Leslie Feinberg’s ‘TransLiberation;’ the section from Judith Halberstam’s ‘Female Masculinity’ on drag kings; conversations with staff of the women and gender studies and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies departments; conversations with staff at the LGBT Resource Center; and perhaps conversations with the actual performers of the drag show who never speak for themselves in the article. 

Many of the performers, audience and D.O. readers identify as transgender or genderqueer; your misrepresentation is damaging to our community.  Please make it your priority as a publication to educate yourselves and others, not to harm them.

Savanna Kemp

Performer Jack Dailey from the Totally Fabulous Drag Show