Saw The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert last night. It was real good! Haven't put much critical thought into it yet but it was definitely headlined by cis/straight folks playing gay men and a trans woman, unfortunately.

They still did what feels like a pretty good job - it felt like a really good highlight to the kind of struggle and life lgbt folks have, particularly back in the early 90s when it was made.

The only thing I could think when the main characters used f***** and t***** was "ok are the actors actually gay / trans"

I also dunno how accepted the second one was back then as any kind of accepted word use goes but the first ones definitely was off the table as a hate word already, but I know it was basically a socially acceptable hate word then. I bet the other word was the same 😣

@vahnj The film's Australian, so different cultural context. Also, I can't speak for anyone else, but "t4y" was my self-word back when I was a sheltered 20-something in 2000 transitioning with no real community and no awareness of the pornography context. It sounded cute and diminutive at a time when I felt like I was neither, "transsexual" was too medical, and "transgender" didn't sound right because it was my body that needed fixing, not my social role.

@literorrery wow, this is great context, thanks!

@vahnj These days, I have an an awkward relationship with it. I' very aware of the broader cultural context, and I don't want to punch sideways or down, but I can't deny that I used... and use... it positively for myself. I just don't really have the energy for a fight with random people to try to "reclaim" it. =x.x=