Kinda surprised there hasn't been a peep of protest about this from the social justice nutters on Tumblr. (That link is NSFW.) Perhaps the context exonerates this usage. The term "tranny" was popularized by the porn industry... so, um, maybe porn industry gets a counterintuitive a pass? (Wouldn't the folks who popularized a hate term come in for more criticism and get less of a pass?) There were lots of trans men and trans women at the event, it goes without saying, and the awards were designed to celebrate trans men and women who work in the porn industry. But after being told—over and over again—that "tranny" is the moral and linguistic equivalent of the n-word, and after seeing GLAAD sprinkle their press releases with asterisks for last couples of years ("the word “tra**y” has become an easy punch line in popular culture"), I'm a little surprised that I didn't hear about the Tranny Awards until after the fact—and then from a trans porn performer happy about winning a Tranny and not from a furious glitter-bomber who wanted to shut the Tranny Awards down.

Anyway, big congrats to my friend Buck!