Dallas director Israel Luna’s “transploitation” thriller Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives seems to attract attention wherever it goes – and usually not the positive kind. Ticked-Off is receiving its Southwest premiere at Q Cinema this weekend. An activist group called Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies has announced two protests (7pm Saturday June 5 and 4:30pm Sunday June 6) at the Rose Marine Theater, where Q holds its screenings. DTAA spokesperson Kelli Busey said in a statement:
“Humor can be used to challenge and subvert, but this movie fails on both counts. In a society where trans people struggle to be accepted and have their lives viewed as equally valuable, this film does them no service at all. Instead, it perpetuates harmful and negative stereotypes.”
I haven’t seen Ticked-Off, though I’m a fan of the lurid and the ironic if they’re done well. But just as Q has every right to screen the movie, so do Advocates and Allies have the right to express their concerns with (peaceful) protests. That’s what keeps free expression alive and healthy in America.
Jimmy Fowler,
You are the only journalist in North Texas to this point, with enough integrity to report fairly on transgender concerns which otherwise would remain unheard because of conflicts of interests with the Dallas Voice’s gay readership and sponsors. Thank you!
The Dallas Transgender Advocates are protesting at the Q Cinema presentation of “Ticked Off Tra**nies with knives, but the Sundays protest time has been changed to 2:30pm.
I would like to comment on a couple of things on your article.
Please blur out at least a couple of letters in the word “Tra**ies” in the future. That is a concession we have won from Luna and many in our community are asking everyone, including myself to adhere to that standard in the future.
It is unfair to categorize the Transgender Advocates and Allies as “ticked off’.
The DTAA is comprised of an incrediably diverse group representing nearly every continent on earth. Many of our members are people of different faiths who do not allow anger to be the guide post to advocacy.
We are not seeking to infringe on anyone’s right to freedom of speech.
We will be seeking to educate Q Cinema patrons who are predominantly gay, about the damaging effect that this movie has on transgender people.
There is a misconception among the Gay community. Many feel that because the the inclusion of the T in the acronym LGB gay people have a innate knowledge of and the authority to speak on behalf of the transgender community.
That is simply not true and this misconception manifested itself most recently in this gay film makers mistaken beleive that this movie would actually ’empower’ transgender people.
Does TO$WK enable trans people? Nothing could be further from the truth or reality.
The truth is transgender people have been murdered at a rate of over 2 people week for a total of 160 deaths, just for our gender expression, since Luna first introduced in January of 2009 TO$WK under a firestorm of condemnation from the worlds transgender community.
The truth is that the murdered transgender woman that Luna originally used as a advertising ploy in the trailer, Angie Zapata’s mother Maria, recently spoke out in horror after learning Israel Luna had used her daughters legacy to promote TO$WK.
The truth is there are thousands more mothers of murdered transgender people who will be enraged after they learn Israel Luna has invoked the memories of there dear departed to sell this horrendous movie.
In fact TO$WK only serves to empower Luna’s and his film crew’s financial well being.
TO$WK sensationalizes in gratuitous grotesquely sexually suggestive images that the act of murdering transgender woman is the ultimate thrill, thereby enabling those who harbor hatred towards transgender people to act on those impulses which will result in even more transgender woman and men being memorialized and grieved over at the next Transgender Day of Remembrance.
This, my dear Jimmy, is why people of conscious from the Metropolitan Community Church’s of north Texas will be standing with there transgender congregants in protest.
This why many gay and straight people who are not religiously active will be standing with us.
I do pray for our gay communities enlightenment that they will cease enabling the murderous behaviour TO$WK portrays by not attending TO$WK.
I do pray that Israel Luna’s conscious will demand of him to place the concerns for transgender lives over this shameful grab for fame and wealth and that he removes this movie from distribution.
I hope you will be reporting at our protest Jimmy,
Kelli anne Busey
founder/organizer
Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies
Author
planetransgender
Hey Jimmy, nice piece. Quick correction. “Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives” screens at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 5, the Trans Talk panel discussion is at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 6 and the encore of “Ticked-Off Trannies” screens at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 6. Hope to see everyone out at the movies.
And it’s quite the bargain – less than 10c per Tr**ny death since it was released!
Israel’s Luna’s on a winner here – Lazar Saric, the director of the previous Transploitation film – “Killer Drag Queens on Dope (2003) ” – never though to cash in on the corpses.
You rock Zoe!
Obviously another person who can’t think for herself.