The trans, queer and non-White communities are, unfortunately, familiar with being bashed, both physically and verbally. Sam Slovick's hateful, dehumanizing rant about The Silver Platter and Wildness furthers the hatred of marginalized communities and empowers men like Slovick to continually abuse us, while playing the role of the disrespectful, slobbering, ignorant tourist who proudly exploits the "entertainment" value of our lives. Our community cherishes what limited space we share together, such as the Silver Platter, where inspiration and artistic process is joyously appreciated- cultural creativity that is then subsumed and appropriated by the mainstream. The Sliver Platter is a refuge from the hatred, fear, greed and violence projected at us, as a queer community, on a daily basis. The militant actions during the time of Stonewall- which led to queer liberation in the U.S. -were carried out by the marginalized people that Slovick so happily bashes and disrespects, transgendered people of color such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. We would not dare to fathom what our queer lives would be like if not for the courage and insight of these oppressed and economically disadvantged transgendered citizens, who are our heroines. The queer community is still fighting for our rights to be recognized as human beings and Slovick's "writing" is proof of what we are up against. We refuse to accept that journalists will perpetuate harassment against our community. We demand an apology from Sam Slovick and the LA Weekly for publishing this incendiary, hateful, phobic review of our weekly gathering and The Silver Platter, and that the LA Weekly commit itself to covering queer issues with some sense of journalistic standards- in a decent and informed manner.
The LA Weekly printed a devastatingly racist transphobic article about The Silver Platter/Wildness in its 'Best of LA' issue. This magazine circulates 201,000 copies and because it's Best of LA, it will probably sit on people's coffee tables for 6 months - in addition to being accessed by a wider audience online, throughout the year and forever. We consider this exploitive so-called 'publicity' to be a VIOLENT ACT because it will have wide-spread and long-term effects - it is hate speech that will have material effect on our lives. Before the article even came out we tried stop journalist Sam Slovick - reasoning and begging with him and the managing editors of the Weekly not to cover our event, yet they completely dismissed us. This act is a violation of journalistic ethics because it puts an already vulnerable community at risk. For example Slovick writes, "big-boned Nicaraguan hostess Nicole looks longingly into my eyes as she lures me into a dark corner near the bar's entryway. "That's the Latina show. Friday night," she snarls through throaty pipes as her gaze drifts south. "Come," she licks her big red lips ..." In actuality Nicole (who is an employee of the bar) says that he made her very uncomfortable with his questioning and then tried to pay her $5 to take her picture. This article is a evidence of the kind of bashing that the trans, queer, and non-White communities face on a daily basis. It is unacceptable that journalists are perpetuating harassment against our community by inviting this kind of aggression into our safe space. WHAT WE CAN DO. We can try to force them at least to take the article offline, by flooding them with letters and demands. If you have a minute to offer your support, please tell the LA Weekly how you feel. We are hoping that if enough of us speak out, we can at least shorten the article's life. If you can, please cc' us your letters so we can gather together everyone's powerful opinions. PLEASE TELL THE WEEKLY HOW YOU FEEL e-mail: readerswrite@laweekly.com
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