Controversy over Kasbah’s ‘Tranny Night’

Popular Coventry nightclub Kasbah has been criticised over its holding of a ‘Tranny Night!’ on Friday 4 November. Kasbah promoted the night with the description: ‘Tranny Night! Boys as girls and girls as boys. The more outrageous the better!!!’

Many of the concerns centred around the marketing of the night, particularly the use of the word ‘tranny’, as some deemed it offensive.

Cal Russell-Thompson, Warwick’s LGBTUA+ Campaigns Officer, provided his views on the ‘Tranny Night!’. “I’m fine with the core idea, but the fact is the marketing was so hostile that it alienated trans people, as well as many people who find the word ‘tranny’ offensive.”

He did however recognise the potential of the theme, stating that “encouraging punters to challenge conventional conceptions of gender is brilliant.”

Russell-Thompson’s main issue with the night was Kasbah’s marketing strategy, particularly its naming of the event. “Marketing the event as a ‘Tranny Night’ actually obscures this theme. There are so many ways around the use of abusive terms like “tranny” that I’m perplexed as to why Kasbah thought it was a good idea to brand it the way they did.”

Instead, he suggested that Kasbah would have been better off using a term like “Drag Night”, which he said “would have avoided an offensive term while making the whole idea of the event clearer and far more inclusive.”

Ethan Fowler, a fourth-year Systems Engineering student, attended the event. He did not think the night was offensive, stating that “it was basically like any other night. I barely saw anyone dressed up.”

Louis Bond, a second-year English Literature and Creative Writing student who identifies as trans, said that “temperatures were running quite high” about the evening. Although he was initially upset, he did not think the word ‘tranny’ in itself was offensive: “[it’s] just a word that we need to reclaim as something positive – our ‘n-word’ or ‘fag’ as it were.”

Staff at Kasbah were shocked that the event had been considered contentious. Mr Amarjit Kullar, a representative for the club, stated that the night was “simply a bit of fun. We originally got the idea after noticing the rugby-playing male students’ propensity to dress as women on a night out.” He went on to say that he considered the night “enjoyable” and “a great success”. Although there are no concrete plans to repeat the theme as of yet, Mr. Kullar suggested that Kasbah might hold another in the future. When asked about the potential for offense, Mr. Kullar answered that he had received just one complaint about the night.

Welfare Officer Izzy John also took issue with the marketing of the night, especially with the use of ‘tranny’ as the tagline for the night, which could be construed as mocking and had the potential to alienate some students. She thought that Kasbah had been “thoughtless”, and that “some students had been very upset” over the night, stating that she had received a few informal complaints, mainly from students within Warwick’s LGBT community. She also said that she would likely write a letter of complaint to the club, but that she was “very cynical” that Kasbah would listen. She said she hoped the night was “mostly in good spirits” but that they needed to understand the implications of what the name means.

She categorically stated that it “would never happen on a Union night”, adding that “all too often with commercial places like Kasbah people don’t really care as long as they make money out of the night.”

She said that the SU avoids “discrimination in the title or the name of the events,” adding that it would be better to “spend your money here, where it’s redirected into services for students.” She offered Week 8’s ‘Love Music, Hate Homophobia’ as a welcome place for trans students.