Et Tu, Letterman?

Normally, I don't watch Letterman any more than I watch Leno, but I was tuned in last night, because John McCain was going to be a guest. (He was, predictably, scarily unassuming and reasonable-sounding.) And the Top 10 list was about Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who became pregnant through artificial insemination when his wife was unable to conceive. Now, my reaction when I first read this story was: "Cool."

David Letterman's (and his ignorant writers') reaction was to call Beatie an "androgynous freak show."



I know challenging the comedy stylings of a team that considers Michael Moore fat jokes hilarious and relevant is a little bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but, like gay jokes, trans jokes are dangerously unfunny.

November 20th of this year will mark the 10th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is "set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice," either by violent action or apathetic inaction, as in the case of Robert Eads, a trans man, a year of whose life was documented in Southern Comfort, who died of ovarian cancer after two dozen doctors refused him treatment.

Ya know, because he was an "androgynous freak show."

Perhaps you'd like to contact CBS and let them know you aren't laughing.