One of the things humor does is to highlight issues like this therefore if we are to envisage a joke that mocks Transphobia how do we do it without showing Transphobic in operation?

People aren’t ‘protected’ by burying our heads in the sand and pretending that the world’s nice, they’re protected by highlighting prejudice and challenging it which is what this joke did.

Given the fact that trans people are killed and that the killers use the “I freaked out when I discovered she used to be male” defence in court, the only way is not to make tasteless jokes out of it!

We would live in a sad and boring world if every pronouncement, every joke has to be checked for every possible interpretation.

Jokes don’t need to be checked for every posible interpretation, common sense should tell the writer or performer – especially one who’s been in the business for as long as Letterman – what’s offensive and insensitive, failing that a simple 5 mins check online will tell anyone that looks, that such a joke is in bad taste. It’s not hard.

I congratulate Amanda for achieving the level of education and experience that qualifies her for the appointment to the Department of Commerce. And, I would never criticize President Obama for not doing more for the GLBT Community. He has more on his plate each day, than any other US President has ever had during an entire term in office. One may not agree with his decisions, but he has more information regarding them than most of the rest of us. I believe President Obama is the most unbiased individual of anyone in office yet, and give him credit for the “new direction” he is trying to lead us. Unfortunately, politics weighs heavily, and President Obama does not have the freedom to always do what he feels is right. But, “little steps” works, and the GLBT Community is far ahead of what it was just ten years ago. The more we, as GLBT individuals, educate others about our identity and demonstrate that we have the same “needs and wants” of everyone on earth, the more we will be accepted as the normal individuals we are.

Again, Amanda Simpson, I salute you, for your accomplishments. You go girl… And, President Obama, I salute you, for selecting Amanda Simpson for the position in spite of the fact that you will take heat for it. Good job…

To quibble with a commenter above Letterman does not use the male pronoun to refer to Amanda. He uses ‘he’ to refer to Obama as far as I can tell. Credit where it’s due I suppose.

“an insulting bit of anti-trans middle school assclownery”

If I didn’t know what this debate was about, I would have instantly sided with the person who came up with that delicious quote. Just because it is delicious.

But I do know what this debate is about, so I’m siding with him because I agree.

Do you remember how sad and 1984-like the world became when they banned black-face “comedy”? No? Neither do I, because it was s**t, and unfunny, and is not missed in the slightest. Let’s hope stuff like this meets the same fate. Trust me, it’s not part of a slippery slope towards thought crime. Insensitive tosh like this already gets banned for subjects like race or child molestation, and…nope, I don’t see any gestapo wandering around, do you?

No he’d not do the same joke for Obama as there’s no humor to be found in that is there? There’s not a stereotype to be evoked and attitudes to mock as there is with Trans People. You don’t, in the parlance of stupid men, go to bed with some chick to find out that she’s President of the USA.

“What Obamas black? Oh no!”

That skit is deliberately designed to reinforce stereotypes its not funny. He did not even have the grace to wish Amanda well. If you listen to the start Letterman calls Amanda him and that is disgusting.

Yes and that’s the point, Amanda is a woman. That’s insulting to her womanhood, it’s the same as calling any other woman who was elect to office a man and running off stage. It’s childish and disrespectful.

Perhaps we should all realize that humor can be used for positive and negative purposes. I would assume that this piece is meant to poke fun at transphobia, but it missed the key resolution where the concern is derided.

We would live in a sad and boring world if every pronouncement, every joke has to be checked for every possible interpretation.

No it’s not Transphobic, it’s Transphobicphobic or, to put it another way, extracting the urine from such reactions.