By Damon Romine
Entertainment Media Director
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)

For 20 years, GLAAD has closely monitored LGBT media images. The entertainment industry, by and large, has churned out images of gays and lesbians, and GLAAD has made great strides to ensure these groups are represented fairly and accurately. Transgender images are not as common and represent a community that's still misunderstood and ridiculed on screen and off. Even within the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, transgender people continue to be disenfranchised. We all need to demand the same respect for transgender people as we demand for gays and lesbians. As GLAAD's new entertainment media director, I've noticed something that could be the beginning of a disturbing trend: In a span of two weeks, the popular animated shows "The Simpsons" and "South Park" featured transgender representations that were considered offensive to the trans community. We should all be offended.

But based on feedback from message boards and blogs, the gay community really didn't raise a collective eyebrow about the transgender punchlines. Why? As a gay man, I'm left to assume that we've grown immune to such attacks, having repeatedly been victimized, ridiculed and stereotyped ourselves in television and film. Or maybe we simply wrote the characterizations off as satire. Maybe both. Even I had to re-watch the episodes to fully grasp why transgender people would be upset. Now I understand-and I hope after reading this you will too.

On "The Simpsons"' much-heralded-and very funny-gay wedding episode, which aired Feb. 20th, Marge's sister Patty came out of the closet and announced she was marrying her pro-golfer lover Veronica. In the middle of an intense national conversation about our families and our freedom to marry, to have "The Simpsons" come down on the side of marriage equality was a big win.

But in a final-act twist to keep Patty single, Marge discovers that Veronica is really a man (named Leslie Robin Swisher-doh!) who is posing as a lesbian only to play women's golf. Members of the transgender community saw two reasons to be upset: Male-to-female pro-golfer Mianne Bagger has been kept from pursuing her career in the U.S. because both the LPGA and the USGA have added a "female at birth" clause. Second, the "reveal" of Veronica reinforces a dangerous myth that transgender people are trying to deceive or trick us. When Marge dramatically ripped away Veronica's choker to reveal a bulging Adam's apple, it seemed funny; but in real life, such revelations are often followed by terrible violence. It's no joke.

The trans community also took note of "South Park"'s season premiere on March 9th. Mr. Garrison, long depicted as a deeply closeted gay man, wants to be made "well" and undergoes an extremely graphic (even for "South Park") "vaginoplasty" to make him a woman. The new Mrs. Garrison, still has the trademark bald head and glasses, but now flamboyantly minces around in Capri pants, anxiously awaiting her first period.

Mr. Garrison's transformation opens the floodgates for Kyle to have surgery to become a tall African American so he can play basketball, and Kyle's father surgically becomes the dolphin he's always wanted to be. Seriously. By the end of the episode, each is made to look foolish for their decisions. Mrs. Garrison even confronts her surgeon with the line, "You made me into a freak?and I want you to change me back!" The doctor says later, "I should have told you that the surgery was cosmetic only."

Underneath the humor is a facetious parallel comparing gender identity with nonsensical issues of "trans-racial" and "trans-species". And then there's the reinforced misconception that sex-reassignment surgery doesn't actually change one's gender. Topping it off, Mr. Garrison's out-of-the-blue sex change promotes the stereotype that all gay men really want to be women. After all, Mrs. Garrison's final words at the end of the episode are, "Even though I'm not truly a woman?I'd rather be a woman who can't have periods than a fag." Ouch! It's just not funny. To use TV lingo, perhaps "South Park" has jumped the shark -er, dolphin.

There will be people who say that I don't get the joke and that GLAAD is humorless. There's really no way that I can convince you otherwise, but in the spirit of full disclosure, let me admit that I AM a fan of both shows (SHHHH, I own their DVD collections, too), and certainly appreciate irreverent, off-color humor. But sometimes things just aren't funny.

Both offenders are well known and respected for their biting satire. But satire works best when it's David attacking Goliath. When it's Goliath beating up David, or in this case a community that's already alienated by society, well that's plain mean. It's the bully on the schoolyard beating up the kid who is already beaten up.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting comedy writers avoid transgender humor. The CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men tackled the subject last year by finding comedy in trans-PHOBIA, not by making fun of Chris O'Donnell's female-to-male character. Until the time comes when there are well-rounded, recurring trans characters on television to provide fairness and balance, making a transgender individual the butt of the joke is just wrong. This only gives viewers the validation to laugh at a group of people who are already accustomed to verbal harassment and physical violence.

Navigating the minefield of comedy and humor is a difficult and complex challenge; no one - especially GLAAD - can afford to pretend otherwise. By dismissing these issues as merely a by-product of comedy, the LGB community gives a free pass to the mockery of the trans community, perhaps with a sigh of relief and the thought, "As long as we're not picked on." GLAAD, though, is passionately committed to raising as much awareness of trans images as we do of gay ones.

The talented folks at "The Simpsons" and "South Park" are friends and allies to the gay community. But as we've seen, gay friendly doesn't necessarily equal trans friendly. In the end, I do believe they were aiming for satire but fell short. GLAAD looks forward to our continuing dialogue with the entertainment industry to make it more aware of transgender issues. We in the LGB community, meanwhile, need to have these conversations as well. We must realize that humor at the expense of some of us is damaging to all of us.

------- Damon Romine is the Entertainment Media Director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). For more information, please visit http://www.glaad.org.