Thursday, January 07, 2010

Letterman Should Apologize for Transgender Joke (Video)

Another day, another offensive joke from David Letterman. Now Letterman has moved on from making offensive rape jokes about Sarah Palin's teenage daughter to making offensive transgender jokes.

The target of Letterman's joke was rocket scientist Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender presidential appointee. Dave has been on late night far too long. The world has moved on. Dave has not. He should apologize and then consider retiring before he inspires any more hate crimes.

The Human Rights Campaign is asking for a public apology:

In the letter, the Human Rights group writes: "You may not be aware that the punch line in your skit has been used as a defense in nearly every hate crime perpetrated against transgender people that has come to trial. For example, the 'trans panic'defense was infamously used by Allen Ray Andrade, who was convicted in 2009 of beating 19-year-old Angie Zapata to death with a fire extinguisher after learning of her gender history."