I do not claim to be any kind of a media whiz about these things, nor do I understand the details of advertising or being able to push back on this type of thing.....but the objective I would think is to make lemonade our of the lemons that this latest show created.

To do that, and with the collaboration of GLADD or another trustworty and knowleagable sourch, the show might consider a series of sequals within the Cleveland Show that deal with the actual and total acceptance of the family of the Transgender character and build that inot an object lesson for everyone about acceptance of the individual for who and what they are.

They have already accomplished the cutdown of the character and maligning her, now they should try to continue to show her actual worth within the family traditionally and their love for the person despite how she wishes to express hereself and build her into the show as an asset to the story line on a number of shows, concentrating on her contributions to the family and the things that make them better.

I can think of any number of scenarios that would result in humor and make people think about the Trans person, Aunty Mama as a caring and valuable person. I lived through some of them with my own daughter, like helping her with makeup and going with her to by her first prom dress. Or being with my son when he had to be hospitalized for a short time. With Christmas just around the corner, there is a great opportunity to include the Trans person in the families holiday and plans in some kind of humorous way that elevates the realtionship instead of making it look like a farce or a deception. How about Auntie bringing her boyfriend to the family dinner?

We all live our lives as Transgender people hoping for the best and often getting the worst from our families. Humor, the basis of this type of entertainment, usually is just a magnification of the details that we live every day. I would think that the writers, with some help from a caring Trans person, might be able to make those life lessons humorous and at the same time meaningfull by showing the path to acceptance, instead of dragging the realtionship into the gutter as they depicted.

I would call for a few sequals along a more guided path. You can't destroy what has already been done, but you can build on it by making it more acceptable. Then everyone learns something.

Becky,

AS far as I am concerned, I do not see anything that GLADD can do about a FOX based program. I also note that if they really try to be ambivilent about it or force the action, the next thing your going to hear and see is Hannity and O'Rielly making a big deal about it on their show and spinning it to read that GLADD is powerless in this situation and they might be able to get CNN or NBC to turn around on it, but they will never get FOX to roll over on what they call "humor". In fact, suspecting that as I do, it becomes even more clear why GLADD is only "talking" about it. FOX revels in the role of the little boy, innocently asking why the king has no clothes on.

In any event, trying to get FOX to stop drinking the anti-liberal, anti-GLBT cool aid is like trying to cure a lepper after their leg falls of.
You may be able to impede it, but your never going to repair the damage already done.

Interesting how GLAAD promotes an interview with Candis Cayne at the same time she did two episodes of Nip/Tuck with a highly exploitive and even offensive theme... detransition and retransition of a transwoman. These episodes portrayed a transwoman as an unstable nut who mostly transitioned for reasons of getting sex. (which how how they also portrayed a previous mtf character on that show... a sex obsessed nutjob). Where was GLAAD's commentary on that content, especially after their blog (and I'm sure they had some kind of an outline of the show's story) actually recommended it to viewers? GLAAD had virtually nothing to do with the campaign against Seventeen Magazine's lurid story of a young FTM but has taken much of the credit. Moreover, they've never taken The L Word to task for their inane and often inaccurate storylines concerning their FTM character Max (who, btw, is pregnant on the show!). Let's be honest, GLAAD has no trans people on their board and, to my knowledge, no trans-identified people on their staff. Sorry, but if this is the organization which claims to be the main media advocate of trans people, they're either sorely inadequate to the task or just plain disinterested.

Gina,

You make and excellent point that generally speaking can be applied to just about every oversight group in the GLBT community that claims to speak for GLBT people in all matters that the media touches.

GLADD does not have a Trans spokesperson or they would have hit the nail directly on the head when it comes to this program. Heck, if I can think of a better approach to this, then I know that a media trained Trans person would have reached the same conclusion way before any of these posts and discussion and it would have been noted in the objectives in the GLADD statement, instead of the less than inspiring idea of just talking to FOX. Any good plan has a gaol and I didn't find one in GLADD's statement. Waving your arms and thrashing about does nothing but make them look silly and saying that they will sit and talk means even less to the more progressives in our community.

The fact that HRC made a big hallabaloo about the one MtoF Trans person that they hired last year was indication enough that even the largest GLBT supportive groups in our community don't really care that much about hiring Trans voices to represent them, even regarding singular Trans issues, and if they do they make damn sure that they are passable and don't think those radical Tranny thoughts, like being considered equal.

I wish I could say that I have experienced the friendship of a number of MtoF's who work at responsible postions in GLBT media outlets like GLADD or some of the print news, but they simply don't exist in an open and representative way. I guess we just haven't crossed that bridge of acceptability yet.

I find it marginalizing to the Trans to be continually subjected to what is called humor or entertainment. In almost two subsequent issues of a St Louis 'entertainment' online/print periodical, in two stories, the local Transgender Community (and thus by inference, the Trans Community as a whole) is subjected to ridicule and marginalization. In one, a Transwoman is reduced to being subhuman with a lurid story of her legal problems. In the other, the Trans Community is described in an interview of a drag queen, as being 'pyschologically diseased.' "It is!" is a published exclamation that he said.

I wrote a strongly worded comment/response to this publication in the first case, which has been subsquently been acknowledged in a post by them to all that had commented negatively.

In the second case, I have written a personal message to the drag queen (and in an positive and constructive manner) requesting an explanation for his comments to this publication. While I am thinking an apology would be most beneficial to the (entire) Community, my foremost measure of character, would be if I receive an answer at all.

Robyn Carolyn Montague
TransHaven Missouri, Inc.

Have you seen the animate representation of the formula Simpson-family guy - the Cleveland Show at http://www.gixman.com/reciclaje-de-ideas-los-programas-animados-acutales-la-misma-formula/