4:25 PM: We have several updates to the post at this time; read on. NOTE: What can you do? Contact CBS using its feedback form. Change.org has a petition targeting The Late Show’s Barbara Gaines (Executive Producer), Rob Burnett (Executive Producer) and Jay Brennan (Executive Producer)

Forty-six seconds of naked, incredible antitrans sentiment — directed at Amanda Simpson, the new Obama Administration Bureau of Industry and Security appointment.

I’ll add commentary as an update.

Update from Autumn:

I’m left wondering what would happen if a late night host joked about the race, disability, veteran status, religious creed, or sexual orientation of an Presidential appointee. Obviously, such jokes would be out of bounds.

If, in a skit, David Letterman joked in the same way about the sexual orientation of Kevin Jennings — having a member of his cast run off the stage upon hearing that Kevin Jennings is a gay man — I have no doubt that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community would be up in arms about it.

But obviously with this David Letterman skit/joke, trans folk like me know it’s not out of bounds to attack someone on the basis of our gender identities. You can insult a otherwise qualified trans appointee to the President’s administration just because of his, her, or hir gender identity. (And in Amanda Simpson’s case, attack her because of her gender identity.)

And, I wonder, after posting about the antitrans sentiments in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual subcommunities of the LGBT community, will there be outrage? Will we see our LGBT organizations battling antitrans sentiments expressed against Amanda Simpson as hard as they fight for marriage equality?

I don’t see a lot of LGB community bloggers and leaders speaking out about antitrans sentiment spoken against Amanda Simpson. I’ve been writing about it way too much this past week. But maybe, just maybe,  I could shut up about it if others in the LGB portion of the LGBT community would speak the hell up about attacks on the T portion of their broader fucking community.

Yeah, I’m angry.

And hey — thank you, Joe.My.God, for speaking up on behalf of your brothers, sisters, and siblings in the trans community.

NOTE FROM PAM: That video is such a flaming, ignorant, bigoted pile of horsesh*t, but just saying so cannot be where it stops. Letterman’s clear cluelessness that any aspect of this “humor” is wrong should be a wake up call to our movement leaders that the general public, potential allies in the struggle for the passage of an inclusive ENDA, are woefully uneducated.

And what that means is when the right wing comes after us with the “bathroom arguments” and the “tranny teacher” scarefest, we have to have legitimate, thought-out responses, not silence or simply saying how ignorant it is. People genuinely have concerns because the trans population is so small overall that the majority of people have no personal frame of reference to draw positive conclusions, let alone pick up the phone and call their member of Congress to be an advocate.

There is a direct connection between that video and our ability to pass ENDA.

As Autumn noted in her piece earlier today, “What About Antitrans Sentiments Expressed Intra-LGBT Community Against Amanda Simpson?” We don’t even have our own house in order if legitimacy is given to arguments as to whether the T belongs aside the LGB, or worse, if there is no such thing as transgender.

We need more allies to be up front and confronting the ignorance in the community, and I give props to Joe Jervis over at Joe.My.God for taking the time and patience to explain why the Letterman video is so disgusting to the commenters at his pad who saw nothing wrong with the “humor.”

For those who don’t see anything wrong about this, consider how it reinforces the age-old “tricked by a transwoman” claim that so many hate crimes defendants use, such as in the recent case of murdered teen Jorge Mercado. Aside from being sophomoric and a sitcom cliche, running off the stage as if about to vomit from the news that Amanda Simpson is trans is just not the sort of entertainment we should give a pass.

We need more LGBs, particularly gay men, to stand up and call out, and more importantly, educate peers to see things from a broader movement perspective. Getting gay male allies out there in the public discourse is significant because that was the one demo that voiced significant anti-trans sentiment and support for a trans-stripped ENDA during the last debacle.  All of us can be myopic about the demographics we inhabit from time to time, but certainly we are all capable of extending our rationale for equality beyond the group one belongs to.

It’s not a zero-sum game to support trans rights any more than it is to advocate for LGB equality. It’s sad that our movement leaders, offline and online, aren’t aggressively using the bully pulpit and resources to focus on discussing these matters openly. If we can’t be unified on the principles of an inclusive ENDA, how can we sell it to heterosexuals with even less awareness. As I said:

We have to draw a line in the sand — not whether to censor the opinion (that will always be debated), but are we willing to address a core problem of this movement, not how it manifests itself? I don’t have to think twice about whether the T belongs in LGBT; oppression is oppression. That’s an easy call. All or nothing on ENDA.

UPDATE 2 (Pam): I want to address some reactions in the comments and on FB that this is merely satire and thus pro-trans. Sigh.

Letterman s trying to have it both ways —  he isn’t the one performing the horrified anti-trans reaction, but he’s allowing a surrogate to go for the laugh. Don’t think that there wasn’t a lot of identification in the audience with the screaming mimi bigotry, regardless of intent. We ignore this at our own peril re: ENDA. So few people personally know anyone trans that thinking this is sophisticated humor interpreted by a fully enlightened audience is wishful thinking. More so because the gay community isn’t even unified re: trans-inclusive ENDA.

Humor like this does not get a pass in this political environment, given the vast number of people who need to buy into ENDA and remain ignorant of the issues. Given how much ignorance about LGB issues (and race, for that matter) that I still see in progressive circles, it’s an unrealistic and dangerous stretch fantasy to assume an even more complex concept such as trans issues is already accepted enough in the public discourse to be satire fodder. Take a gander at the comments by some readers of JMG about this topic.

Also take a look at CBS’s diversity statement and see if that meshes with the skit’s POV:

“CBS Corporation, and its divisions, are committed to fostering an environment that celebrates and encourages differences in people, their ideas, beliefs and cultural backgrounds, which, in turn, positively influences business conduct, the productions, shows, products and services we deliver, as well as, our responsibilities to the communities we serve and society as a whole. This commitment enables us to attract and retain employees with the talent, creativity and innovation necessary to grow our industry leadership position and to deliver the financial performance required by our stockholders.”

UPDATE 3 (Pam): I want to also give a shout-out to Andy Towle of Towleroad, a blog with a massive gay male audience to challenge with his post about the Letterman skit. Way too many comments there are also dismissive of the ethical and political damage this kind of “satire” produces when the minority group in question is not only denied full civil rights, but has essential rights legislation before Congress as we speak. And it’s a country full of people ignorant of trans issues, no matter what level of sophistication you believe Letterman’s audience has.

ALSO: Megan Carpenter at Air America sends our message out into the progressive arena, and why this skit was not just tasteless, but only reinforces the discomfort out there about trans folk. Thank you, Megan.

This is “funny” to Letterman and his audience because it relies on stereotypes about transgender people. The first stereotype is that transgender people are deliberately not honest and open about their transitions–which Amanda Simpson rather obviously is–in order to engage in sexual relations with unknowing partners, despite the discrimination, hostility and physical danger many transgender people face from the average stranger. Worse yet, it plays into an ongoing stereotype about the LGBT community at large, which is that LGB people and transgender people are essentially predatory in their sex practices, “recruiting” supposedly otherwise-straight people to their supposedly deviant lifestyle through trickery. It also relies on the stereotype that any supposedly “normal” (i.e., cis-gender straight) person who finds out that he or she unknowingly engaged in sex acts with a person they later discover is transgender would be so horrified at the thought that he or she would vomit. And, finally, it reduces Amanda Simpson and all transgender people to their genitals and the use thereof, rather than acknowledging that their genitals are a part–and for some transgender people, a very minor part–of their gender identity and transition.

But it is apparently easier to poke fun at one transgender woman who has the courage to be open about her life–I mean, she’s probably heard worse, right?–than to make fun of a the discomfort of a group of people, thereby making them even more uncomfortable. It used to be that Letterman’s humor relied on the hilarity of the audience being uncomfortable with his jokes. I guess with Jay Leno moving to 10:00, someone had to take over the role of enforcing majority rules.