I am not myself transgenderbut I was disgusted when I watched that episode of Family Guy – and I haven’t watched another episode since (and this is coming from someone who used to be a huge fan of the show).
There was also that scene where Peter and Lois are convinced that there’s no difference between being gay and being transgender – such ignorance is below FOX.
What I want to know is – what does Seth MacFarlane think of all this?  What does he have to say for himself??
I’m emailing FOX right now to give them a piece of my mind.

Here’s the email I sent to Tracey RafteryHello,
My name is Alex Laska, and I used to be a huge fan of Family Guy – until I saw the homophobic and transphobic episode titled, “Quagmire’s Dad,” which perpetuated stereotypes of the LGBT community (such as when Lois and Peter are convinced that there’s no difference between being gay and being transgender) and made many jokes at the expense of transgender people (such as Brian throwing up when he realized he’d had sex with a transgender person).  I am not myself transgender, but I was disgusted with that episode and, as I said, I haven’t watched an episode of Family Guy since then.  I used to think the creators of Family Guy were, like those of The Simpsons, true allies of the LGBT community who occasionally poked fun at them like every other demographic.  I’m not so sure anymore.
Obviously I cannot tell you what to do, but I strongly urge you to stop re-airing “Quagmire’s Dad.”  You have so many brilliant episodes, and “Quagmire’s Dad” was really below you.
Thank you for your time,
Alex Laska
Westport, CT

Why would you expect anything different from Fox?Seriously…  They bring you Bill O’Reilly and “Tears of Niobe” Glen Beck as well as all those other racist ultra right wing misogynists, homophobes and generally neo-fascist bigots.
So why would you expect anything like human decency from them?
About the only things on any Faux network that don’t display their bigotry are the sports and even then their announcers are sometimes questionable.

It seemed to be one of those caseswhere the subject of the “joke” is supposed how how ridiculous it is to have such an extreme reaction. I’ve yet to see a “joke” of that type, actually work.

I was under the impressionthat Fox and FOX news were seperate networks.

McFarlane is an idiot.Not a malicious one, but his cluelessness reached truly frightening levels with this episode.

Got Up and LeftMy family was together last night and this program was turned to.  I said it was not right and was full of incorrect stuff. I then left the room.

Different channelsI think they’re both owned by Murdoch though – not sure, though.  gLee, which also airs on FOX, has had some very touching, pro-gay moments, even though the gay character, Kurt, is one of the most stereotypical gay kids I’ve ever seen (and the guy they’re bringing in to play his boyfriend next season is a model… ermmm)

Fox News is part of the Fox NetworkThats why they’re both called ‘Fox’ and use the same marquee. There are other arms of Fox, like Fox Sports.  

Reran the problematic Cleveland Show episode….On of all days, July 4.
Can this Black transwoman who is beyond sick and tired of the stereotypes heaped upon us give Fox a piece of her mind about that BS episode as well?

Yeah, that’s what I figured n/t

UuuughThat’s really all I can say. I love Family Guy, but this episode got so many things wrong, and the vomiting scene I thought was way too much. Undoubtedly, now a lot of people have come away with a skewed perspective on transpeople because of this episode and it pisses me off.

Amen, Monica.I think The Cleveland Show episode was worse than this one — If I hadn’t been busy on both the weekends that episode played (one of those weekends, I believe, was around the weekend I spent in the DC jail), I would have posted on it.
I’m so glad you covered that episode in your blog, and it was covered as well in Bilerico, because that The Cleveland Show episode was incredibly offensive.

I think that the key problem with the episode…Was that the horrific reactions of the main characters were never really corrected. We certainly don’t expect the characters in Family Guy to be without serious flaws, but we do expect that in the end, the misguided nature of their views will be exposed.  The main storyline followed that very formula: Quagmire, caught off guard by his father’s revelation, eventually comes to accept her as a transgender woman and realize she is the same person he’s always loved.  (Or something?)  And that was the intended point of the episode, I’m quite sure–acceptance and inclusion of people for who they are.
However, the huge “ick” reactions of Lois and Brian were never called out, and came from two of the show’s more enlightened characters. I think that from the writers’ point of view, one has to assume that it’s ridiculous for Lois to throw away the food, or to insist that trans is just another type of gay, for the jokes to even work.  But when people close to the issue tell them that a joke was just too hurtful to be funny, it’s really unconscionable that they didn’t listen.
I have a feeling that their eventual follow-up will be an episode in which Quagmire bringing his father to some big event and schools everyone over their reactions. But in the meantime, an apology that shows that they actually get why it was so offensive would be nice.

Well…A lot of Family Guy’s humor is based on the taboo… i.e., what makes certain things funny is that we’re not supposed to laugh at them. Like the many many misogynistic jokes. Which is what I think MacFarlane was trying to do here, with scenes like Brian puking for a ridiculous amount of time. He was trying to emphasize that this is a ridiculous reaction to have (especially with Brian talking about how GRS must really leave a mess downstairs, after having a sex with a trans woman).
But I think what he didn’t really grasp is that for the other things that are the butt of his jokes, there is a common cultural context for it. Most people know blatant misogyny is not really acceptable. The same isn’t true for the transphobia present in Brian’s puking. Hell, if you ask most 20-something straight guys, they’d probably think it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction to feel ill.
…
The one part that really truly pissed me off, however, is how Ida goes into the operating room pre-everything, and then walks out fully transitioned. I mean, I understand it’s a 30 minute show, but that glosses over the parts of being trans that people really need to understand.

I don’t see a promise from Fox.I hate to be the stickler about this, but unless I’m reading this and the linked blog post that they’re using to claim Fox promised not to re-air the episodes (link at “assuring GLAAD”), there was no promise from Fox to keep the offending episodes off the air.  The blog post makes mention of bringing their concerns TO Fox, but does NOT say that Fox agreed to take the offending episodes out of rotation.  The rest of the language in the main post suggests that their efforts to get the episodes off the air haven’t been successful YET.
This doesn’t in any way promote their showing the episodes again.  They absolutely shouldn’t – I’m a MtF afraid to transition because I worry the people in my campus town will view me as a freak and beat me to death, and this kind of portrayal directly feeds into that.  But let’s be sure to hold them to account only for the things they did.

It’s a comic strip for christ sake and yes I saw it and no I wasn’t offended although the puking sorta got a bit old.
“If Mr. MacFarlane and company want to meet a real trans person .. ” ..
ugh yeah .. right, can’t wait for the next episode, should be even funnier!  

You’re not supposed to like the charactersI think that’s the fundamental misunderstanding. All the people in Family Guy suck. They’re supposed to suck. Sometimes they have some redeeming qualities, but only rarely, and usually only after 25 minutes of being terrible people.
This episode was problematic, primarily in that Brian and Lois were never “redeemed” in the way that Quagmire was. but the scenes that everyone’s reacting to as offensive…they’re not presented as “This is a normal healthy reaction.” Nothing in Family Guy is. They’re presented as “This is how incredibly classless, thoughtless, not terribly bright people behave when confronted with something outside their comfort zone.”

Congratulations comrades !On your victory to censor a cartoon !
You’ve become the enemy you always feared.

It depends on your point of view.I am personally disgusted by Seth MacFarlane as a human being and as an intersexed trans-identifying woman those two episodes both deeply hurt and disgust me.
My mom saw it differently.
First of all, you have to understand my Mom actually is very supportive of me now, despite our timultuous past in my childhood. She has matured and mellowed into a very astute open-minded person. So I never dismiss her differing opinions because I know she isn’t motivated by any bigotry. My wedding was held in her living room, she paid for my new ID card once I finally won legal recognition of being female, and banned a friend from her home for transphobically slurring me. She considers me and those like me the bravest people she knows.
So while MacFarlane’s garbage hurt and offended me, I had to pause to think about my mom’s take on it.
My mom found the Family guy episode to actually be very funny, especially the vomoting scene. Why? Because what she got from the extended vomiting scene was that by exxagerating it, the show was lambasting the utter ridiculousness of the double standard that would create such a reaction. She saw it as showing Brian was shallow and sexually insecure and saw it as one big “Oh grow the fuck up already” to transphobic idiots. She also pointed out that Lois’ behavior shows fairly the misconceptions people have about us, and pointed out that Quagmire accepted his newly female father as is, no strings attatched by the episode’s end.
And it leads me to wonder if maybe I’m so bitter about all the real trans hate out there that I’ve begun to fall into the trap of famous hate machine (and ex-lover) Voz Latina wherein I’m looking for hate in everything I see and looking for excuses to accuse transphobia where it may in fact not exist.
I still won’t defend Family Guy or the Cleveland show. I still think they both pushed it too far. But I AM a Trans woman, intersexed or not, and I might be too intimate with the subject matter to look at it objectively. I plan to rewatch the episode with my mom’s take on it in mind and see if I see something I blinded myself to before.
I don’t want to end up like Voz. I don’t want to see the enemy everywhere I look, and be so hateful and bitter that I become a detriment to the fight for Trans Equality rather than contributing to it.
I’m not saying anyone else should change their opinion because of my mom’s viewpoint, but maybe we are all sometimes just a little too quick to cry transphobia without taking a closer look.
That’s just my thoughts on it.

You’re still here?Shouldn’t you be luring children to a gingerbread house? Let’s please not sidetrack the issue with your tired and repeatedly thrashed and refuted anti-Autumn garbage. The fact that you as a self-proclaimed “real transsexual” where you constantly call Autumn a man, (your hypocrisy still completely galls me), could not see why anyone was offended by this tells me either you’re not actually trans and are in fact just a very creative troll, or worse, you are so completely out of touch with reality that even Ableism activists would look at you and say “Damn you’re nuts”.
Leave your self-hating Trans-On-Trans bigotry at the door Leigh, it has NO place in this or any other rational discussion.

Happened to catch this for the first time. The puking made me laugh, …it was just that over-the-top ridiculous, and, unlike most of the rest of what transpired, there’s some cultural referents a la ‘The Crying Game’  to show what it may be making fun of,
But the rest of the show made me cry.  
One more show ruined for me, really.  It’s going to be hard to love those characters for a long time.  
It starts off badly:  the ‘trans’  character begins with being presented as a very stereotypical gay man, (And that itself leading to one of those ‘Maybe this is why Quagmire’s such a perv’ subtexts,)  
…they go for the old lying trope of ‘total sex change in five minutes,’   presenting it all as a sudden, whimsical decision that’s very easy for the TS and hurts people’s families…    and the first thing Ida does is go off and have sex in a bar without telling Brian.
Of course the general agreement between the characters that if a TS has sex with men after surgery,  that makes her a ‘gay man,  full stop’ (And of course, that it’d just be ridiculous to be with women)   is part of the same ignorance.
Other people have mentioned how the hate-storm (Which I’ve never seen so intense from all those characters at once,)   is never shown to be wrong,  …instead it ends with senseless violence,  and what Brian says at the end is unvarnished hatefulness.  
How much is intended to be ‘satire’  of prevailing hatreds and prejudices and how much really thinks it’s treating reality in a ‘humorous’ fashion is really anyone’s guess, but it does nothing to redeem the situation,  which is out of character for this show,  I think.  
Humorists should not treat subject matter of which they’re that ignorant, certainly not regarding a much-maligned and largely voiceless minority.  For starters,  the audience doesn’t know what is ‘truth’ you’re making fun of and what’s untrue prejudices being satirized.  That means that people walk away with biases ‘confirmed’ and think the show calling itself ‘humor’  means the bigotry is ‘OK.’  
What are presented as the ‘facts’  of the situation show a lack of understanding of the material,  and only serve to confirm much of the basis of the bigotry trans people face all the time.  
South Park had the exact same problem,  just worse.
What all this really shows is that there need to be some positive trans characters somewhere in the popular media. Frankly, the lies are just done and done over so much they aren’t even interesting.  The truth actually has more material to it.  It’s just not something you can treat in twenty two minutes.    

My closer look is below. I still think it’d be interesting to see what straight people think of it:  your Mom’s perspective is valuable,  but she also knows you.  She has some idea what she’s looking at and can sort out what’s about reality and what’s based on untruths.

I do agree about the intent of the joke.I just went and watched the show on Hulu, so I could see this for myself. I felt bad that it was Brian who reacted that way, since the dog is usually characterized as the only sensible being (aside from poor Meg!) in the household.  I thought the entire episode, taken as a whole, was more positive than negative, particularly in the portrayal of Ida herself.  
The comedy on this show is often at the edge of being offensive – witness the episode (Extra Large Medium which aired 2/14/10) that got Sarah Palin’s panties all tied up in knots, dealing with a girl with Down Syndrome. The actress who voiced the character “Ellen” had some interestingthings to say:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
My reaction to the reaction to the Quagmire’s Dad episode is very much like that of Ms. Friedman to the Palin reaction to the Extra Large Medium show.
In both these episodes, the portrayals of the individuals themselves was positive – much of the humor comes from the regular characters making fools of themselves.
The bottom line for me is that my disappointment in Brian’s reaction doesn’t rise to the level of outrage, and I did not find the episode as a whole offensive.

About the vomiting sceneThat’s the impression I got as well (same as your mom). And MacFarlane often uses Brian as a representation of himself and his views on the show, and also uses Brian to make fun of himself. Which is what I think he was doing here: making fun of the typical white liberal man who thinks he’s so much more open-minded then those redneck right-wingers because he supports x, y, and z, but in reality is just as intolerant deep down.
But the thing is, your mom has context for understanding that vomiting is a ridiculous reaction: she has a trans daughter. Most people don’t even know what the differences between a crossdresser, drag queen, and trans woman are. There’s really no cultural understanding that making fun of trans people is wrong, as there is for making fun of women, people of color, handicapped people, etc.. Actually, it’s pretty much the opposite: most straight guys were probably laughing at the vomiting scene because they were thinking “oh yeah it must SUCK to get tricked into having sex with a man!” So without the context, the joke is going to go over the heads of most people.

Taboo jokesFamily Guy has long gotten away with mysogynistic and racist jokes and the like because society has advanced enough to understand that these opinions are unacceptable and can see them for what they are:  misinformation from a buffoonish character.
However for the transgender community, society as a whole hasn’t caught on yet to the fact that we’re regular people.  So when the Griffins and others make trans slurs, the audience doesn’t know the difference.
I totally agree with you, ProdiGAL, in the fact that they simply glossed over the pre-transition phase.   This further fuels the fears of the right by thinking someone like a teacher will suddenly arrive at school the next day as the opposite gender.   It’s a much more involved process than that, people!
I, like others, used to be a HUGE Family Guy fan.  My partner and I laughed at certain episodes time and time again.   However, we have both refused to watch the show since the first airing of “Quagmire’s Dad.”   I’ve even refused to wear my Stewie t-shirt.  Seth McFarlane and the rest of the writers definitely need to think more about what they’re doing before they cause more damage to other minority groups.

Ah ! .. the all knowing and all wise Shaman of Hedon … … I can see why YOU would be offended by the comic strip .. lightning stuck a bit too close to home did it?  
… perhaps you ought to go meet with McFarlane and show him the errors of his ways

This is true.I’m just saying my mom’s opinion made me rethink why I was so quick to form my own.

After seeing an interview with MacFarlaneI’m tremendously disappointed with MacFarlane. I remember he said that he had a gay relative and that he had basically made Stewie gay as a reaction to that. He seemed very much like an ally when he was describing letters from fans which said something like, “I love your show, especially Stewie, but do you have to put in all the gay stuff?”
He said that he answered letters like that by saying “Did you know that your favorite character is gay?”
He seems like a well meaning Frat boy. He doesn’t mean to get drunk and trash your house, it just…happened.
Proof that a little knowledge (very little) is a dangerous thing.
Z

Nice tryBut your trollbaitiung tactics are worthless here. Given you created an entire blog to mock my religion like a coward when it was NEVER part of our past discussions, then locked that blog to only your friends, your credibility here is zilch, your opinion means LESS than Maggie Gallagher’s opinion on Gay marriage, and no one gives a fat rat’s ass what you have to say on any topic because you’ve attacked Autumn one time too many based on no actual fact but only your own reality-denying self-loathing self-transphobic opinions. If you must post your insulting childish bile, don’t feel imposed upon when you get called on it. And leave my religion out of it.  Do you REALLY want to be another insulting troll laughing at your own insults while everyone else just feels sorry for your tired bitter ass?

OffensivePretty offensive stuff, though the show is very gay friendly overall (I know gay friendly does not always equal trans friendly).  I am against banning the episode, as with Boondocks or South Park, censorship is not the answer.  I think Family Guy does some things just to be edgy and offend, they make fun of blacks, Jews, the disabled, the mentally handicapped, obese people, Terri Schiavo, liberals, conservatives etc.  Family Guy is an equal opportunity offender, trans people included.  
Fell free to personally not watch the episode or boycott the show, but do not work behind the scenes to ban the episode, I want to decide for myself.

BanningIs not the same thing as saying,  ’This is insulting and defamatory,  please don’t say it again.’  

Was it _always_ like that though?Or is that just a symptom of how far the show has fallen?
I used to be a fan of Family Guy*. It’s obviously just my opinion, but I remember the characters being quite warm, relatable, and likable. Tthey used to mold the plot around the characters; today, it’s the other way around. The Griffins used to be a loving, if slightly surreal, TV family. Today, they’re a bunch of golems whose personalties and relationships consist of whatever’s funniest this week. Maybe that has something to do with it.
*I saw the first post-hiatus episode and knew I couldn’t go home again.

Too soon?I might get flammed here, but did anyone expect much different? It’s like South Park or Simpsons – everyone gets made fun of.
There’s a phrase that my grandmother said to me once, “If you can’t laugh at yourself then something is wrong.”
This is how social issues that cause people a lot of discomfort become normalized. Family Guy has always had a no regrets raw humor about them, from Brian’s alcohol problem, to Chris’ constant struggle with his sexuality, Stewie’s gay on, gay off, that crazy old gay pervert trying to get the much younger Chris, and Quagmire’s sex addiction.
I think the moment we start censoring satire, is the moment we ruin our ability (as a society) to see though issues by using humor.

I laugh at myself all the timeIt’s other people laughing at me and treating my existence as a joke that sorta sucks =/

I liked how…The biggest poon-hound of the show is the one who was ultimately shown coming around the quickest, and the biggest Liberal mouthpiece is the one shown having the hardest time of it.
The episode’s no Mrs. Garrison, though.

Laughing at onesselfIs a different matter from someone saying you’re something you aren’t and laughing at you over that.    

E x a c t l y !What everyone here seems to have completely forgotten is that if there were not the freedom of expression we enjoy in this country, there would be absolutely NO progress so far as gaylesbitrans issues are concerned.
FG makes fun of EVERYBODY.  Sorry, trans people, but if you want to be eventually accepted, you’ve got to get ripped on too.
IN OTHER WORDS, Suppressing expression is NOT going to gain you acceptance any quicker.
Especially a cartoon, I mean seriously, get a frakin’ life.
And those of you who feel McFarlaine has let “us” down in some way, the whole point of the show is to ridicule everybody.
Why should anybody get a pass ?
It’s a show.  If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.
But banning it, boycotts, etcetera, just makes you look like the weak, stupid, hurt little childish fascists you really are, deep down inside.

What’s dangerous is believing you have a right to dictateyour agenda onto his work.
I’m surprised so few people here who are whining and crying about this, you really do not get it AT ALL.
FG makes vicious fun of EVERYONE, nobody gets a pass on that show, even the most arguably lovable character, Brian, gets ripped on in disgusting ways.
Some of the descriptions of the show FG here, I don’t get – I think most of you are way, way off so far as your understanding of the show is concerned.  Do any of you even regularly watch it ?
I mean, come on, you laugh when they rip on Meg.  Even if you, at the same time, cringe because it’s just SO mean and over the top.  But at the end of the shock, don’t any of you think “aww, poor Meg – she’s OK, I like her” ?
And I absolutely disagree that the characters aren’t lovable.  I’d argue the exact opposite, actually.
So the trans character got ripped on real good – tell me something, how much exposure do trans characters get on TV, egh ?
Bitch and cry and feel hurt all you want, but this is progress – it’s just too bad you can’t recognize it when you see it !
WAKE UP !

FG made you cry ?Are you serious ?

Not, like, a lot, But yes.   What is this, the schoolyard?
When a favorite bit of cartoon levity turns into ‘You’re this kind of person who should be treated like a leper,’  that’s a lot of real people’s pain they were playing with.  
I didn’t exactly tune in expecting it was this episode.  (I’d heard a bit of mention, but figured it was blown out of proportion and didn’t know that was what was showing again.)  If I’d known it was coming, I might have had more of an   ‘Oh, here it comes’  attitude,  but it did get to me.  
I would have expected better in that.

The problemIs that the trans character,  for one,  isn’t treated as a trans character:  she’s treated as a gay man who decides to suddenly have a ‘sex change’  …and the transphobia isn’t actually shown to be wrong.
It’s not progress.  
If they want to rip on us for what we are, that’s one thing.  If people in general knew how to tell the difference,  that’d be one thing.  
Going to town like this when people don’t know the difference is entirely another.  

Honest questionsDo you think this episode of Family Guy helped advance trans rights? If so, how exactly?

Do you watch FG often ?I mean, you really feel singled-out ?
You’d prefer invisibility, no ?

You’re the one who doesn’t get itFreedom of expression doesn’t just go both ways, it goes in all directions.
You like the show – hoorah for you. Feel free to make your views known to Fox. Other people don’t like the show – bully for them. They feel free to make their views known to Fox. When they do, you jump up on your soapbox and start calling other people fascists for exercising the same freedom of expression you’re using, and telling them they can’t/shouldn’t/don’t have the right to do exactly the same thing you’re doing. Grow the fuck up.
No one here has the ability to “ban” anything on a television network, so you going there is just a little bit of an hysterical overreaction, no? They do – and you do – and I do – have the ability and the perfect right to make our pleasure or displeasure known to that network. And freedom of expression means exactly that, it does not mean that everyone has to sit silently with folded hands, being good little boys and girls and not saying a word, no matter what other people say.

By doing the social exposure type work that needs to be doneSimply existing where trans people didn’t before is progress.

I didn’t tell anyone to sit on their hands and be quiet.And I never stated anyone here had the power to ban anything.
So at least be honest when you are talking about what someone’s posted, it’s right up there for all to see, after all.  If you don’t understand a post, just ask the poster.
And the article you are commenting on is specifically about the episode being banned/suppressed.  What else do you call it when GLAAD demands the episode not be aired ?  That’s GLAAD dictating what’s aired on OUR behalf, and I have as much right to say, hey, wait a minute, that’s fucked up and counter productive in EVERY way.
So please read and comprehend comments before responding, thanks.
We would have NO GLBT rights WHATSOEVER if organizations succeeded in banning media in the manner GLAAD is attempting.  It’s a bad strategy, a failure, and completely counter to how we got this far.  Understand  now ?

I think the exposure has been done ad nauseum at this pointWhat really needs to be done is clear up the misconceptions about what transition actually entails (it’s not a split-second decision, you don’t just walk out of an operating room fully transitioned, etc.).

Quotes

But banning it, boycotts, etcetera, just makes you look like the weak, stupid, hurt little childish fascists you really are, deep down inside.

No one here has the ability to “ban” anything on a television network, so you going there is just a little bit of an hysterical overreaction, no?

A little more clear, now? Or are you still exempt from the rules you want to impose on everyone else?

Didn’t you hear?Trans people are like the Gestapo arm of The Homosexual Agenda. We totally have the power to shut things down!

Trans people have a hard time periodThis show does not advance or reduce the progress for trans acceptance. Pple get the ick factor about transpeople. I know guys who have told me that they cannot date a transwoman cos in their mind she will always be a dude. I dont see how FG makes this better or worse.
Transpple face an enormous challenge getting pple on their side. This show has nothing to do with this reality

Seth MacFarlandSatirizing someone’s political views, or ‘celebrity’, or fashions is one thing, but to exploit, stigmatize and undermine one’s core identity–one’s very existence, is quite another.
This episode is offensive and inappropriate to a protected minority group. I personally would never diminish or discount the pain evoked in others when made the butt of cruelty.
And I certainly would not defend, or find excuses for the stigmatizer.
So what about Seth MacFarland? Is he some kind of closeted cross dresser who vicariously lives openly in the safety of his cartoon world? You know, his character “Ida” does look like him in drag.
“Sympathetic”? How can you sympathize with people who you grossly misunderstand. He does not even seem to understand that the ‘T’ in LGBT is the only letter that doesn’t refer to a sexual orientation. There are many sympathetic therapists out there who could help Seth with his gender confusions.
Speaking of the Simpsons, doesn’t anybody remember that the intro was bowdlerized because the nuclear industry objected to it?

GLAAD asked Fox to not air it. You have grown tiresome.

GLAAD asked Fox to not air it. You have grown tiresome.

GLAAD made a request? OMFG Bannination!!11oneUnless there’s some obscure law somewhere saying that media outlets have to do whatever GLAAD says no matter what, I hardly think that GLAAD asking that something not be shown constitutes a ban on that particular something…

Tiresome?Reality usually is.  
That doesn’t mean the hyperbole is really ‘truthier’  for it.  

Err, what part of ‘Favorite’ did you miss?
It doesn’t increase my ‘visibility’   to put a monster-mask between reality and the public.  
This episode did little more than reinforce false ideas.  
People saw something  called transsexual:  that doesn’t mean they were seeing us.   In fact,  the show said to look in another direction and perhaps despise us as that.
I do tend to ascribe that more to ignorance than malice,   but.   It was horrible,  hurtful,  and most of all,  deceptive.   It’s not about people having a laugh,  it’s about people being told that the ‘reality’  to laugh at actually is those false images.  

Why is that, though?Do you think that a cartoon that actually shows  trans people as a ‘flamingly gay dude, happy happy’   who suddenly turns into a ‘false and deceptive fake ‘woman’  to barf and perpetrate violence over’  ..helps that matter?
One of the reasons I’m very cautious around straight men, (Trannychasers are a different matter:  pre-operatively,  they really did just seem to have an idea they could get their closeted gay on and expect you to parade around as proof of their heterosexuality,)  …I have long had a very strict policy of honesty before intimacies commence, though, and men who’ll be proclaiming your ‘Great Womanhood’  to the heavens to get you in bed almost always have the morning-after-freakout when they realize that they’re “supposed”  to be revolted.  
Then  the idea of ‘What will the friends and family think if they knew’   crashes in.
And who teaches that?
Stuff like this.  

Tiresome? Maybe.Tired of delusional cluelessness? Definitely.
GLAAD shouldn’t have asked Fox not to air it. GLAAD should have sat quietly and not said a word, because, well, because….
Why should they have sat quietly? Because you like the show? Because they shouldn’t object to something they see as objectionable? Because there’s something else they could have done that would have been more effective than letting the network know how they feel? Because objecting revealed them for the “weak, stupid, hurt little childish fascists” they are, and we’re not quite ready to move to that phase of The Homosexual Agenda of World Conquest?
Come on, finish the thought. If you can. If you dare.