The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, is calling on NBC to apologize after an anti-transgender skit aired on Saturday Night Live. The skit, titled ‘Estro-Maxxx,’ blatantly mocked transgender people, minimizing the challenges they face. SNL’s degrading sense of humor also supports many of the false stereotypes that could be used as fuel for anti-transgender sentiment, including discrimination and potentially even violence. Illustrating SNL’s pattern of relying on anti-transgender humor, the skit comes just weeks after the show used the term “son-daughter” to refer to Cher’s transgender son Chaz Bono. HRC calls on NBC to remove the skit from NBC.com, all future broadcasts of the show, and all other NBC platforms such as Hulu.com.
“People across the country tune into SNL for laughs every Saturday night. The problem with this skit is that it is in extremely poor taste, and mocks the difficulties associated with transitioning,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “It fuels misperceptions that will be used by some to continue patterns of discrimination. Anti-transgender skits have no place on television. NBC should publicly apologize and never let this happen again.”
The skit degraded transgender women by featuring men with facial hair wearing women’s clothing, while the audience laughed. Hate crimes against transgender people are on the rise nationwide. This is no laughing matter. Attempts to degrade and dehumanize transgender people on national television do not serve as humor.
“NBC has the power to set an example of fair-mindedness and inclusiveness for its viewers. It is unfortunate that they instead used their platform to further ignorance,” added Solmonese.
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