Outrage: Bill O’Reilly Compares Transgender People to Ewoks!

This is an outrage! In a segment about a discrimination lawsuit on his eponymous Factor, Bill O’Reilly drew a comparison between transgender people and Ewoks, perhaps the lamest non-Binks characters from Star Wars. He couldn’t have chosen something cool, like Boba Fett? Even C-3PO would have been better than this.

Sadly, ignorance about transpeople (the “T” in LGBT) is nothing new, and it isn’t confined to right or left, or even gay or straight.

Here’s the clip, in which O’Reilly discusses an American Eagle lawsuit with Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lis Wiehl:

I’m not trying to excuse O’Reilly here. The most important step in any hate crime is to rob the victims of their humanity. While O’Reilly thinks he’s being cute, what he’s really doing is polishing the silverware on a table set for a buffet of mistreatment.

What’s sad is that this is of a piece with the kind of offhand ignorance that transpeople face from nearly every quarter. The most common manifestation is the “he/she/it” pronoun confusion. Even well-intentioned people like liberal Young Turks host Cenk Uygur engage in this, even though it’s generally a simple “puzzle” to work out. First rule of thumb: pretty much no one wants to be referred to as “it.” Even when putting lotion on its skin.

The vast majority of transpeople make it pretty plain how they would like to be identified, most obviously with their attire. For the most part, it’s safe to go with the pronoun that fits the clothes. If honest confusion still exists, most transpeople can tell when someone is making a good faith effort not to be a jerk, and will exercise patience. Believe it or not, it’s not about “getting attention.” Just ask Sheryl, who probably would have preferred not to have been noticed by the panicky young men who flipped from unprovoked sexual advances to violence in the blink of an eye.

Then, there’s the use of gender and sexual identity as an insult. While most liberals are fairly practiced at avoiding homosexuality as an insult, some still think nothing of trucking with transphobia. When I called Keith Olbermann out for his joking, but explicit, accusation that Ann Coulter is a transman, my fellow liberals lined up to defend him.

Transpeople even face discrimination and bigotry from within the LGB part of the LGBT community. My brother, a transman and an activist, pointed out to me that transpeople have always been on the front lines of rights issues, yet they are the first to be abandoned when it comes to legislative equality. Prominent LGBT rights group Human Rights Campaign, for example, caused a deep rift in the community when they supported a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that excluded gender identity.

Trans activists had to lobby very hard, as well, for inclusion in the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes law. I was privileged to cover that lobbying effort from the inside, and it was a wrenching experience to see the lives of these wonderful people being weighed against the political calculus of pandering to ignorance.

One of the things those activists talked to me about was the popular notion that transpeople are trying to trick everyone. A popular myth in our culture is the “tranny trick.” We hear the stories all the time of the guy who “unwittingly” gets into a sexual clinch with a transwoman, only to recoil in horror at the discovery of manmeat. The resulting panic, if not always violent, is certainly not designed to endear transpeople to the listener.

Then, there are those who are convinced that transpeople seek equality mainly so they can get a peek at our junk in a public restroom. This reminded me of an experience I had many years ago. I went to the bathroom at a bar, and when I opened the door, I saw a tall, stunning blonde in a miniskirt standing there at the sink. I immediately assumed I had gone to the wrong bathroom, but next to her were several urinals. I went right over there and did my business.

Later, back at the bar, she came and sat by me, expressing strong interest in me. But while we were in the bathroom, she didn’t try to jump on me, or steal any glances, or anything. Gender identity has nothing to do with whether you find a public restroom the appropriate forum for romance.

So, be outraged at Bill O’Reilly, for sure, but keep that outrage in mind when you encounter the equally damaging, but far more insidious, transphobia that is embedded in our popular culture.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.