Conan O'Brien apologized today after a monologue joke on his show last Tuesday upset members and allies of the LGBT community. O'Brien referred to Chicago as “the city of the big shoulders” and followed up by saying that it “was better than the name they almost went with… ‘the unconvincing tr*nny.’” GLAAD contacted producers of the show after LGBT Weekly columnist Autumn Sandeen became aware of the joke and reached out.
.@ConanOBrien You're better than your "unconvincing tr*nny" bit. You've deeply offended a fan who's trans ow.ly/bEETg #girlslikeus
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) June 18, 2012
I used to LOVE @ConanOBrien. Now, after he used the "T" word, not so much. Come on Conan, be a man and apologize to all the #GirlsLikeUs
— Jamie Clayton (@Jamie_Clayton) June 18, 2012
Since it aired, a number of trans community leaders weighed in on the incident, including LGBT Weekly columnist Autumn Sandeen who told GLAAD: "I'm so tired of my peers and I being so frequently portrayed as monsters. I wish that media would recognize that transphobia is monstrous, and if they know the one salient fact about us that we're trans they don't know everything about our three-dimensional lives.”
GLAAD received the following statement of apology from O'Brien:
My staff and I had no idea that term was offensive to the transgender community. We apologize and you will not be hearing that term again.
The show has also confirmed they will remove the clip of the joke from the website.