Going First

Dan Savage reacts to Letterman's comedy bit about Amanda Simpson, Obama's transgender appointee:

Better first than never. Unfortunately one of the jobs for a firstunfortunatelyis to endure, deflect, defuse, absorb, lance, exorcise, etc., the cultural biases that created the discriminatory climate that prevented someone else, long ago, from being the first before you. Being the good-humored butt of a joke or twojokes that acknowledge your arrival and help lance, exorcise, etc., some of those biasesis one of the ways a first like Simpson contributes. Ultimately this video tells us more about Letterman's discomfort with trans peopleand his audiences' discomfortthan it does about Amanda Simpson. And it isn't a joke that Letterman can tell every time a trans person walks through the door that Simpson (and Obama) opened for her community. It's [a] "first" joke.