Queers United recently ran a post which criticized a transphobic and homophobic episode of "Family Guy." The content of the post follows.

Family Guy's Transphobic Mother's Day Episode

Family Guy an animated television series on Fox aired an extremely transphobic episode on Mother's Day. The episode called "Quagmire's Dad" was about a big life change for his father, a recognized Navy war hero veteran. The episode is filled with homophobic and transphobic language and judgment.

It starts off with the father coming to town and Quagmire's friends commenting on how "gay" the father seemed, because he exhibited gay stereotypes including an (effeminate voice, desire to entertain, drinks Cosmo's, etc). When Quagmire confronts his dad he admits he admits he is not gay but really a woman trapped inside a man's body.

Quagmire asks for support from the Griffin's, the wife Lois offers that her husband Peter will go to the hospital for the sex change operation. Lois and Peter remark that the whole thing seems "pretty gay" but that it is "obviously weird" and Lois finishes off by telling the two men that they should "enjoy the circus" referring to the hospital visitation.

In the waiting room there is the talk of "he/she" and the "penis being chopped off" an obvious disregard of using correct pronouns and propagation of the myth that transwomen remove their penis.

When Quagmire's father transitions she takes on the name Ida and is invited over to the Griffin's for dinner. She brings a pie but Lois immediately tells her daughter to throw it away. This plays on the irrational fears of interacting with trans people. Over dinner Peter asks the inappropriate question "do you miss your penis?" and asks about the legitimacy of her "knockers".

When Ida meets the Griffin's dog, they develop a relationship. The dog (Brian) is thrilled at meeting a new and wonderful woman but gets disgusted and vomits when he finds out she is transgender.

Real issues came up during the episode which explored issues such as orientation & gender identity, coming out, surgery, and family and societal acceptance of transition. Unfortunately the show misrepresented facts about the transgender experience and instead exploited trans people for a few laughs.

Fox accepts feedback on their shows, please tell them transphobic material does not belong on the air and that they should pull the show.
askfox@fox.com

This post is typical of the faboulous queer activism that is done on the blog. What wasn't typical was the response. The post get over ten times the number of comments that usually show up on the blog. The difference was a torrent of anonymous postings defending the bigoted episode. The main talking points were that Family Guy makes fun of all sorts of groups (though the show does not make fun of people for being white, heterosexual, rich, Christian, or male) and that the blog's author should "lighten up."

It's been known for some time now that corporate PR people do post on blogs, usually failing to disclose their corporate connections. This is a rather blatant example of it, where PR people freeped a queer activist blog posting. However, it is important to be conscious of the possibility of more subtle corporate trolling, especially when a new commenter's statements don't pass the smell test.

Rupert Murdoch and his fascist media empire certainly is reprehensible, not only in its ideology, but in its tactics.