Friends producer apologising for trans storyline from 20 years ago.

Do we do this with other marginalised groups who have been represented poorly on TV shows or films in the psst? Black characters? Gay characters? Apologise two decades later for doing something which wasn't even a thing then ?

Ermmm... yes?

Sackcloth and ashes! Have you not read the thread?

Yes - why wouldn't they?

This whole thing isn't really about what happened back then, it's an attempt to control people's language now (in particular trans widows and our children).

Are they still broadcasting the episodes with Chandler's dad?

The woman’s public recanting is embarrassing. Who cares. It was a funny joke that they got Jessica Rabbit in to play a dude. The character as far as I recall never claimed to be a woman.

Saw this yesterday, totally ridiculous. The character was a drag queen and Chandler called him Dad. He was not supposed to be a transwoman. Plus nobody had the foggiest idea about all this pronouns nonsense back then.

I thought if anything they may reflect on why they didn't use a Transwoman actress for the part (in the same way other film makers have said they should have used a deaf/blind/mute etc actor for relevant roles).

Why would they have used a transwoman for the part? Charles Bing was a man, not a transwoman.

Charles Bing was also Chandler’s father. He was a he.

Not at all surprised that Kaufmann has to go along with this, though - everyone has to suppress their real thoughts / the truth and toe the trans line. Real think isn’t allowed anymore - dissent must be silenced.

While NYC was whiter in the 1990s than it is today, it was already a multicultural city and had been for a generation, so I do think that watching the show you may get a misleading impression. However, relationships between people of different "racial" backgrounds were significantly rare in the 1990s than it is today.

On the term "father" and the male pronouns, surely whether you agree with them or not, these were what were in use at the time. To have done otherwise would have been anachronistic and confusing, and you'd have probably needed a time machine so that you could go back there from now and explain how they ought to be doing things according to today's standards. Were there contemporaneous complaints about how Chandler's father was represented?

I remember that storyline how have they got away with it for so long! Or is it because no-one would be stupid enough to take on the Simpsons

I remember being thoroughly confused by this storyline as a kid, because the actress was quite clearly a woman.

I’m surprised the creators of The Simpsons haven’t had to grovel yet (unless I missed it of course). The episode about gay marriage in Springfield from 2005 was on yesterday. Ends with one of Marge’s sisters coming out as a lesbian, introducing her new “wife” to be, who turns out to be a transwoman, who had lied about his sex to play in a women’s golf tournament and lied to Patty (I think). Patty then dumps him at the alter because she’s a lesbian and only likes women.

I thought if anything they may reflect on why they didn't use a Transwoman actress for the part (in the same way other film makers have said they should have used a deaf/blind/mute etc actor for relevant roles).
Doesn't help the team propaganda wheel to see the physical difference between transwomen and women. The only time I've seen it recently the tw hid leaning behind a counter the whole time, clearly trying to take up less space. Didn't work. Instantly clocked it. DH didn't. Which suggest evolutionary men aren't as attuned to sex difference as women. Survival thing I guess, pretty vital skill for women.
Women playing tw like Hayley Cropper etc have been an absolute boon to the idea that there's no difference.

It's ridiculous. The character provided the (fictional) sperm so they are the father of Chandler.

I thought if anything they may reflect on why they didn't use a Transwoman actress for the part (in the same way other film makers have said they should have used a deaf/blind/mute etc actor for relevant roles).

So according to these new rules, trans widows children are bigoted every time they say "Dad". Imagine having that pressure as a child, and imagine how different it would make you feel to your peers?

Chandler's character development is all about coming to terms with his less than adequate childhood and realising he doesn't have to repeat the mistakes they made.
Both parents were awful, borderline neglectful abusive.
The dad cheated and broke up the family when he was still a child. When Joey's dad cheats as an adult it's a storyline because Joey has to reconcile his image of his dad with the reality of a flawed human being. Chandler's is worse because it happens to him as a child and subsequently exposes him to very adult themes and ideas. Walking in on orgies? Sleeping with his teachers? Funny if happening to 20s Chandler, abusive for child Chandler. In the UK witnessing inappropriate sexual content is a safeguarding issue, and that's for things like watching porn. Orgies are another level of irresponsible parenting.
Chandler's mother isn't great as she doesn't shield him from the adult details of the breakup, instead bringing them up. I have a bit more sympathy for her though as you only see that once and I imagine she's feeling angry and betrayed at being lied to. Chandler's bile towards his mother then continues into adulthood, as he is embarrassed about her sexual freedom(misogynistic overtones) and her erotic writing. This anger is misplaced because as an adult he should be angry at his exposure to such themes as a child and not as an adult. I'm not surprised his mother goes down the overly sexualised route after being betrayed and a more nuanced approach would her explains how that hurt caused her insecurity etc.
But they just went for the simplistic tell his mother off route.

Chandler's character arc is moving past the pain and building a healthy, monogamous, supportive relationship in spite of the terrible model his parents gave him. That he succeeds is supposed to be a credit to him and Monica and not to point out how wonderfully progressive he has become.
Chandler isn't angry his dad was gay. He was angry his parents divorce was damaging and he was exposed to adult sexual themes in his childhood.
One of the big problems with it is I think Monica pushes his boundaries by making him make up and invite his father to the wedding. It's not a healthy way to deal with trauma and it's a shame it's framed as a victory for Monica as I think Chandler is perfectly within his rights to deal with it in his own time.

@BeenThereBoughtTheTeeShirt

Not really, he’s just always in drag. The character had a clear intent that was set when he was introduced. He was never ‘a woman’.

But that's the point + misgendering and deadnaming were,'t wrong in the past. I suspect that 20 years ago few people had ever heard of these terms so they couldn't have been wrong to not use them. So why are celebrities like Kauffman and Turner making grovelling apologies to faceless anonymous people who apparently are convulsing in agony over fabricated offences,?
No by by

Kathleen got the role after David Crane (co-creator) who is gay, saw her in Tallulah (she played Tallulah Bankhead, in costumes designed by Bob Mackie).
Crane has said there are moments on Friends he looks at, where he goes Yeah, alright, really? We went with that? But he does not seem to be so self-flagellating as Marta, or feeling the need to apologise/make amends ££

Part of the joke is that the audience knows KT is in fact a woman and also that particular woman.

But I think comedy is just impossible under the new regime. When I was a kid I loved the Jeffersons which was seen as barrier breaking in its day, I don't think you could even show it in reruns now.

It's stupid, but actually I think more and more often there are demands to apologize for story lines pr language that were seen as fine 20 years ago but are not today, for any identity groups.

Yeah, I mean on Friends, it was virtually presented as a progression from gay to drag cabaret to literally played by a female actress as if to suggest a heck of a lot of surgery. So the impression was - ah, so it's flamboyant camp gay men taking it to the next level. Never entered my head that 20 years later we'd be dealing with bearded male lesbians and dour balaclava-clad thugs.

Chandler's wedding, not Ross's.
Morgan Fairchild makes a joke about them having too much penis for the dress.
Cross-dresser rather than drag queen perhaps, if doing it off stage too.
But as you say, trans umbrella has taken over all those now, including transvestite <laments Eddie Izzard's change in approach away from: They're not women's clothes. They're my clothes. I bought them.>