Heroes Star Greg Grunberg Offends Transgender Community on Twitter
December 9, 2009 by Callan Koenig, GLAAD's Entertainment Media Fellow
Heroes star Greg Grunberg recently made took to his Twitter account (@greggrunberg) to make some unfunny and offensive jokes about Chaz Bono, Cher and Sonny Bono’s son who recently came out as transgender.
Grunberg tweeted the following about Chaz:
When called out on these tweets by The Bilerico Project’s Rebecca Juro, Grunberg responded, claiming that his tweets had nothing to do with Chaz’s gender identity, saying:
My comments about Chaz Bono letting himself go had NOTHING to do with the transgender issue. NOTHING. Chaz is overweight as am I and people have jokingly told me that we look alike. I was merely poking fun at that notion. I hope you realize I meant nobody any harm. Lighten up and take good care.- Grunny
We find it difficult to believe Grunberg’s claims that his comments about Chaz Bono had nothing to do with “the transgender issue” when he very clearly used both male and female pronouns in his first tweet. The deliberate use of both pronouns shows more than simply a lack of understanding of gender identity issues and we call on Grunberg to apologize to Chaz and the transgender community for making such insensitive comments on his Twitter account.
If you are on Twitter, please tweet this statement: “@greggrunberg – You owe Chaz Bono and the transgender community an apology.”
While he claims they off-handed comments with no malicious intentions, it is nevertheless important to educate Mr. Grunberg about the harmful effects such comments can have on transgender acceptance.
[...] Heroes Star Greg Grunberg Offends Transgender Community on Twitter by making bad remarks about Chaz Bono “Saw a pic of Chaz Bono today. Man, did she [...]
[...] after GLAAD’s blog post asking allies and friends to tweet Grunberg for a direct apology to Chaz and the trans community he [...]
[...] after GLAAD’s blog post asking allies and friends to tweet Grunberg for a direct apology to Chaz and the trans community he [...]