Cross-Dressing Comedy 'Work It' Has ABC Taking A Beating

ABC programming executives clearly wouldn't make great mine sweepers.

Their feet apparently can't miss potentially explosive material. That apparently goes doubly-so where it concerns the LGBT community.

First, the Disney-owned network couldn't catch a break with conservative groups because someone dared let transgendered male Chaz Bono join "Dancing With The Stars" last season.

Now Entertainment Weekly reports that GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign evened things out by blasting ABC over how the network's freshman cross-dressing comedy "Work It" supposedly portrays transgendered folk.

The comedy follows the hijinks of two men who dress like women so that they can land jobs. In other words, it's vaguely "Bosom Buddies," except with two guys chasing gainful employment instead of trying far too hard to get laid. Wacky, wacky hijinks ensure along the way.

“During a period in which the transgender community now routinely finds itself in the cultural crosshairs, the timing couldn’t be worse for a show based on the notion that men dressed as women is inherently funny,” writes GLAAD Associate Director of Entertainment Media Matt Kane.

OK. The aforementioned launching pad for Tom Hanks' showbiz career and decades of British-comedy tradition beg to differ, but do go on . . .

While GLAAD representatives apparently even admit that the show's pilot doesn't explicitly make mean-spirited mockery of transgendered people, there's apparently still a concern among the group that taking the transgendered community too lightly will just encourage more mockery. GLAAD wasn't exactly wild about a print ad that depicted stars Amaury Nolasco and Ben Koldyke standing at urinals, either.

“Transphobia is still all too prevalent in our society and this show will only contribute to it,” wrote GLAAD acting president Mike Thompson. “It will reinforce the mistaken belief that transgender women are simply ‘men pretending to be women,’ and that their efforts to live their lives authentically as women are a form of lying or deception.”

The HRC prepared its own statement that it requested supporters send ABC executives: “Hundreds of thousands of transgender Americans face very real challenges in the workplace … We have a shared responsibility to ensure the messages about gender identity we send to the public, and particularly youth, are positive ones. It is never appropriate to belittle or mock those who do not adhere to society’s gender norms or the struggles they face.”

ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee didn't exactly sound concerned.

“I’m a Brit, it is in my contract that I have to do one cross-dressing show a year,” Lee said. “I was brought up on Monty Python.”

GLAAD volleyed back “Mr. Lee can recognize that there has been 40 years of progressive social change since television's heyday.”

Yep. Since then, "Bosom Buddies" ran on ABC in the 1980s. "Ugly Betty" - glory be, another ABC show! - had a transgender character during its run. Bono lasted several weeks longer than he should have on "Dancing With The Stars." The first season of "Glee" featured an entire storyline about Cory Monteith wearing a dress in public, only for him to ultimately be a somewhat-hero of the episode.

And despite the "progressive social change" of skins growing amazingly thinner since then, Monty Python may very well be even more popular among every possible sexual orientation than it was 40 years ago.

"Work It" premieres Jan. 3.