Carmen Carrera, the self-identified trans woman who appeared on Season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, got a bit of a shock on Monday night. She made a guest appearance on the TLC show Cake Boss, where she apparently thought she would be portrayed as a role model for trans youth. Instead, it turned out to be a prank between the eponymous cake boss, Buddy Valastro, and his cousin Anthony. Anthony hit on Carmen in a bar, only to be told later — incorrectly, of course — that “that was a man!”
Carrera was outraged and complained — not the least of her complaints was that Anthony referred to her as “it.”
“I specifically asked the producers of Cake Boss NOT to disrespect me or trans people. … I was assured and then reassured that it wasn’t going to be like The Jerry Springer Show or Maury. Let me makes this clear. CALLING A TRANSGENDER WOMAN A MAN IS WRONG,” Carrera posted on her Facebook page.
TLC has now agreed to remove the episode from its rotation, and both Valastro and Anthony have issued apologies. Anthony took the now-common route of showing his sincere regret by limiting to to 140 characters sent out via Twitter:
“Hi all, I appologize [sic] for my ignorance. @carmen_carrera is a beautiful woman & i respect her greatly. no harm intended. my apologies.” (Apparently, his ignorance includes how to spell “apologize.”)
Valastro, via TLC, issued a statement that said, “[I] also think I owe an apology to the entire LGBT community. … I was wrong to use the words I did. I am a supporter of gay right and equality. … I hope that Carmen accepts my sincere regrets.”
Carerra has a husband and daughter.
“I am a supporter of gay right (sic) and equality”. She’s frakking straight!! What an idiot. Both of them.
He didn’t misspell “apologize”. He was offering his apologies (ignorance towards the LGBT community or not). And I don’t mind that it was sent via Twitter, one of the world’s largest means of communication with the public at large. When folks apologize to the LGBT community for saying or doing something stupid, I really don’t expect each of them to make a TV commercial, viral YouTube video, roadside billboard advertisements, and sky writing. Sometimes a simple apology is just fine. Perhaps he could bake her a cake, but knowing him it’d be offensive too.
bill, pperhapps you should re-read the appology to see if it truly was missppelled. and his appology was lame too.
Im engaged to a transgender women and her and I both agree they both should do this on TV not via twitter or any other internet means. They embarrassed her and made fun of her on national TV they should appoligize on national TV.
“appologize” is a new iPhone app that sends your apology to all your social networks at once with the press of a button or Siri voice command.