A Comment That Hurt

I enjoyed Howard Rosenberg’s column on the Ron Reagan show (“A Talk Show That Works,” Calendar, Aug. 16) until I read the line: “And as a bonus in Week 1, not one transvestite.”

I understand that you probably were just trying to be funny about the typical guests seen on talk shows, but was it really necessary to take a cheap shot at transvestites?

We have been an easy target for such comments because we are a highly closeted group that doesn’t speak out much. But that doesn’t mean that we are not hurt by such inferences.

Please do not use us as foils or as a way of getting a laugh. We may be different from other people, but we are not ciphers or cardboard cutouts. We are real people.

C. MARTIN

San Francisco