Apparently Ellen DeGeneres Is Transphobic Now

Oscars host and Twitter record breaker Ellen DeGeneres has been labelled "transphobic" for a joke she made at Liza Minnelli's expense.

During her opening monologue at the Oscars — a tough gig for any comic, no matter how skilled they are — Ellen made a joke about Minnelli that went down like a lead balloon with the crowd, one of her few missteps on the night. 

"Hello to the best Liza Minnelli impersonator I've ever seen," she said, to Liza Minnelli herself. "Good job, sir."

Now the Washington Post — which itself refers to Minnelli as a "rumoured plastic surgery devotee" — is reporting on the outrage that boiled over on Twitter afterwards. While the rest of you were retweeting Ellen's selfie, these folks — trans blogger Emily Aviva Kapor, prominent director Bruce LaBruce and Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips — were taking DeGeneres to task.

If you missed what transmisogynist thing Ellen did, she called Liza Minelli an impersonator and said “Good job, sir”. Lesbian icon, folks.

— Emily Aviva Kapor (@EmilyAviva) March 3, 2014

I did not appreciate Ellen's mean joke about Liza. I found it transphobic and disrespectful.

— Bruce LaBruce (@BruceLaBruce) March 3, 2014

Ellen DeGeneres, #Oscars emcee, pulls out a Liza-tranny joke that must've been laying around from last year's MacFarlane edition.

— michael phillips (@phillipstribune) March 3, 2014

Ironically, Phillips' tweet is arguably more offensive than anything DeGeneres said, as "tranny" is widely considered to be a slur.

@phillipstribune "tra**y" is a slur.

— Trans Hollywood (@transhollywood) March 3, 2014

@phillipstribune Interesting, I didn't hear that word, is that word still in the Newspaper Stylebook?

— Jolene Sugarbaker (@JolenesTrailer) March 3, 2014

Liza herself didn't look thrilled with the joke at the time...


... But they buried the hatchet with this (slightly less famous) selfie later in the evening.

Twitter