`Friends` co-creator Marta Kauffman apologizes for misgendering Chandler`s parent – WION

There was always a joke or two on how Chandler Bing’s father was gay and a drag queen in Las Vegas in the hit sitcom ‘Friends’. Years after the show aired its final episode, the co-creator, Marta Kauffman, apologised for misgendering Chandler Bing’s transparent during the show’s 10-year run.

While speaking to a news outlet, Kauffman said, “Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So, we didn`t refer to that character as ‘she.’ That was a mistake.”

She said she also regrets referring to the elder Bing character as a father rather than the mother. “We kept referring to her as Chandler’s father, even though Chandler’s father was trans,” she told the outlet.

In the early seasons of the sitcom, references to Charles Bing, who also went by the name Helena Handbasket, were relegated mainly to one-liner jokes like one from the first season in 1995 when Chandler (Matthew Perry) said, “If I turn into my parents, I`ll either be an alcoholic blond chasing after 20-year-old boys, or I`ll end up like my mom.”

In season seven, the character was finally revealed and was played by actress Kathreen Turner. Fans may recall how Chandler and Monica Geller (Courtney Cox) travelled to Las Vegas to meet his estranged parent at her drag revue and invite her to their wedding.

The show never actually used the word transgender, instead referring to Charles as gay and a drag performer who would also wear women’s clothes outside of drag shows.

Kauffman said she recently fired someone for making a joke about a transgender camera person. “That just can’t happen,” she said. Kauffman also said she regrets not having enough diversity on the mostly White show, admitting she was “clearly part of systemic racism in our business.”