MEXICAN-AMERICAN ACTRESS Sara Ramirez is probably best known for her ten-year stint as Dr. Callie Torres in Grey’s Anatomy – which came to an end last year:
This week, she took to social media to blast her former network ABC over a joke featured in one of its sitcoms called The Real O’Neals.
In an episode which went out last month, Ramirez says that a gay character likened bisexuality to having “webbed toes” or “money problems”.
So yesterday a petition was started to “end biphobia” on The Real O’Neals, and Ramirez shared it on her social media accounts
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The explanation for the petition began:
I, like many LGBTQ teenagers, watch ABC’s The Real O’Neals and was quite offended by a “joke” in their latest episode in which Kenny wonders “Oh, God. Here we go. Webbed toes? Money problems? Or worse… bisexual?!”.
And Ramirez has referenced her own employment with ABC on Twitter this week
Source: Sara Ramirez/Twitter
The Real O’Neals is a sitcom based on an Irish-American family in Chicago – and Kenny is the middle son who made the joke that’s at the centre of the furore
There were those that called it out at the time of the broadcast as well
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The petition, started by Ewen Cameron, ends with the point that the community has noticed a pattern on the show in the past:
The show already pretended we didn’t exist and fed into other negative stereotypes such as “The Slutty Bisexual”, when Gloria, who in the episode before was revealed as bisexual, slept with someone after getting tired of waiting for a date with Kenny’s dad. I was willing to overlook the other things, but this “joke” has crossed the line saying bisexual teens like me are worse than genetic abnormalities and financial problems! “Jokes” like this increase the ridiculous amount of biphobia we experience in our lives and I am calling on the American Broadcasting Company to step in and change this!
ABC has yet to comment on the reaction, but since Ramirez’s comments on Thursday the story has been picked up by many national and international media outlets.
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