For those of you who have not heard yet, Amanda "Mitch" Simpson is possibly the first transgender presidential appointee, began work Tuesday at the Commerce Department.

Simpson, 48, had lived in Tucson for 15 years before moving to Washington, D.C., to take the federal post. She has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, most recently in advanced technology development at Tucson's Raytheon Missile Systems.

Well David Letterman, did a joke in his monologue about this appointment.  As the photograph was being shown, announcer Alan Kalter shouted, "What? Amanda? Amanda used to be a dude?" and ran off the stage.

For those of you who did not see the video here it is below:

The joke, I suppose, is the jest that the announcer who ran off had sex or was attracted to Simpson, and is now in shock.  The question now comes up, is that funny?

Change.org's Michael Jones thinks it's a "joke about how 'sick' she is because she's transgender"; the Human Rights Campaign finds Kalter's "feigned 'trans panic'" to be offensive; "You may not be aware," their Associate Director of Diversity for Transgender Issues has written to Letterman, "that the punch line in your skit has been used as a defense in nearly every hate crime perpetrated against transgender people that has come to trial."

Other groups, are not up in arms, like the folks at Queerty. Maybe it was a compliment?  "If Kalter was fantasizing about her (thus, his being so upset upon learning she was born a man)," they reason, "that means her transition was that good."

I would lean towards the fact that the joke was on the announcer who ran off stage.  Maybe seeing quite a few transgender people and knowing them, has made me "less sensitive" to how others may have taken the joke.