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Showing those auditions was bad enough, but then AI had to increase the cruelty. They showed Berry crying and talking on the phone about how embarrassed he was. Even worse, they played The Crying Game theme while Travis teared up in front of his family.

“Playing that song was just unnecessary,” says Verraros. “That poor guy…I'm sure when Zachary saw footage of himself being poked fun at—in front of millions of people no less—it had to be hard.”

“The real offense here,” says Damon Romine, entertainment media director for GLAAD, “was in the producer's decision to add insult to injury by turning a contestant's gender expression into the butt of a joke.”

Sparkles doesn't approve of the comments either. But she thinks Travis' “ranting and raving about how [AI] was discriminatory, when maybe he needed a few voice lessons [laughs], … just takes away from the fact that it's a singing competition.”

However, she believes something positive came from his appearance. “I think it's great, the fact that they showed him at all, because that, right there, shows that in the times we're living in, there's a need for certain groups to be represented.”  

To be fair to Jackson, when you look closer at the footage, you can tell he truly does seem confused by Travis' gender, so he wasn't being malicious in that audition.

The same cannot be said, though, of Cowell, who seems to be making a habit out of purposefully insulting effeminate men. Just look at some of the other comments he's made this season: “You look like the Incredible Hulk's wife.” “Just what we needed: Sylvester Stallone's younger sister.” “You sing like an auntie.” “It's going to sound odd, but I almost imagine you in a dress when you sing.”

Yet even if you believe AI is homophobic, you've got to admit there could be other motivations too.  

Verraros says the show is trying to use people for ratings. “Unfortunately, American Idol will [attempt], by any means necessary, to make itself a hit.”  

Sparkles concurs. “I think that there are two shows on TV with the word 'desperate' in their titles: There's Desperate Housewives and then there's Desperate Producers Trying to Get People to Still Watch American Idol. They're stretching to top the years prior.”  

Of the Berry audition, Verraros says, “I think that was Simon just being an idiot. Maybe Simon was bored. [Maybe] Simon was like, ‘These auditions are bad. I need to make people laugh, so I'm going to throw out a joke.' Or maybe the producers were like, ‘Simon, let's throw in a joke right now. This would be a great time to do it.' ”  

“No one is exempt from the razor tongues of all three judges,” says Lisa Gregorisch-Dempsey, a senior executive producer of Extra (a TV show Cowell contributes to). “Who goes on the show thinking it's a Miss Manners tea party?” she asks.

Still, there's really no excuse for how this show treats these effeminate candidates. Sexuality is not the same as a bad hairdo or an awful singing voice. It is one of those things that should never be made fun of.  

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