Comedy podcast Bajd U Bejken contacted by police over 'transphobic' image

Updated 12.30pm

Dark comedy podcast Bajd U Bejken has confirmed it was contacted by police for showing an image of a transgender person, edited with male genitalia, to a live audience.

Co-host JD Patrick told Times of Malta he preferred not to comment due to the “sensitivity” of the situation. “We want to let it take its course because the situation is quite sensitive at the moment.” 

The controversy surrounds an edited image that the podcasters displayed on a screen of a well-known transgender woman, Terry Muscat, known as Terry ta’ Bormla, with male genitalia.

“They destroyed me and turned my life into hell,” Muscat said in a video she uploaded on Facebook on Saturday. 

Muscat explained that she was not present, but received videos from attendees who told her she "deserves better".

“There is a joke, and there is a ‘joke,’” she said, adding that she did not feel that sharing this type of image was right. She went to Cospicua police station and filed a report. 

Patrick confirmed that the police had contacted the podcasters following Muscat’s complaint.

'This is not a joke, it's transphobic'

Politicians, public figures, and activists have all publicly expressed their solidarity with Muscat.

The Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement (MGRM) criticised the podcasters for showing this “transphobic” image in front of 1,200 people.

“There are many things to joke and laugh about. But when joking, you should never put others down for the sake of a laugh, especially people who are part of minority groups that have always been ridiculed and discriminated against over the years,” MGRM said.

Former Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer took to Facebook and called the act “transphobic, repulsive and unacceptable”.

“Transgender people have the right to live with dignity, respect, and safety, not to be treated as a joke or attacked for their identity,” Engerer said.

“Attacking someone’s identity to mock them is not only cruel but also dangerous. Transgender people already face many challenges,” Nationalist MP Adrian Delia wrote on Facebook.

RTK radio presenter Andrew Azzopardi published a video on Facebook saying that he was shocked by how certain social activist groups that represent vulnerable groups of people have either not spoken up or have not spoken up enough.

“Let’s try and have a public discussion to figure out what is wrong, what is the limit, what is the line that cannot be crossed,” Azzopardi said.

But there were some who took a different line.

Omar Rababah expressed solidarity with Muscat but observed that while there was an outcry on this case, hardly anything was said about other many homophobic and racist jokes and other crude jokes, such as on people with disabilities. 

He noted that the right to offend remained part of freedom of expression.

How was an offensive joke differentiated from a joke which instilled hatred and violence?

He said he was not in favour of the commercialisation of a spectacle to anyone's detriment but he also did not feel comfortable shutting up people, as long as they did not instigate violence and hate. In truth, the joke on Terry had backfired and Terry had triumphed, as the expressions of solidarity showed.