Pronoun joke puts Cuomo under fire

As Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., took the stage at an LGBTQ town hall Thursday night, she was quick to add one more line to her introduction. “Thank you, guys,” the candidate said to the crowd in Los Angeles. “My pronouns are she, her and hers.”

“She, her and hers?” CNN host Chris Cuomo asked her, nodding. Then, he jokingly added: “Mine too.”

Needless to say, those are not his pronouns. Cuomo, a well-known face for the TV network, is a cisgender man who has indicated he goes by he, him and his.

While the journalist later apologized for the comment, it drew a loud and immediate response from critics — one of a handful of false notes on a night that could otherwise be considered historic, as what organizers called the first nationally televised presidential forum devoted to addressing LGBT issues.

“People’s pronouns are not a punchline,” the National Center for Lesbian Rights wrote on Twitter. “In a year where LGBTQ Americans are finally being recognized on the national Presidential stage, making jokes about gender pronouns is beneath your dignity. Please do better in the future.”

Charlotte Clymer, a trans woman and the Human Rights Campaign’s press secretary, said she didn’t think Cuomo intended harm. “But that was really not a great look,” Clymer said on Twitter.

The TV host, who is no stranger to seeing his controversial comments go viral, apologized less than an hour after making the gaffe. “I am an ally of the LGBTQ community, and I am sorry because I am committed to helping us achieve equality,” he wrote on Twitter.