They say it’s never too late to say sorry. This week, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman is definitely riding that wave. After publicly admitting that the NBC hit comedy show did a poor job – to say the least – of including Black characters and apologizing for contributing to systemic racism, Kauffman now addressed another huge flaw that permeated the backstory of one of the series’ main characters.

One of the show’s most beloved characters, Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) didn’t have average parents. While his mother became a famous author for writing erotic novels, his father came out as transgender and changed her name to Helena. While this was certainly a bold storyline for a 90s series, it didn’t do anything for the transgender community, as Helena’s transition was handled as a joke from the start. When we finally got to see the character, she was played by cisgender actor Kathleen Turner, who recently commented on it on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and stated that she wouldn’t reprise the role.

During an interview with The Conversation on the BBC World Service (and reported by The Huffington Post), Kauffman echoed Turner’s words and admitted that the only transgender character in the series was completely mishandled:

“We kept referring to her [Chandler’s transgender parent] as ‘Chandler’s father’, even though Chandler’s father was trans. Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn’t refer to that character as ‘she’. That was a mistake. […] I like very much to create an environment where we have a happy set and a happy crew. It’s very important to me that where we are is a safe place, a tolerant place, where there’s no yelling. I fired a guy on the spot for making a joke about a trans cameraperson. That just can’t happen.”

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Image via NBC

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Chandler’s transgender parent made her debut in the series in the Season 7 episode “The One With Chandler’s Dad”, and then she returned for a couple more episodes on her son’s wedding. Even though 2001 was a time that TV had barely any interest in getting the T in LGBTQIA+ right, we could tell that something was off when a character that clearly presented themselves as a woman kept being referred to by male pronouns. And ultimately, the message it sent to the public was that transgender people were a joke, and they didn’t deserve any respect.

Earlier this week, Kauffman pledged a $4 million dollar donation to her alma mater Brandeis University. The donation is directed to the launch and support of an African American studies department, which aims to “study the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora.” After the donation, Kauffman stated she feels “guilt” over the time it took her to learn about how Friends contributed to systemic racism.

You can stream all episodes of Friends – as well as the Friends: The Reunion special that tiptoed around the diversity issue – on HBO Max.