Lance Bass Uses Transgender Slur on Air

Out entertainer Lance Bass suggests that comic Billy Eichner interview "trannies" for his new man-on-the-street program before Eichner corrects him, during an appearance on Access Hollywood this morning.

Bass was the guest cohost of the entertainment news program and interviewed Eichner, star of the new Fuse series Billy on the Street, in which he offers money to New York's pedestrians to answer silly questions.

"So you need to go to Christopher and Hudson and get those trannies on the corner there -- that would be perfect," Bass suggests to Eichner. Eichner agrees, saying "I love a tranny" before realizing his error and correcting himself.

"We're not supposed to call them trannies anymore," Eichner says. "Did you see that Neil Patrick Harris called them a tranny [sic] on Twitter?" Bass replies, "Oh, no? Great, now I'm going to get in trouble."

Cohost Kit Hoover asks Eichner if there's a "new name." Bass says, "I didn't get the memo." Eichner suggests "really, really gay? I don't know." Bass replies, "I like my good ol' trannies."

Other celebrities have slipped and used the word, saying they also didn't realize it's considered a derogatory term. Following her recent gaffe in an interview with Glamour UK, Kelly Osbourne offered a mea culpa on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's blog, using the opportunity to describe transgender people as "some of the bravest people on Earth." Neil Patrick Harris tweeted an apology for using the word twice while cohosting Live With Kelly.