The ABC sitcom Work It is not scheduled to premiere until Jan. 3, 2012 but two leading LGBT groups are hoping the show about two men who dress as women to land jobs gets the ax before its first airing.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Human Rights Campaign placed an ad in the Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety on Wednesday pointing out that 'by encouraging the audience to laugh at
the characters’ attempts at womanhood, the show gives license to similar treatment of transgender women.'

The ad attempts to personalize the issue by featuring the faces of five transgender men and women.

'They deserve better than ridicule,' the ad states.

The groups confirmed that they will be meeting with ABC to discuss the show. the network has, so far, not commented on the backlash.

'This show could contribute to the high levels of job discrimination that transgender Americans face and will give license for people to mock and ridicule those whose gender expression might not fit with what society considers the norm,' says GLAAD's acting president Mike Thompson. 'The media should use this as an opportunity to address the huge number of inaccurate or offensive images of transgender people in news and entertainment today.'

The groups do give ABC credit for its record in the recent past of having positive portrayals of LGBT characters on their shows. The network's Grey's Anatomy has for several seasons featured the lesbian couple of Callie and Arizona and gay couple Kevin and Scotty throughout the five year run of Brothers and Sisters.

The network also featured a regular transgender character and a gay teen on the now-canceled comedy Ugly Betty while Desperate Housewives has had numerous gay and lesbian characters over its eight seasons on the air.

Then this fall, ABC included transgender male Chaz Bono in the roster of contestants on its reality competition show Dancing With the Stars.

'As a network with a record of positive portrayals of LGBT people, ABC should know better than to air this offensive program that even has the potentiual to jeopardize the safety of transgender people,' says HRC President Joe Solmonese.

The groups cite a recent report on the discrimination that transgender Americans face from the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force which found that 97 percent of people who self-identify as transgender reported being harassed or abused at work, and 26 percent reported losing their jobs because they are transgender.

The report points out that transgender Americans can be legally fired in 34 states today simply for being who they are.

HRC has launched an online action for community members and allies to contact ABC and share their concerns. Visit their page here for details.