When HBO’s “Entourage” made a transgender character the punchline on last week’s episode, I cringed.

Now, to be fair, “Entourage” could be described as a equal-opportunity mocker, as it leaves few characters unscathed. Even the privileged lifestyle of the white heterosexual male protagonists in the story comes across at best, as silly and frivolous, and at worst, as woefully out of touch with reality. Christine has discussed its refreshing self-awareness as well as its shortcomings before.

But when the show is clearly not going to present us with a fully developed transgendered character — let alone a diversity of representations — there’s really little excuse for giving this character such a dismissive role.

The Cliks

Fortunately, if you’re paying attention, transgender lives are becoming visible and vibrant parts of popular culture. Our own Mark Blankenship has discussed the work of performance artist Scott Turner Schofield, who in his one-person show rails again a “system that says we can’t be all of ourselves.”

And both Rebecca Louie of AP and Shauna Swartz of AfterEllen have excellent profiles of Lucas Silveira, the frontman for the rock band The Cliks.

Silveira’s transition to a male identity forced the band to abandon their all-girl identity. But, in the spirit of their rollicking rock and roll sound, it hasn’t lessened the band’s power: “When you give off that kind of energy, and you’re open to the world in that way, the world also opens itself up to you,” guitarist Nina Martinez. “And fans become more open to being attracted to everything that queer is about.”

While performance art and music have long been spaces of openness, the sports world has not.

John Ireland of In These Times, though, has a fascinating portrayal of Christine Michelle Daniels, a sportswriter formerly known as Michael Daniel Penner, who came out as a woman after 23 years of work for the Los Angeles Times.

Ireland does a great job of putting Daniels’ courageous move in the context of an often repressive sports culture. Daniels herself admits, “The concept of one day having to come out publicly, as an LA Times sports columnist, was a paralyzing fear that, looking back, kept me from transitioning at least 5 years sooner.”

What is heartening, however, is the surprising support she received within the sports community:

Many of Daniels? colleagues have gone out of their way to champion her cause. “Some sportswriters,” she says, “have written column items of support, some who know me pretty well have spoken to others on my behalf, without my knowledge, delivering the message that, ‘This is just another writer, a normal person, facing a difficult challenge.’”

Sports blogs almost uniformly expressed admiration for her courage and wished her well. Overall, readers seem to be mildly bemused, but focused on her return to work. One commenter summed up the majority consensus: “Yea yea yea and all that girlie stuff, no problema. ? But how ’bout them Angels this weekend? Gonna get back to bizz? Need you back Christine.”

Rebecca Romijn as Alexis Meade in “Ugly Betty”

Of course, television and film are the true avenues to the popular consciousness — and putting “Entourage” aside, they have also begun to show a greater awareness.

ABC’s daytime soap “All My Children,” FX’s dramedy “The Riches” and ABC’s primetime hit “Ugly Betty” feature regular transgender characters.

And as John Ireland points out in a related article in In These Times, films from “Boys Don’t Cry” to “Transamerica” have been showing a variety of transgender lives.

And variety is the key. When it comes to overcoming stereotypes in popular culture, the more representations, the better.