I watched My Transsexual Summer. It was sickening. I follow all of the participants online and they all complained about the show, it didn't show their backgrounds and most of it was showing surgery, girls putting on make-up, and male genitalia.
Two of the trans men were made into background people as their stories weren't heart wrenching enough or interesting enough and it didn't air most of the actual good things which would've educated and opened the eyes of viewers.
Oh and they didn't get paid.
Don't mean to jump the gun but 'sickening' is possibly going too far.
The documentary wasn't some definitive transsexual show, no doubt it will be followed by more in the future, and to be quite frank it did serve it's purpose well.
Bearing in mind the majority of channel 4's audience will never have experienced transgender people at all in their lives, it was a great start and a good introduction to transsexuals. It may not be perfect, but when is any show perfect. The show focused on 'easier' topics to follow, and more humorous aspect for sure - they need to keep people entertained to a degree to keep them watching through the more emotional and informative sections. Sure they could have shown talks about gender binary, or things like 'two spirit' and such in the show - but how much of that would your average viewer understand without spending a whole episode explaining it, really?
As to them not being paid, I was only aware of that from reading Max's blog after. However, realistically - they signed up to the show, they should have questioned their payment and such and why it wasn't mentioned in the contract before hand. That's how the world works really. It's unfortunate sure but it's not because they have been mistreated for being trans, which is what you seem to be making out.
Overall I think you're expecting far too much, for what it was I think it painted a good picture of trans people, without alienating them or laughing at their expense. It also opened the door to future, deeper documentaries which seems to be what you want.