It's a joke.
I know. I didn't think it was an especially funny one, but I did think it was hurtful to trans people.
Funny how I can post a joke and it's instantly counted as offensive, yet truly offensive jokes are praised and upvoted because... hey. The internet is truly for asshats, it seems.
The existence & popularity of jokes more offensive than yours does not excuse the offensiveness of your joke. Maybe someone should call those other offensive guys out? Maybe they'd say exactly what you said right now "Hey, my joke wasn't offensive, it's the OTHER offensive jokes that are getting upvoted that are bad." Regardless, other jokes being around is really irrelevant.
(a joke from Austin Powers, no less)
As is the fact that it's not "your" joke, but one from a movie more than 15 years old.
You seem to think I'm trying to raise a ruckus against people who identify a certain way. See the first point. I have many close and trusted friends with whom are transgender, and they would laugh at that joke.
I don't think you're trying to raise a ruckus, I don't think you're transphobic, I don't think you had any negative intentions. The fact is that good people sometimes say or do hurtful things without realising it, and I think this is one of those times. Really, I'm not trying to witch hunt you here, but I also feel pretty certain that for years to come whenever someone posts a picture of Poison there will be somebody jumping up in the comments to say "It's a TRAP!" or "She's a Man!" and as funny as it might be, and as nice and well meaning and trans-friendly as all those people are, all those actions add up to a culture that's inhospitable to trans people.
Also, you basically just said "It's okay man it's not a racist I have a black friend."
I know who Poison is, and how she got her start and her history in Japan, US and various other parts of the world.
Good for you.
It's proper etiquette to refer to a joke as funny, or not to your taste. Therefore, if it is not to your taste, you may move on and not worry about it. You can specify it is "not to your taste" if you must, but it is rude and inconsiderate to try to nitpick a joke just because you don't like it.
This is, in fact, not proper etiquette at all. When someone tells an inappropriate joke you do not have to say "that's funny" or "that's not to my taste". You are entirely at your liberty to say "Ooof, I'm not sure you want to make jokes like that." The argument is often thrown around that comedy has some sort of sacred shield to protect it against being criticised, but this is nonsense. Make what jokes you like, that's free speech, but be ready for the rebuttal if you say something offensive.
Let's put this in context here: I have seen no other discussions of trans issues or characters on this subreddit in all my time here. In fact, in pretty much all the video game discussions I follow, the only time I ever hear trans characters come up is in THIS context: Poison's Trans, "lol some straight men are attracted to her but do not realise she is trans and that is funny because they do not consider trans women to be women". When your identity only ever shows up as the butt of a joke like that, it has an impact. It's the same way that if we only ever mentioned women or black people by making sexist or racist jokes, we'd end up with a culture that marginalises and excludes them. This is how trans women exist for many people, a bad joke, or something loathsome to be avoided, not as real people living very difficult lives.
It bears repeating: I believe you are a nice person and 100% well intentioned. I am not here to be the fun police or to stop people from telling jokes. Just please consider that your joke (not you!) might have caused harm.
Sorry for the mega post.