less than a week ago, some morning radio hosts on a sacramento station went on a tirade lasting longer than 30 minutes against transgender children and explicitly advocating violence against them. some quotes:
This is a weird person who is demanding attention. And when it’s a child, all it takes is a hug, maybe some tough love or anything in between. When your little boy said, ‘Mommy, I want to walk around in a dress.’ You tell them no cause that’s not what boys do. But that’s not what we’re doing in this culture.
If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him. Because you know what? Boys don’t wear high heels. And in my house, they definitely don’t wear high heels.
You know, my favorite part about hearing these stories about the kids in high school, who the entire high school caters around, lets the boy wear the dress. I look forward to when they go out into society and society beats them down. And they end up in therapy. (cites)
GLAAD immediately sent out a call to action, which was reposted and echoed throughout the LGBT blogosphere (i’m sure others were instrumental in organizing action as well, this is how i came across it.) - and then on perez, huffpo, etc. it advocated contacting the station directly.
then focus shifted to the advertisers. very soon afterwards, chipotle burritos announced they were removing their advertising from the station. then the dr. pepper snapple group announced it was pulling advertising because the “we found the segment to be offensive.” then bank of america because the ad was inconsistent with their commitment to diversity. sonic drive-in, because they do not wish to be associated with media content that condones or promotes violence against children in any way. wells fargo does not tolerate discrimination. nissan. mcdonalds. verizon. carls jr. at&t.
friday evening, station management contacted GLAAD to set a meeting next week to share a proposal on how to resolve the problem. sunday morning, one of the hosts released a detailed statement saying no new shows would be aired until the meeting with GLAAD. some quotes from that statement - caps theirs:
WE HAVE FAILED YOU. AS A SHOW, AS PEOPLE, AS BROADCASTERS, WE HAVE SIMPLY FAILED ON ALMOST EVERY LEVEL. WE PRESENTED OUR OPINIONS ON A VERY SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN A HATEFUL, CHILDISH AND CRUDE FASHION; AND THEN, GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO RETRACT THOSE REMARKS, WE DEFENDED THEM.
SINCE THEN, YOU, OUR LOYAL LISTENERS, HAVE MADE IT CLEAR TO US THAT WE WENT TOO FAR. THE RESPONSE HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING. NONE OF YOU SAID THAT WE COULDN’T HAVE OPINIONS, YET SO MANY OF YOU SAID THAT THE WAY WE GAVE THEM CROSSED THE LINE. FURTHER, YOU SAID THAT OUR ATTEMPT TO MASK OUR COMMENTS AS “JOKES THAT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BY OUR AUDIENCE,” WAS UNACCEPTABLE. I WOULD SAY NOW THAT IT WAS WORSE THAN THAT, IT WAS COWARDLY. YOU HAVE MADE THAT CLEAR.
fuckyeah, netroots advocacy.
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