GLAAD Action Alert: KRXQ
TAKE ACTION: Demand that KRXQ Radio Hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States Apologize for Encouraging Violence Against Transgender Children
June 2, 2009— In a lengthy May 28 tirade on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States verbally attacked transgender children. While discussing a recent story about a transgender child in Omaha, Nebraska and her parents’ decision to support her transition, the two hosts spent more than 30 minutes explicitly promoting child abuse of and making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children.
You can listen to the entire segment beginning at 4:48 by clicking this link:
http://robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/a...%20America.mp3.
Among the comments made by the hosts:
ROB WILLIAMS [11:12]: 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.
ARNIE STATES [13:27]: 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.
ROB WILLIAMS [17:45]: Dawn, they are freaks. They are abnormal. Not because they’re girls trapped in boys bodies but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them. That’s where therapy could help them.
ROB WILLIAMS [18:15]: Or because they were molested. You know a lot of times these transgenders were molested. And you need to work with them on that. The point is you don’t allow the behavior. You cure the cause!
ARNIE STATES [21:30]: You got a boy saying, ‘I wanna wear dresses.’ I’m going to look at him and go, ‘You know what? You’re a little idiot! You little dumbass! Look, you are a boy! Boys don’t wear dresses.’
ARNIE STATES [29:22]: 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.
To her credit, co-host Dawn Rossi stood up to Williams and States during the segment. Despite her apparent lack of familiarity with transgender issues, Rossi repeatedly defended transgender people and made an on-air apology for her colleagues’ defamatory remarks.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Please contact KRXQ management in Sacramento, California, where the show is produced and demand that radio show hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States publicly apologize. Call on KRXQ to hold Williams and States accountable for their remarks and establish clear standards to ensure their media platform will not be used to condone or promote violence against any parts of the communities they serve.
John Geary
Vice President & General Manager
KRXQ-FM
(916) 339-4209
jgeary@entercom.com
Arnie States
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rad@robarnieanddawn.com
Rob Williams
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rwilliams@entercom.com
Please use the share page functionality at the top of this page to alert any of your friends and others who may also wish to take action. When contacting KRXQ, please ensure that your emails and phone calls are civil and respectful and do not engage in the kind of name-calling or abusive behavior.
About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.
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2 comments:
These "Take Action" thingys always fascinate me.
Earlier this month, I noted on my own blog how Andrew Wilkow talked about "an abortion issue conservatives can get into:" aborting gay and transgender babies.
Interestingly, GLAAD and many bloggers refused to take this issue; And that despite my making the audio clip(s) of his comments available to them thru e-mail.
Sigh.
My e-mail to the VP of the radio station:
Dear Mr. Geary,
I have my degree in Anthropology, and while I was attending my undergraduate institution, I won the Outstanding Ally Award in 2007 for supporting members of my university's LGBTTIQA community. I am sickened to hear that the radio station you work for promoted a message of hatred and violence on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show the other day. Of course, we all have 1st Amendment Rights and I respect them like anyone else. I have heard many a deejay say less-than-attractive things on air. But the issue here is one of moral responsibility and what the difference is between hateful and funny. Nothing Arnie and Rob said was funny, entertaining, or radio-worthy. To me, it reminds people listening that the world is cruel and violent and not funny in the least. In today's climate-where these 'freaks' as they call them have a high suicide and homelessness rate, nobody should be joking about anything-especially when it comes to minor children. How very irresponsible of your radio station to allow your deejays to 'joke' about abuse and parents rejecting their children. Disgusting. I have a larger vocabulary than that, but all I can think of to say is-disgusting.
The LGBTTIQA community would like your deejays to publicly apologize for sending this message of hatred to their viewers and the rest of the country-with free speech comes inherent responsibility.
Sincerely,
Amy Franzen
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