On May 28th, Rob, Arnie, & Dawn in the Morning radio talk show [from KRXQ 98.5 FM Sacramento] encouraged parents of Transgender children to verbally abuse them, calling these children “idiots” and “freaks.” According to Michael Rowe of Huffington Post, Arnie States had this to say about how he would deal with his own son wearing a dress:
“I’m going to go, ‘You know what? You’re a little idiot! You little dumbass!’” States sneered, adding later, “I look forward to when [the transgender children] go out into society and society beats them down. And they wind up in therapy.”
As a Transgender Man it hurt to hear this type of hate speech targeted at me and my younger brothers and sisters. Thankfully, our community is strong and our allies loyal, and there has been lightening-speed mobilization. Because of hundreds of complaints, phone calls and letters, not only to the station, but its advertisers, 10 corporations, such as AT&T and Snapple, have pulled their advertising. This has prompted the station to finally contact GLAAD on Monday to discuss how to resolve the situation.
The show hosts still have not apologized and the station has yet to promise that this will never happen again. This means we have the whole weekend to continue to pressure the advertisers and the station to end hate speech against Transgender people!
To join in, visit GLAADblog to learn how to contact the show hosts and the station. Check out the Facebook Group Boycott KRXQ Sacramento to contact the station and their advertisers.
