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Loading ...Ads pulled over radio hosts’ transgender remarks
06.08.2009 10:30am EDT
(Sacramento, Calif.) Bank of America, Verizon, Chipotle and other companies have pulled advertising from a Sacramento radio station after talk show hosts referred to transgender people as “freaks” with mental disorders.
During a May 28 show, one of the three hosts on KRXQ’s “Rob, Arnie & Dawn” show said he would hit his son with his shoe if he put on high heels. Another said he would tell a boy he was “a little idiot” if he asked to wear a dress.Officials with Bank of America Corp. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Friday their companies pulled advertising because they found the comments offensive.
“We listened to the segment and the follow-up comments, and found it quite difficult to defend,” Bank of America spokesman Joe Goode said.
Representatives of Verizon Communications Inc., Nissan Motor Co. and Carl’s Jr. restaurants also said they stopped advertising.
Transgender advocates and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have sought an apology from two of the show’s three hosts, Arnie States and Rob Williams. The third host, Dawn Rossi, defended transgender people on the show.
“Our issue here is that Rob and Arnie advocated violence against children because of who they are and have failed to take responsibility for their dehumanizing and defamatory words,” said Rashad Robinson, senior director of programs at GLAAD.
John Geary, vice president and general manager of KRXQ, did not return a telephone message or e-mail Friday.
During a follow-up show Wednesday, States said he never advocated abuse. He said his comments were meant only as a joke and that he didn’t do anything wrong, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee.
During the May 28 broadcast, States and Williams discussed the California Supreme Court ruling upholding Proposition 8, the initiative on last November’s ballot that banned same-sex marriage. The hosts then turned their attention to transgender lifestyles.
“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,” States said on the air.
Williams suggested transgender people suffered from a mental disorder.
“They are freaks. They are abnormal,” he said. “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.”
OMG! Really? The are just words, people. They only hurt you if you are forced to listen to them, and forced to believe them when you do not. It’s called – CHANGE THE STATION IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR!
Nobody was harmed, other than some ruffled feathers.
As far as the “abuse” part of this complaint:
Now had Arnie said “My boy put on a dress, and I hit him over the head with a shoe!”, then there would be a problem. However, he doesn’t have any kids, he didn’t assault anyone – child or adult.
As far as the “freak” and “mental health issue” comment:
Didn’t your parents ever teach you the “sticks and stones” rhyme? Or did you have a misguided childhood and rotten parents so now want to take out all your frustrations on the rest of the world?
Get over yourselves and move on!
i live in south florida – one of the long running morning shows here at 105.9 are constantly bashing gays. if you randomly turn on the show within minutes you will hear the most homophobic comments. its unvelievable that their remarks are tolerated by the station or the advertisers. just one example: one morning the one host said in all seriousness that he would never go to a physician if he knew that physician was gay – he went on to say that he knows that a gay doctor would try and molest a patient if he were another man. – its unbelievable!!!!! now they have a “gay” man that sits in with them – although he maintains that he isnt into the “gay” lifestyle and he is only into sports – oh brother! somebody get them off the air – they are old and tired and tell mundane stories about their boring married lives in the suburbs. give me a break! who listens to that crap!
I’m really sorry that you think the show is going to be pulled from the air, because it’s not. The Rob, Arnie, and Dawn show leads in ratings by a 3 to 1 margin and literally is keeping KRXQ running right now. They are the most successful radio show that I’ve ever known, and taking them off the air would be a death sentence for KRXQ. They’ll apologize for this, have a transgendered person on the show so that your little community can get it’s publicity from this (not like that’s what all of this is for anyways, I’m sure they’re basking in all the publicity for their cause) and things will move on. If you listen to the show regularly, you’ll get that they offend everyone. They even mention it all the time, if you listen to the show you will be offended…but the dynamic of the show works in the way that Dawn defends everything that Rob and Arnie attack, which makes it into not an entire hatefest, and usually makes everyone happy in the end, except of course for the special community of transgenders who MUST have everything their own way. If you listen long enough you even because desensitized to the show, I listened to the segment and I literally didn’t find anything offending in it. People need to get over this.
No physical harm was done to anyone. All that happened is someone got their feelings hurt. Accept their apology and move on. Accept that people have a different view than yourselves. People have called me a freak in the past because I was into theatre growing up – did I call upon all my fellow thespians to unite and take down the “jocks” because they thought my choice of “lifestyle” was odd? No. Accept yourself for who you are, be the bigger man/woman and make this an opportunity to show those that are unfamiliar and afraid to ask about the GLAAD community that you are not a vengeful and whiney bunch. This is your stage right now – you can make the rest of the world see you as I believe you are – just a group wanting acceptance and equality, or keep going the way you are going, and show the straight community that you don’t give a crap about them and will take them down with any stray opportunity.
This situation is in your hands – in my opinion, and I have always been a proponent for Gay Rights and equality, it is being handled incredibly poorly.
Shame on Rob & Arnie for making some questionable statements. But shame on the GLAAD community for turning it into a hate fest.
All things must pass. These sad saps will die out with the generations, and all of the sexual minorities will live in freedom and peace.
hey “tolerance” how’s about we say something like this: “If i ever found out my kid was a breeder I’d slam him over the head with a hustler magazine”.
It’s wonderful to hear that those companies are pulling their ads. Now if only those radio guys would be fired…
I do think that Arnie and Rob should apolagize,their statements are defamatory. Every one on the planet has a opinion but they are on a public radio station and should have used better judgement.
I am not condoning what they said. I am also not condoning the shameful and hateful outcry from the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender community. Two wrongs do not make a right.
All I am saying is, this could and should have been handled in a much different manner. Instead of perpetuating a “you hurt my feelings, and now I am going to make you PAY, and take everything away from you that I can!” response, it could have been turned into a forum of discussion to bring the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender lifestyle to the table in a more helpful and insightful manner.
Now both sides are on the defensive, and nobody is going to “win”.
A very poor choice of words, and now…all this. Is it worth it? I don’t think so. All this outcry from GLAAD is doing is adding fuel to the fire for all the homophobic people out there.
Be the bigger person – accept the apology, and take the opportunity to educate and not alienate.
As far as your question about beating a white child with a noose because he/she was dating a black child – we can discuss that if that scenario arises, and is “reported” on in a bigotted light. We might as well discuss a hypothetical scenario of a transgender individual beating up a hetrosexual biologically born, raised and living woman just because they are jealous of her being born a woman. Neither one is relevant in this discussion and both are unacceptable.
“Tolerance,”
The biggest problem I had with it was one of them claiming to basically condone violence against transgenders, even going so far as to say he’d engage in it.
Young folks who listen to the show and who’re at an age where they’re looking for people to emulate in an effort to seem cool or to garner acceptance will then go on to engage in violence, themselves, against transgenders and God knows what other minorities.
It’s an enormous deal to engage in hate speech, but it’s an even bigger deal to engage in hate speech that incites violence.
Tell me, in all seriousness. Would you’ve said what you did in your post had one of them said he’d spank his white child with a noose if that child decided to date a black kid?
But, even if he hadn’t condoned violence, any of them calling minorities “freaks” is still unacceptable, because it perpetuates the kind of general hostility toward said minorities that can, in some people, lead to violence even without explicitly calling for it.
Get where we’re coming from now?
Who are the haters here? Would you crucify Rob and Arnie just because they said something that offended you? Sure sounds like it. When Dawn is sticking up for everyone that Rob & Arnie make fun of, do you choose to hear it? No, it’s so much easier to spout your hateful rants (which, by the way, are way more offensive than the original statements made on the show that everyone here seems to “offended” by). It sounds more like you want to use this politically incorrect choice of statements by 2 people to further your cause, instead of try to further educate the uninformed. I didn’t know lynching was still acceptable in this country, but by the sounds of it – Rob & Arnie are about to face the new and improved “klan”. Bravo on perpetuating the hate, folks.
isn’t it funny how FAST things happen when the Money STOPS! Yeah sponsors you get MY business in the future!!
I’m surprised at Carl’s Jr. Isn’t that an about face?
I guess it’s safe to eat a happy star again.
Well, it`s nice to see corporate sponsors exercising their freedom to respond, it is heartening to see. As for the comments and the follow up, I made a point of going to their site and hearing the broadcast….disturbing doesn`t begin to describe it. As for Mike Woods comments here, you clearly either haven`t been out long or you`ve been incredibly sheltered. Offending someone is not the issue here, and you know it. The issue is that of advocating of violence, joke or not, and the vile and viscious tone of the show. Like it or not free speech cuts both ways, something many Americans (conservatives in particular) forget. They said their peace and now gays, transgenders and others have said theirs. Free speech comes at a price, that price is the consequences, whatever they may be. One can have a dissenting and unpopular view but, as with anything, one must always take care not to cross the line, and the truth is, they did. To say otherwise is to be both wilfully ignorant and patently shallow.
What makes the transgender movement so special? The Rob, Arnie, and Dawn show offends everyone equal, so you shouldn’t be as high and mighty as you think you are just because the gay issue is a hot topic. That show has been on the air for 10 years without a problem, and now you guys think that you’re so almighty that they MUST apologize to you. You make me ashamed to be gay…and I will always side with that show.