June 4, 2009 — On June 2 GLAAD issued a Call to Action in response to defamatory and dehumanizing comments made on KRXQ-FM’s May 28th edition of the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radioshow in Sacramento, California. The show is also heard on KDOT-FM in Reno, Nevada. Radio hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States made the remarks which included advocating child abuse of transgender children. Hundreds of LGBT people and allies across the nation contacted the program to voice their serious concerns. That prompted the hosts to devote the entire June 3 broadcast to addressing this issue.
Donna...thats outrageous, sure being a shock jock is one thing, but that was too much. I've forwarded all of that to my militant friends down here and hopefully the radio station will get an ear full!!!!!!
hugs
DeeDee
I’m sorry that you might find it funny — or I’m sorry that you might not find it funny that some people laugh when Arnie — who does not have a child — talks about throwing a shoe at his non-existent son. You know what? Some people do laugh and they know we’re not serious, that Arnie’s not serious and we don’t advocate for it.
I guarantee they wouldn't have a job now if he'd been yapping on about hanging/burning a cross for his imaginary son for being in an interracial relationship. How about if he'd joked about throwing him in an oven for converting to judaism?
Hopefully, the all advertisers will pull out from that station, and get those insensitive bigots a fast track to the unemployment line.
-Michelle-
"Inside me, there's a thin girl, screaming to get out, but cookies & ice cream usually shut her right up."
Right Michelle!!! Howard Stern (much more a power than local jocks) got slapped down badly with his racial remarks. Hopefully these clowns will be broadcasting at Taco Bell soon........humor is humor, and I love satire...but thats overboard.
hugs
DeeDee
I read that these two and the station got fined by the FCC a few years ago for airing a program that talked about explicit female body parts.
So it's not the first time they have been in trouble.
If Don Imus gets kicked off the air for a tongue-in-check remark about an all girl black basketball team why are these numbnuts allowed to stay on the air?
Their remarks were intentional and directed at the unprotected innocents of children
The list of advertisers pulling their ads keeps getting longer.
The entire listing of companies include:
Chipotle
Snapple
Sonic
Bank of America
Verizon
Carl’s Jr (CKE Restaurants)
Wells Fargo
Nissan North America
AT&T
McDonald’s
I sent the following email to John Geary, GM of KRXQ-FM
Mr. Geary,
I was appalled, like many others, when learning of Arnie's and Ron's comments regarding transgendered children.
In response to our finding their comments offensive, they, and station manager Jim Fox, have indicated that it was a joke, and they really don't advocate violence against children (which I am sure is true).
They have noted that we do not get the joke.
What they do not seem to understand is that many other people probably did not get the joke either. And it is these people that act violently toward us. It is these people that are the members of society which will give us and the trans kids a "beat down."
Accordingly, Arnie's and Ron's joke is much more severe than Don Imus' joke which got him in trouble, as Arnie's and Ron's joke can result in some kid getting a beat down, from a peer or a parent.
Besides apologizing, Arnie and Ron should be required to attend a therapy session to hear the horror stories many kids have from being bullied because they are trans or gay.
Thanks for listening.
Donna
I didn't go so far as to suggest their being fired, which thy probably should be since they still don't get it. I figure if the ads being pulled don't get them fired, not much will.
Inciting Violence against any group or individual is to my knowledge illegal in this country and punishable by law , I don't know how your laws compare but they may have a case of prossocution.
DonnaT wrote:The list of advertisers pulling their ads keeps getting longer.
The entire listing of companies include:
Chipotle
Snapple
Sonic
Bank of America
Verizon
Carl’s Jr (CKE Restaurants)
Wells Fargo
Nissan North America
AT&T
McDonald’s
I sent the following email to John Geary, GM of KRXQ-FM
Mr. Geary,
I was appalled, like many others, when learning of Arnie's and Ron's comments regarding transgendered children.
In response to our finding their comments offensive, they, and station manager Jim Fox, have indicated that it was a joke, and they really don't advocate violence against children (which I am sure is true).
They have noted that we do not get the joke.
What they do not seem to understand is that many other people probably did not get the joke either. And it is these people that act violently toward us. It is these people that are the members of society which will give us and the trans kids a "beat down."
Accordingly, Arnie's and Ron's joke is much more severe than Don Imus' joke which got him in trouble, as Arnie's and Ron's joke can result in some kid getting a beat down, from a peer or a parent.
Besides apologizing, Arnie and Ron should be required to attend a therapy session to hear the horror stories many kids have from being bullied because they are trans or gay.
Thanks for listening.
Donna
I didn't go so far as to suggest their being fired, which thy probably should be since they still don't get it. I figure if the ads being pulled don't get them fired, not much will.
Go Donna!
-Michelle-
"Inside me, there's a thin girl, screaming to get out, but cookies & ice cream usually shut her right up."
I listened to the whole show. I sent Dawn the following e-mail.
Dear Ms. Rossi,
I want to personally thank you for having tried to provide some semblance of balance on the recent controversial transgender segment of your radio show. Your having stood up to your co-hosts' relentless bigotry and intolerance towards people expressing an identity different from their own has made me proud to belong to the same species you do; namely, the human species, a species where any and every individual differs--sometimes widely--in their personality, their appearance, their expressed sexuality, and their core identity. This variety and this diversity are strengths, not liabilities. Misters Williams and States ought to take some time to re-familiarize themselves with the most basic American credo: e pluribus unum.
As a transgendered individual--one who is an educated, law-abiding, and productive member of the society in which he lives (I work as a community mental health counsellor)--I've been called worse things than a "freak" or "abnormal" or an "idiot" or "stupid." All this, just because I feel "my insides don't match my outsides." I can live with this name-calling. To some extent. I mean, in a world where everybody has an opinion, I have to, no?
But the danger is this: even words can seriously damage some folks. Especially children. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said that "words are deeds." And, indeed, they are. We can shape the world with our words. We can build it up. Or we can destroy it. Or we can even express our indifference towards it.
As a Canadian citizen, I listen to the words of your own President as he recently addressed an audience in a foreign country. This man of vision upheld all the values that he cherishes and that he hopes others throughout the world also would cherish: a focus on tolerance and openness, a commitment to social justice and peace, a respect for diversity, and a deep regard for the best practices in socially inclusive policies. I'm wondering how it can be possible that your radio show co-hosts even come from the same country as the one Mr. Obama calls his home. Yes, words can make a difference. "I love you" and "I hate you" are worlds apart in the effect they have on people.
Though you, Ms. Rossi, have valiantly tried to defend people like me--and kudos to you for your on-air bravery in the face of your co-hosts' onslaught--the fact nevertheless remains that intelligent, educated, and culturally sensitive people will nix the malicious and uninformed opinions of talk-show radio hosts in favour of more competent analyses of the transgender condition. So, allowing (or not) any Tom, Dick, and Harry who has access to a broadcast media tribune to spout moronic garbage regarding things they don't understand is only a marginal--but very real--issue (one that has to do with the moral responsibility that comes from having your opinions heard by a larger segment of the population than would be the case in, say, your own living-room). No, the real issue here is this: if even one person--one human being, whether a child, a teen, or an adult--commits suicide as a result of the apparently endorsed "Moral Majority" vitriol of Misters Williams and States on the matter of gender (or transgender) identity, then, obviously, a great and irreparable harm has been done.
Let me put this more personally. If I--who know myself to be a fair, compassionate, honest, and kind person, regardless of how I feel I must express my gender identity--begin to suspect that all that awaits me "out there, in the real world," is people just waiting for a chance to beat me up, beat me down, or beat me with a shoe, then, sorry, but no thank you. I want no part of this world. Luckily for me, I was, through a fortunate set of circumstances, strong enough to survive my own suicidal tendencies (which started at age 7). But many are not so fortunate. It is these people that will be further crushed not only by the opinions and attitudes of your co-hosts but by the tone in which they expressed them.
Transgendered people, like homosexual people, are not criminals, not monsters, not abominations, not freaks. They are human beings. Just like Dawn and Arnie and Rob.
That Misters Williams and States spent the whole segment belittling or demeaning or even willfully dismissing the opinions and expertise of the medical, psychiatric, and legal establishments on the matter and status of transgendered individuals just goes to show that nothing anyone can say in favour of transgendered identities will have an ounce of influence on their own opinions. Luckily for us, that makes their opinions ultimately trivial... except in the sense I mentioned above, where someone somewhere will take their views at face value and possibly base some life-or-death decision on them. And THAT would be a shame (to say the least).
Finally, someone ought to enlighten your co-hosts as to the meaning of the expression "slippery slope." Saying that something is on a slippery slope (like, for instance, that allowing a transgendered child to present in his or her felt gender is the first step on a slippery slope that will lead to people wanting to marry animals) is proof of the crassest unsophistication; a "slippery slope" is actually one of the major logical fallacies people commit in trying to argue for a given position. A will lead to B which will lead to C which will lead to D which will lead to E which will, in turn, lead to F and, therefore, because of F, we should not allow A. This kind of thinking is ludicrous and appallingly ignorant. Anyone trotting out a slippery slope as a selling point for their argument is guilty of woolly-headedness and fuzzy thinking. To put it mildly, they're unclear on the concept. On the contrary, slippery slope is a charge--an accusation--that serves to shoot down an argument, not bear it up. You cannot, in all honesty, believe (or even prove, for that matter) that allowing a transgendered child to develop according to his or her own gender identity paves the way for the public acceptance of inter-species intercourse or marriage. That's just plain lame-brained. Misters Williams and States ought to head back to their high school debating teams for a refresher stint as debaters.
Again, Ms. Rossi, thanks for trying to be more humane than your co-hosts. This is what I'll prefer to remember from your show rather than the stupidity of Misters Williams and States. For the record (and against the opinionated call-in listener), you are definitely NOT a moron.
I also sent an email explaining my disgust with this segment. And they won't apologise (shock jocks...station seems bewildered)!!!!! Well, I hope you enjoy broadcasting from the drive-in window at your local fast food place, since your station has lost MAJOR sponsors. I'm sure the station is purely an instrument for those idiots, but hope they fire the a**holes. Its so great to read the statements from their major sponsors..they accept diversity, and thats what its all about!!!
hugs
DeeDee
It saddens and angers me to think there are people out there who think this way. These two deserve to be banned from the air waves and the stations broadcasting license revoked!
Joselle
"You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy."
