UPDATE: KRXQ Responds to GLAAD’s Call to Action
June 2, 2009 by Andy Marra, Senior Media Strategist @ GLAAD
Yesterday, we alerted our readers to our work with Trans Youth Family Allies in responding to a reprehensible May 28 segment on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show. The show is heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5FM. You can find our original blog post about the defamatory comments here.
In a vile diatribe, radio show hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States spent more than a half hour making highly offensive comments about transgender children when discussing a recent story about a transgender child and her parents’ decision to support her transition in Omaha, NE.
The two hosts encouraged child abuse as a so-called “cure” for their gender identity with even one host later suggesting shock therapy. You can listen to the entire segment here.
Hosts of the show Rob Arnie & Dawn
Yesterday, we reached out to KRXQ management to raise our deepest concerns and demand an apology for the radio broadcast. We not only called, but also emailed the KRXQ General Manager, John Geary.
GLAAD received a reply from Mr. Geary on Tuesday, June 2 at 9:21am EST.
He wrote:
I was out of the office yesterday, so I have yet to hear the segment in question. Let me review it and get back to you later today. Thanks. – John
After waiting for hours with no response, GLAAD issued a Call to Action demanding the radio hosts to apologize for encouraging violence against transgender children.
Because of the many supporters who reach out to the station and hosts, we received a phone call from John Geary at 5:00pm EST today. Geary let us us know that he took our concerns seriously and he claimed to have read all of the emails sent to him about the radio segment.
Geary also told us that the hosts plan to address this issue in the 7:00am PST (10:00am EST) hour on their Wednesday, June 3 broadcast (listen live here).
GLAAD has sent over key resources on transgender issues to inform the radio hosts on what kinds of obstacles transgender people face.
In 2008, Ruby Molina was murdered in Sacramento for being a transgender woman.
Rob Williams and Arnie States have become active contributors to a vicious cycle of ill-informed and cruel rhetoric. Such hateful speech has already shown its devastating effects on transgender people and the communities they belong to.
In 2008 alone, the Transgender Day of Remembrance reported 21 murders of transgender and gender non-conforming people, including:
- January 21, 2008: Adolphus Simmons, 18, (Charleston, SC) who was gunned down while taking out the trash;
- February 10, 2008: Sanesha Stewart (Bronx, NY), stabbed by an acquaintance and left to die alone in her apartment;
- February 12, 2008: Lawrence King, 15, (Oxnard, CA) shot in the head by a 14 year old fellow classmate
- February 22, 2008: Simmie Williams, 17, (Fort Lauderdale, FL) who was shot an dkilled; no arrests have been made;
- July 1, 2008: Ebony Whitaker, 20, (Memphis, TN) who was shot near a daycare center; no arrests have been made;
- July 21, 2008: Angie Zepata, 18, (Greeley, CO) who was beaten to death in her own apartment with a fire extinguisher;
- August 20, 2008: Nakhia Williams, 29, (Louisville, KY) who died 10 days after she was shot and beaten by a group of people outside her apartment;
- September 21, 2008: Ruby Molina, 22, (Sacramento, CA) who was found dead in the American River by fishermen in September;
- November 9, 2008: Duanna Johnson, 42, (Memphis, TN) who was shot to death just weeks ago by unidentified assailants on Nov. 9 after making news earlier when she was beaten by police officers in February. Johnson’s lawsuit against the city of Memphis was still pending at the time of her murder.
- November 14, 2008: Lateisha “Teish” Cannon, 22, (Syracuse, NY) who was shot inside her car with her brother and friend;
- December 26, 2008: Taysia “Taysha” Elzy, 34, (Indianapolis, IN) who was shot and killed along with her boyfriend.
In 2007, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects (NCAVP) reported that 16% of their overall reports were motivated by anti-transgender bias, and that 231 transgender women filed reports of violence. Since violence is often underreported, and the identities of transgender murder victims often misreported, there is no way to know accurate numbers.
It should also be noted the Human Rights Campaign estimates that transgender Americans face a one-in-12 change of being murdered. Statistics from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) show that in schools 14.2% of transgender students report being physically assaulted as a result of their gender expression, while 30.4% experienced physical harassment.
We hope Rob Williams and Arnie States consider these important and sobering pieces of information when addressing the issue tomorrow.
GLAAD will be monitoring tomorrow’s response by the hosts. Please continue to check back for any possible updates or alerts on this developing story.
If they do not STRONGLY apologize, we should begin a campaign of letter writing to their advertisers asking them to PULL their support of this station. I am disgusted by this tirade. I am also emailing all the entercom stations in my market as well, encouraging them to contact their corporate office. Truly, I would like to see them FIRED for this. Their comments went BEYOND decency. We cannot let this stand.
hear, hear, economic boycott of this stations sponsors is the way to go with this.
I really believe that the way to effectively deal is to hit them in the pocketbook.
[...] talk show based in Sacramento, CA. Supposedly tomorrow morning (Wed. June 3rd) the station is going to issue a response. We’ll see how that [...]
They’re talking about Bullying, but if you listened to original show, these folks bullying themselves and talking about kids. Again, just like the typical “Bully” they can dish it out but can’t take it.
Big surprise.
Again, I call for sponsor boycott. Money (or lack thereof) makes a statement!
[...] asked for an apology, and apparently the show was going to respond tonight on the 7pm broadcast, but I’ve yet to see any transcripts or new blog [...]
Many people have taken it upon themselves already to go to the KRXQ website’s list of sponsors and e-mail each one to ask them to pull their sponsorship.
I received this evening and e-mail from Chipotle, who have already pulled their advertising from the show.
[...] Arnie States apologize for encouraging violence against transgender children. We also posted a blog update about the initial results from alerting our consitutents and media about the defamatory radio [...]
[...] that Rob and Arnie should apologize for their remarks. We have also been blogging about this story (here and [...]
[...] an asshole, loose your sponsors So a couple of wacky morning guys advocating beating children with shoes if they act like children, and got their (now former) [...]
[...] dos de sus locutores, Rob Williams and Arnie Status, a retractarse de unas declaraciones en las que se burlaban de menores transexuales al hacerse eco de la historia de una menor transexual de Omaha, y de la decisión de sus padres de [...]
[...] dos de sus locutores, Rob Williams and Arnie Status, a retractarse de unas declaraciones en las que se burlaban de menores transexuales al hacerse eco de la historia de una menor transexual de Omaha, y de la decisión de sus padres de [...]
People have received responses from Guitar Center that they have decided to join the boycott. I don’t know if you’ve received official notice yet.