June 3, 2009

>Sacramento Radio Hosts Seem to Encourage Violence Against Transgender Youth

>Rob Williams and Arnie States from the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show at KRXQ made horrifying comments about transgender youth on Thursday. They addressed the controversy on today’s show. They pulled back slightly in the brief part I listened to but didn’t seem too apologetic (though, to be fair, I didn’t listen to the whole thing).

They also congratulated themselves for recently deciding to no longer use “faggot” on air.

Here are some of the outrageous comments from Thursday, discussed in a great post by Michael Rowe at Huffington Post:

Williams and States took turns referring to [transgender] children as “idiots” and “freaks,” who were just out “for attention” and had “a mental disorder that just needs to somehow be gotten out of them,” either by verbal abuse on the part of the parents, or even shock therapy.

“Allowing transgenders to exist, pretty soon it becomes normal to fall in love with the animals,” they said.

For his part, States bragged that if his own son were to ever dare put on a pair of high heels, States would beat his son with one of his own shoes. He urged parents whose own little boys expressed a desire to wear a dress to verbally abuse and degrade them as a viable response.

“Because you know what? Boys don’t wear high heel shoes. And in my house, they definitely don’t wear high heels.

“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.”

GLAAD has been monitoring the situation and been in touch with the station’s general manager. You can read GLAAD’s original post here and yesterday’s update here.

Obviously, GLSEN is outraged by the hosts’ comments. Nearly 9 out of 10 transgender middle and high school students experience harassment school, according to the GLSEN report Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools.

   

About Daryl Presgraves

       

Daryl Presgraves is the Director of Communications at GLSEN--the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.