from the department of extremely not okay

[rm]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/krxq-sacramento-radio-hos_b_210637.html

Because seriously? If you think this is just about children who are trans? It's not. If you think it's just about children who are lesbian, gay or bisexual? It's not.

It's about any child, anywhere, that isn't conforming to the most traditional of gender roles. It's about kids who like to play dress-up and kids that like to write stories and kids that want to try on identities instead of just growing up into exactly who they think they should be to make everyone else happy.

It's about your little heterosexual, cis-gendered, pink-wearing girl who wants to grow up to be a pilot and your son, who is going to be a dancer, who would happily date every girl in ballet class if he could.

It is about our arts and our sciences.

And it is, of course, as ever, about women and how we culturally despise them. Because how much of this diatribe is reserved for FtM kids? Almost none. It's all about boys and dresses, or, at least, so these biggoted child-abuse advocates think.

Trans issues are the issues that seem to get shafted the most often in the battle for LGBTQ rights. They're so marginal people say. They affect so few people.

Nope. Wrong.

They're about everyone. About what they do. About what they like. And about what kids want to be when they grow up.

This shit is severely unacceptable and deeply dangerous.

(ETA: Read comments for ways to contact station, advertisers, etc.)

(ETA2: More contact info and some progress: http://virginia-fell.livejournal.com/267487.html)

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

What you said. Especially about this being about gender roles for everyone, not "just" trans children.

"This shit is severely unacceptable and deeply dangerous."

And, unfortunately, destined to escalate dramatically as The Queers(tm) inexplicably gain or attempt to gain actual civil rights in random scattershot bits of the country. Cue the Real Men (and Women) determined to hurt everyone they can via the shrapnel of their own exploding heads.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Definitely, yes.

(what stakebait said downthread: anything constructive to be done besides making it abundantly clear to KRXQ that this won't wash? Someone at feministing on this topic suggested pulling a Spocko and letting the corps who advertise there know what their products are being associated with, but I'd prefer a carrotmob to a stick-wielding dogpile...)

[stephl.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. Reading that made my stomach hurt.

I'm no longer surprised by such violent gender policing of adults (although the fact that I'm no longer surprised is a very sad statement), but I honestly never expected to hear such utter, utter hatred towards children.

This shit is severely unacceptable and deeply dangerous.

Absolutely.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ, what is wrong with these people? Shouldn't common shame prevent human beings from going out in public to talk about how much they look forward to the beat down of five year olds?

Do you know if there's there a useful group here to which we could be sending money or volunteer time? Some kind of trans kids legal defense fund or clueful Big brothers Big Sisters or something? I will Google later but my sitting at the computer time is still extremely limited.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm meeting you in 20 minutes, yes?

(and yeah, I'm going to try to get on that later).

[mamadar.livejournal.com]

I saw this over on JournalFen and couldn't even bring myself to read the article. These little pink and blue boxes labelled "F" and "M" respectively don't fit *anyone*. They didn't fit me as a child, when I wore dresses and didn't like sports but played with Hot Wheels and knights in a castle and my Lost in Space robot right alongside my rag doll and teddy bear, and they don't fit me now, when I wear jeans or caftans or whatever strikes my mood, keep plushies of songbirds at my work desk, watch sci fi tv, and still hate sports. They didn't and don't fit my near-sighted, music-loving, Julia-Child-loving husband, either.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

There was an article (I think on NPR's website) about a "therapist" trying to "modify the behavior" of transgendered little boys--no, you don't want a dress, you want trousers! no, not in pink or purple! no, you can't play with Polly Pockets dolls, Mommy has to give all those away! no, you are not a little girl, think BOY!--and I had to stop reading it because I sincerely wanted to track down both the "therapist" and the deluded parents and beat them with tire irons. Anyone who inflicts that kind of misery on a child for any reason shouldn't be licensed to practice spoon collecting, much less medicine.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Freaking terrifying.

If my son (and yes, I am birthing a boy) wants to be a ballet dancer, is transgendered, is gay, wears pink every day, is a cross-dresser, WHATEVER. I want him to be HAPPY - not stuffed into a fucking box or dead or abused.

What the fuck is wrong with these so-called "men"? They think that calling for violence against CHILDREN is "manly"?

They have another think coming.

I'm fucking seething right now. And full of preggo hormones, so you know....

N.

[drinkingcocoa.livejournal.com]

Gads, this landed right on my line between "must stay informed" and "must protect self from trauma." These idiots aren't even original. Beating and abusing kids is older than history. I think I'm not going to tell my tiny tots how mainstream this attitude is. My older girl's true love is a cross-dressing boy (age 6) and she has been teaching her preschool classmates that girls can marry girls. We're just going to keep teaching such things so when the girls encounter abusiveness like this, they'll know it for what it is.

[ravenskye8.livejournal.com]

Gads, this landed right on my line between "must stay informed" and "must protect self from trauma."

*nodding vigorously*

I... I am deer in headlights... I just can't get past the visceral "I need to hug my kids right now" pit in my stomach... and I'm not even their mom! (Fun-loving, indulgent Aunt and proud of it! :)

I'm with Michael Rowe - you come after my kids, and you will find yourself on the receiving end of everything I'm made of...

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

*is SAD*

I'm sorta hatin' the word "normal" more and more ...

and I'm hoping there's a special hell for people hatin' on children!!!

*DO NOT WANT*

[assume-a-virtue.livejournal.com]

Remember. If normal is defined as average, normal people have one breast and one testicle.

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

Horrifying, and I thought nothing could shock me anymore.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Excellent. I'm blogging this.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

Aren't there laws against inciting people to violence over the radio, let alone against children???

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

In Canada they'd be doing Federal time, even under this (extremely right wing for us) government. And the Radio station would be explaining why it shouldn't have its broadcast licence pulled. Oh, yeah, and somebody else is going to be raising their kids.

[angelcityblues.livejournal.com]

I had to repost that on Facebook for all of my friends. Horrible, awful, terrible. Huge kudos to Michael Rowe for writing that.

[splix.livejournal.com]

rad@robarnieanddawn.com - on-air hosts' email

jgeary@entercom.com - the station's general manager.

Here's a list of their advertisers. (http://www.krxq.net/pages/293097.php)

[aecamadi.livejournal.com]

That list of advertisers is now generating a big fat 404 error. Looks like they're going the cowardly route toward insulating the station and the DJs from facing consequences for their behavior.

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I saw this the other day and was very grateful my parents didn't and still don't try to push gender roles on us.

As kids, me and my sister were the ones into karate, enough so that Liz competed internationally. My littlest brother has been dancing - ballet, jazz, and tap since he could walk. He recognizes the fact that it is not socially acceptable in mainstream, but when you get so much attention from the girls in ballet class, who cares?

My stepdad dislikes that my brother does ballet, but doesn't disallow him from going and doing what he clearly likes to do. It's slow work, but even backwaters in Ohio are changing.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

It looks like there's an effort to get the sponsors to pull out, and it's working. The comments on that article say that Chipotle has already bailed on the show.

I'm horrified that this is happening, and personally repelled by the fact that it's happening in my hometown. I always knew Sacramento was conservative, but this is beyond the pale.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

From your keyboard to the ears of Whomever is listening!

[kaffy_r]

I'm glad to read in the comments that a couple of advertisers have already pulled their contracts from the station. Good on them.

As for what was broadcast? I can' say nothing more than has been said here by others. These two poor excuses for human beings spilled fear-filled filth, soiled the airwaves, endangered kids and devalued anything perceived as "feminine." God help them.

[axejudge.livejournal.com]

For you, kaffyr - icon <3

For the radio clowns - their karma will be balanced in time, and they'll probably never be mature enough to accept their responsibility for their actions. Hate comes from fear, and you have to be awfully fearful in order to think it okay to vent hatred on children.

[manycolored.livejournal.com]

That really steams me up. The older I get, the queerer I get... but at the same time I can see that a lot of the bullying I faced as a little kid was directly related to the ways I didn't fit the "normal girl" image. Short hair, liked to play outside, preferred doctor kits and blocks (and toy kitchens, to be fair) to dolls, liked the company of boys, etc. And how many times did "well-meaning" teachers try to convince me to play shopping or house with the girls when I wanted to play robots or cars with the boys???

[evil_plotbunny]

Positive portrayals of transgendered characters are appearing more and more frequently in YA fiction, and I tend to pounce on them for my collection as I once had to pounce on Lesbian/Gay books back when I first started as a librarian. Now I have my choice of the latter, so I don't feel I have to buy everything. I came in at the point when publishing was starting to turn away from their history of "same-sex romance=one of the characters dies at the end" and now I'm more surprised when there aren't gay/lesbian characters.

So, when I see stuff like this, I keep telling myself "there is hope for the next generation". Things may not be changing as fast as we like, but they are changing.

ETA: And the fact that there is such a negative reaction (sponsors pulling out, etc.) also shapes public opinion. The more people take the stand that this is NOT OKAY, the better things will get.

[albreda.livejournal.com]

Can you tell us some of the books that positively feature trans characters? I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to know, and to support those authors.

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

That's just so completely disgusting. I read the article to my husband (who himself is not the most openminded of people himself) and even he was horrified.

[stephl.livejournal.com]

Here's an EXCELLENT response, by the father of a non-gender-normative child: http://openletterstokrxq.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/concerned-father-of-non-conforming-ten-year-old-boy/.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is definitely worthy of modding up, yes.

[frakkin-addict.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Jesus.
That... I'm speechless.

I'm so happy we have Igy (http://igy.org.il/content/about_us_en.php) in Israel. It would have been nice to have when I was kid, but better late than never I guess.

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

*gapes*

[thaddeusfavour.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you said. I can't express how angry this makes me. It's like taking our civilization and putting it back in caves, back to the time when we killed things that weren't like us to preserve our dominance as a species.

[lostin-thestars.livejournal.com]

I live in this area.... *sigh* I have written a letter to the station and am now writing to their sponsors.