Acts of Terrorism

June 2, 2009— In a lengthy May 28 tirade on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States verbally attacked transgender children. While discussing a recent story about a transgender child in Omaha, Nebraska and her parents’ decision to support her transition, the two hosts spent more than 30 minutes explicitly promoting child abuse of and making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children.
Among the comments made by the hosts:
ROB WILLIAMS [11:12]: This is a weird person who is demanding attention. A nd when it’s a child, all it takes is a hug, maybe some tough love or anything in between. When your little boy said, ‘Mommy, I want to walk around in a dress.’ You tell them no cause that’s not what boys do. But that’s not what we’re doing in this culture.
ARNIE STATES [13:27]: 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. Because you know what? Boys don’t wear high heels. And in my house, they definitely don’t wear high heels.
ROB WILLIAMS [17:45]: Dawn, they are freaks. They are abnormal. 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. That’s where therapy could help them.
ROB WILLIAMS [18:15]: Or because they were molested. You know a lot of times these transgenders were molested. And you need to work with them on that. The point is you don’t allow the behavior. You cure the cause!
ARNIE STATES [21:30]: You got a boy saying, ‘I wanna wear dresses.’ I’m going to look at him and go, ‘You know what? You’re a little idiot! You little dumbass! Look, you are a boy! Boys don’t wear dresses.’
ARNIE STATES [29:22]: You know, my favorite part about hearing these stories about the kids in high school, who the entire high school caters around, lets the boy wear the dress. I look forward to when they go out into society and society beats them down. And they end up in therapy.To her credit, co-host Dawn Rossi stood up to Williams and States during the segment.Despite her apparent lack of familiarity with transgender issues, Rossi repeatedly defended transgender people and made an on-air apology for her colleagues’ defamatory remarks.

TAKE ACTION NOW!
Please contact KRXQ management in Sacramento, California, where the show is produced and demand that radio show hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States publicly apologize. Call on KRXQ to hold Williams and States accountable for their remarks and establish clear standards to ensure their media platform will not be used to condone or promote violence against any parts of the communities they serve.
John GearyVice President & General Manager
KRXQ-FM
(916) 339-4209
jgeary@entercom.com

Arnie States
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rad@robarnieanddawn.com

Rob Williams
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rwilliams@entercom.com

My commentary (also sent to KRXQ):

As of Friday, Chipotle, Carl's Jr., Sonic, Snapple, Verizon, B of A, Nissan, and Wells Fargo ALL WITHDREW THEIR AD COMMITMENTS from your station(s). I think it is clear that they too think the spreading of hatred and the inciting violence against children is as wrong as it can get. I personally think both of you “jocks” ought to be arrested and tried as promoters and perpetrators of terrorism – it is exactly what you were doing spewing such phobic and terrorist hate. I hope that Dawn Rossi and two new hires get to take over the show while you are fired and hopefully spend some time in Prison thinking about your hate crimes and paying what ought to be the price for your stupidity. (Though I doubt that will happen it is the price tag for acts of terrorism and hate crimes against minors). How dare you abuse the public trust that radio "personalities" share and use your “bully pulpit” to hate and harm these kids – none of whom chose to be the way they are made. None of whom, I’m sure, ever did anything to you or provoked you in some way to promote such evil. It is small minded and willfully ignorant people like you that are are the trouble with our society – anything you don’t understand then becomes a target for derision and for hatred and for violence and you actively promote it in your ranting. I wonder do you go home at night and strap bombs to your children and send them into jihad too?

I am Transgender and a born again Christian of 29 years and an activist for human rights. My becoming a Christian was a choice, the fact I was born with the emotional hardwiring of a Woman in a genetically male body was not. Living in a way that makes sense to me is my God given right. I can tell you that what I am is not, and was not, a choice nor is it something that could it be corrected by kindly or abusive methods or by simply ignoring it or denying it – and all these have been tried many times in my life to no avail. I had vision problems and lung problems in my youth and those could be treated and were, but this has no treatment other than simply being allowed to be fully human according to the way I was created – doing this I am flourishing and doing well in life. These children you would abuse and terrorize deserve to flourish too.

Your spreading of hate and urging of violence (obviously with the approval of the Station management) most certainly is a choice deserving of punishment. I believe you ought to do more than apologize, but actually do something tangible by way of apology to the transgender youth of your community – I would think doing a month’s community service in a transgender youth related charitable organization and donating a full month’s pay to local charity that works with at risk youth or to any number of transgender advocacy groups would be a good token of sincere repentance in this matter.

Every once in a while something gives me some hope that soon there will be much wider acceptance of all types of human in spite of bigotry and acts of terrorism like yours; the support from your former sponsors is one of those things. These are all very big players in media marketing that have pulled their sponsorship - no doubt your stations feel the pinch. I am wondering if it is enough to get you "jocks" fired or cause you to retract what you said publicly and do something tangible by way of apology.

Sincerely,
Eva-Genevieve! Scarborough

Human

Christian

Transgendered
Chairwoman, First Congregational Church (UCC) Riverside Mission Board LGBT sub-committee.

Advocate for Human / Civil-Rights and Faith without Prejudice

http://livingtransgender.blogspot.com/