Advertisers for a Sacramento-based
radio show are dwindling after its hosts slurred transgender children
and called the uproar that followed “a joke.”
During the May 28 broadcast of the Rob,
Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show, which airs on KRXQ in
Sacramento, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States raised the hackles of
gay rights groups with comments offered in a segment on transgender
children.
“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,” States said. “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.”
“[T]hey are freaks,” Williams said.
“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.”
“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,'” States said. And about eight minutes later added,
“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.”
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD) demanded an apology from the show's hosts, saying
the radio segment promoted “child abuse.”
Instead, States defended his comments
on the air, called the hubbub that followed “a joke,” and
insisted he never advocated abuse: “I didn't do anything wrong.”
But fleeing advertisers disagreed.
“We listened to the segment and the
follow-up comments, and found it quite difficult to defend,” Bank
of America spokesman Joe Goode told the AP.
“The views expressed by the hosts are
not consistent with our core values,” McDonald's said in a release.
“As such, we are in the process of withdrawing advertising from
KRXQ until further notice.”
According to a GLAAD
blog post, ten major advertisers have fled the show including
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Snapple, Sonic, Bank of America, Verizon, CKE
Restaurants, Wells Fargo, Nissan North America, AT&T and
McDonald's.
The Rob, Arnie & Dawn show
is owned by co-host Rob Williams.