Nathan OUTloud interview with Kim Pearson regarding TYFA and the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show"

In Nathan OUTloud episode on June 14th, host Nathan Treanor interviews TYFA co-founder Kim Pearson regarding TYFA and the events from the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show" on KRXQ in Sacramento, California that started with the May 28th show.

Nathan OUTloud is a bi-weekly podcast dedicated to sharing stories from the LGBT community.

Go to the Nathan OUTloud site to listen to: Episode 5 - Kim Pearson from TransYouth Family Allies 36:40 minutes

Find out more about: TransYouth Family Allies (TFYA)

Thank you Rob, Arnie, and Dawn for an excellent show this morning

I listened to the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning" show this morning and I have to say I was very impressed. It was clear that they really got it that they had crossed the line on the show and then made it worse a week later by telling people that it was just a joke.

What seems to have impacted them the most in getting there is that their regular listener audience told them that what they had done and said was not okay.

I could tell that they took time to really connect with people -- to open their minds and hearts to the responses they got -- and it changed them. And they have the guts to go on the air and admit how they screwed up and do a show that really deal with it.

Today they spent from 7:30 AM to 10 AM on the show talking about this. The guests they brought in were Kim Pearson and Autumn Sandeen who were excellent, and they had callers to the show also and handled that very well.

This is what they posted on their homepage http://www.robarnieanddawn.com/ after the show:

UPDATED JUNE 11TH, 2009, 10:45AM

We would like to thank our two very special guests for stopping by and sharing their stories with us. If you would like to learn more about them, please visit the following links.

To learn more about Kim Perason and the TransYouth Family Allies organization visit www.imatyfa.org.

And to read Autumn Sandeen's online contributions visit www.pamshouseblend.com.

If you miss today's show, you can download the full two and a half hours directly from this web site by clicking on the links to the left.

Thank you,

The Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show

Because the show's homepage may change in time I am linking directly to the show that happened today here:

- Hour 1 Of Transgender Response
- Hour 2 Of Transgender Response
- Last Part Of Transgender Response

Doing the show they did today takes guts, and I applaud Rob and Arnie for that - for being willing to publicly not only say that their behavior was wrong, and not just to apologize on the air, but to spend the whole show today talking about it so that other people can learn and understand with them.

Again thank you Dawn for being such a good ally. Your voice in all this was very much appreciated.

And thank you Kim and Autumn for your parts in this whole experience.

It's very good to be able to see something like this turn out for the good. It is an example of what we can hold up to show people that there is reason to hope and to do this work we do.

Updates on "the transgender controversy" and the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning" show

Note: this is an update on my June 3rd post below, Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning - "the transgender controversy".

I checked and you can now listen to the entire segment of this show on the player on the GLAAD site here:
http://www.glaad.org/Page.aspx?pid=730

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On June 5th GLAAD posted updated information on their website about ten companies that have pulled their advertising from KRXQ, the Sacramento California radio station that hosts the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning show:

The entire listing of companies include:

• Chipotle
• Snapple
• Sonic
• Bank of America
• Verizon
• Carl’s Jr (CKE Restaurants)
• Wells Fargo
• Nissan North America
• AT&T
• McDonald’s

For more information, read UPDATE: McDonald’s Is 10th Company to Pull KRXQ Advertising on the GLAAD website.

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This was posted today, Sunday June 7, 2009 on >The Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show website: http://robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/ - and because it is posted on their homepage which I expect will change, I am posting the message here rather than linking to it:

UPDATED JUNE 7TH, 2009, 11:50AM

TO OUR LOYAL ROB, ARNIE AND DAWN FOLLOWERS,

WE HAVE FAILED YOU. AS A SHOW, AS PEOPLE, AS BROADCASTERS, WE HAVE SIMPLY FAILED ON ALMOST EVERY LEVEL.

WE PRESENTED OUR OPINIONS ON A VERY SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN A HATEFUL, CHILDISH AND CRUDE FASHION; AND THEN, GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO RETRACT THOSE REMARKS, WE DEFENDED THEM.

SINCE THEN, YOU, OUR LOYAL LISTENERS, HAVE MADE IT CLEAR TO US THAT WE WENT TOO FAR. THE RESPONSE HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING. NONE OF YOU SAID THAT WE COULDN’T HAVE OPINIONS, YET SO MANY OF YOU SAID THAT THE WAY WE GAVE THEM CROSSED THE LINE. FURTHER, YOU SAID THAT OUR ATTEMPT TO MASK OUR COMMENTS AS “JOKES THAT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BY OUR AUDIENCE,” WAS UNACCEPTABLE. I WOULD SAY NOW THAT IT WAS WORSE THAN THAT, IT WAS COWARDLY. YOU HAVE MADE THAT CLEAR.

WE HAVE REACHED OUT TO VARIOUS GROUPS AND ASKED FOR A CHANCE TO MAKE THIS RIGHT; TO RESPOND, WITH THEIR PARTICIPATION, TO THE EDUCATION THAT OUR AUDIENCE HAS PROVIDED US. THAT OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN GRACIOUSLY GRANTED THIS THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 11TH. AT 7:30 A.M.

THE WORD APOLOGY APPEARS NO WHERE IN THIS LETTER FOR A REASON. WE ALREADY HID FROM DOING THE RIGHT THING ONCE AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. APOLOGIZING IN A WRITTEN, POSTED STATEMENT IS A FORM OF COWARDICE. WE WILL SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID THIS THURSDAY.

ON A FINAL, PERSONAL NOTE, AS THE LEADER AND OWNER OF THE SHOW, I HAVE MADE THE DECISION THAT WE NEED TO REFRAIN FROM BROADCASTING NEW EPISODES UNTIL WE CAN ADDRESS THIS ON THURSDAY . WE WILL RETURN TO THE AIR AT 7:30 A.M. JUNE 11TH.

ROB WILLIAMS
ROB, ARNIE AND DAWN

So since thier show is broadcast out of Sacramento California, that will be 7:30 AM Pacific time this Thursday.

Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning - "the transgender controversy"

I've been following a story I first heard about on a PFLAG listserv and Facebook about the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning show that airs on KRXQ - 98.5 FM Sacramento, CA..

The hosts are dealing with what they refer to as "the transgender controversy" after a recent show.

I found some information on the GLAAD website:

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.

Read the whole action alert here on the GLAAD site:
TAKE ACTION: Demand that KRXQ Radio Hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States Apologize for Encouraging Violence Against Transgender Children

The link to the audio file was only a 17 second clip, and I was unable to find the whole show.

But I did find this June 2nd article by Michael Rowe on Huffington Post:
KRXQ Sacramento Radio Hosts Encourage Violence Against Transgender Children.

Then I went to the homepage for the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning show:

http://robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/

The show is described there as:

A five hour, listener interactive radio program that many people describe as just three regular people sitting around the breakfast table trying to make sense of the world. We prefer to think of it as three really abnormal miscreants of society who have stumbled upon this line of work and are making everybody else pay for it.

I scrolled down to this:

• Listen to Rob, Arnie & Dawn's response to the transgender controversy by clicking on the audio file links below...

and I did that.

I had to download the audio files to my computer (an option with RealPlayer) in order to listen to them because when I tried listening to them online the audio was skipping and I was missing hearing parts. But that may have been when there was a lot of traffic on the site.

Here are the audio files:

06.03.09 - The Rob & Arnie Transgender Controversy 49.09 minutes

06.03.09 - Transgender Controversy Continued 22.46 minutes

06.03.09 - The Evolution of Tolerance 6.42 minutes

06.03.09 - Haters & Supporters of Rob & Arnie 5.58 minutes

06.03.09 - Seperating Transgenders & Mental Patients 7.50 minutes

06.03.09 - More Listeners React To Transgender Controversy 9.04 minutes

06.03.09 - Listeners Still Love RAD 6.01 minutes

Wow. It's a twisted time talking about gender identity, about bullying, hate speech, hate crimes, freedom of speech and much more - from more than one side. I found it a disturbing and in an almost clinical way an interesting look at how these three particular people hashed the subject among each other, with callers to the show, and sharing emails they have received.

I was SO glad that Dawn Rossi was part of the show because she is an outspoken ally. Thank you Dawn.

Anyone else have something to say on this? Please comment here.

And if you want to respond to the folks at the show, this is from the GLAAD Alert:

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 Geary
Vice 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

Please use the share page functionality at the top of this page to alert any of your friends and others who may also wish to take action. When contacting KRXQ, please ensure that your emails and phone calls are civil and respectful and do not engage in the kind of name-calling or abusive behavior.

HIV/AIDS and Sixth Graders.

During our school-wide Projects Week last week, a coworker and I collaborated on a week-long examination of HIV/AIDS in the United States with a group of 32 sixth grade students who were assigned to us. About half of the students in the group were students whom I teach reading and writing on a daily basis – but the other half are students that I only recognize from brief interactions in the hallways.

The political insight and openness of the students in our group impressed and inspired me. By the second day, students were raising their hands and asking questions like “Wait, why aren’t people in U.S. prisons allowed to use condoms?” and “Why don’t we have needle exchanges in the U.S.?” My colleague and I gave them structured time to discuss these observations and questions as a class, and to think about what they, as youth and as students, could do to combat the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in communities of color in the United States.

Throughout the week, we discussed stigma and stereotypes, health care, access to testing and medication, and the astronomical rates of incarceration of young black and Latino men for drug-related charges. We also incorporated personal aspects of the issue – and my coworker and I even opened up with our students about our own personal connections to HIV/AIDS. A few students shared their experiences and how HIV/AIDS had affected their lives or families.

The project also - inevitably - sparked many conversations about sex and sexuality that don't tend to crop up in students’ everyday academic lives. Our focus during the week wasn't primarily sex education, but we attempted to address the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS without perpetuating a sex-negative, “this is what happens if you have sex!” fear. We wanted to avoid the too-common, morbid, depressing “AIDS = DEATH” message that students often get from the popular media and educators. Our goals included creating a space that was sex-positive and that emphasized the fact that contracting HIV/AIDS, while a very serious threat that should be actively avoided and prevented, does not necessarily end a person's social or sexual life (especially if they have access to medications and resources). That was a challenging line to walk with sixth graders, but once again our students proved themselves capable of grappling with the complexity of the issue.

We were also able to engage in class discussions about why so many celebrities and organizations are giving money to fight AIDS in foreign nations while ignoring the fact that the virus is rampant in particular communities right here in the United States. One student raised his hand during this conversation and made the point “If the people who were getting AIDS here were white, the government would care more.” (I almost wanted to ask him to teach a seminar on the issue, after he made that point.)

During the week, sex and same-sexuality came up very often. Every time the topics of sex in prisons, or the Down-Low, or men who have sex with men arose, I caught myself tensing up as though bracing for a difficult conversation. But our students proved me wrong and proved themselves more than able to listen, talk, and engage with these issues in an intellectual, nuanced and sophisticated way. The entire week, we encouraged them to take a critical lens to the materials we were examining – which included an ABC News documentary on “AIDS in Black America” from 2007 – to see if students trusted the sources or not. Then, at the end of the week, our group shared our findings and thoughts with other groups of students from around the school who visited our classroom. Overall, it was a great success and made me feel hopeful.

Since Projects Week ended, I have overheard homophobic slurs and negative uses of the word “gay” more frequently. Perhaps it is the time of year, as students get more restless and my sixth graders prepare to become seventh graders. I'm not sure. But any time I have heard a misuse or abuse of "gay" or "homo," I have addressed it with the student in question and asked him or her to find a word that more accurately describes his or her feelings. In light of this increasingly visible homophobia, I have also made a concerted effort to incorporate queer authors into my curriculum, as I believe that can give students different perpsectives on LGBTQ matters.

As part of our current poetry unit, I devoted a week to the poems of Langston Hughes and to learning about Hughes body of work, his life, and the Harlem Renaissance. Many students quickly became very attached to Hughes’ poems, finding them inspiring and moving. At the very end of the week, I told my students that one fact about Hughes that didn’t come out in the biographical text we had read about him was his romantic involvement with men. My classes were shocked, but then able to reflect on how – if at all – that new piece of information changed their interpretation and understanding of his poems, and why it had been left out of biographies about Hughes. It was another great conversation.

In hindsight, I realize I (kind of) lured them into a sort of pro-gay trap. Just don’t tell any right-wingers I said that.

Open Letter to Oprah

Dear Oprah,

First, thank you so much for your recent show that featured the mothers of 11-year old suicide victims Carl Hoover-Walker and Jaheem Herrera . You are wonderful for launching this conversation about the devastating consequences of bullying and what we can do about it.

That said, I was really disappointed that, despite both boys having found anti-gay bullying so gut-wrenching, your professional guests addressed bullying without ever talking about the URGENT importance of addressing homophobia and prejudice through EDUCATION. The best bullying programs and the best psychologists working one-on-one with bullied kids won’t put an end to anti-gay bullying. Until we’re willing to have teachers talk about gay people respectfully, kids will use homophobia as the weapon that our silence puts in their hands.

What else do I wish you would do?
1. Check out www.safeschoolscoalition.org.
2. Have someone on the show to talk about the work of the Safe Schools Coalition.
3. Invite Kim Westheimer to talk about the Human Rights Campaign's wonderful Welcoming Schools project.
4. Have Debra Chasnoff of Groundspark talk about their amazing film-based curricula.
5. Invite Stephanie Brill of Gender Spectrum to talk about her unbelievable work with schools.
6. Invite the folks from the Committee for Children, Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League to talk specifically about how their bullying programs address bias-based bullying, and anti-LGBT bullying in particular.
7. Ask principals and curriculum directors to put aside preparing children for high stakes testing just one week every year and focus for that week on prejudice reduction
~ a day about religious diversity and, at older grades, prejudice against the religious (of various faiths) and prejudice against the unchurched;
~ a day about immigration, refugees and, at older grades, about xenophobia and its costs all over the world;
~ a day about race and the history of racism and about white privilege and what it means to be an ally (actually that would be part of each of the 5 days);
~ a day about sexual diversity -- about families with lesbian, gay, bi and trans parents/guardians, about the contributions of LGBT people and, at older grades about homophobia and transphobia and the history of anti-LGBT brutality; and
~ a day about women who've changed the world and, in later grades about misogyny and violence against women and what some men and women are doing to change that.

If schools devoted just one week early in the year, every single year starting in elementary school, it could change climates dramatically. In combination with good anti-bullying programs, it could save the lives of the Carls and Jaheems, and the Gwen Araujos and Matthew Shepards too.

It is time schools worked to reduce the PREJUDICES that underly the most horrific bullying and not just the bullying (the symptom). Please take the lead on this, Oprah. Nobody has a voice like you do.

Beth Reis
Public Health Educator and Co-Chair of the Safe Schools Coalition
10501 Meridian Avenue N
Seattle, WA 98133
206-296-4970

P.S. I hope your staffers watch the blogosphere, Oprah, because I couldn't find a place on your web site to say more than 180 characters and I couldn't figure out how to do this in that much space.

Question about terminology/labels

Becky Groves of PFLAG Central Oregon posted a question on a PFLAG listserv, and I think it is interesting - and that Safe Schools Coalition folks could offer some good insight to her and each other.

Becky wrote:

I have a question from a Human Sexuality instructor in my chapter. I thought I would put it out there for some input. Here it is:

"I have become increasingly aware of an awkward feeling whenever I use the term homosexual, heterosexual, gay, Lesbian, transgender, straight, etc.
It is unavoidable in my class because these are the terms that we have to use and it seems that they have been so institutionalized as to have become acceptable by all who use them.

Are you aware, or can you ask someone who would be aware if there is some movement afoot to change our vocabulary to excise these sexually based terms?
It seems to describe someone's personhood by what is done in private is so crazy and is frankly repugnant to me. I hate labels but it seems we are stuck with them unless or until we demand change. We don't call women who have had abortions, "aborters", or people who eat meat, carnivores (except in a nutritional definition perhaps) as their primary description, then why should we define individuals by what they do sexually?"

I know a lot of young people are refusing to label themselves. What do you think about this? What kind of terminology is being used by those that don't want "labels"? Are there any thoughts from National about a change in these labels that we all use?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts on this.

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Please post your replies here on the Safe Schools Coalition blog.

If you are unable to post responses here for some reason, please send them to me by using this contact form and let me know what is okay to post (i.e. your message? name? contact information?).

Thank you,
Gabi