Thursday, June 06, 2013

Oh Hell No Sirius XM!

If you want to know why we have unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence disproportionately affecting POC trans people, one of the root causes is the unchecked hate speech aimed against trans folks.

Whether the anti-trans commentary is regurgitated on the Net, in the news media or the blogosphere, as I've said before and I'm paraphrasing here, trans hate thoughts lead to trans hate speech which equals to trans hate violence and the deaths of trans people . 

And the watchdog organization that's supposed to call it out is cricket chirping silent about it.

Another example of hate speech running amok in the media ironically occurred on an outlet founded by a transwoman.   SiriusXM was founded by Martine Rothblatt back in the 90's and hosts on its many channels various talk shows from across the nation. 

On one of them, during the June 3 broadcast of the Lex and Terry show they discussed the April Tampa incident in which transwoman Coco McDonald was lured to an abandoned house, robbed and shot twice by a perpetrator who was later arrested.

Lex and Terry not only condoned the crime, but one of them said they would have done the same thing themselves. 

Gee, nice to know you wastes of DNA condone the murder of other human beings.



Cristan Williams and Cheryl Courtney-Evans are some of the bloggers who have spoken out against this hate speech being broadcast on the air.  Cheryl had this to say about it in her Abitchforjustice post:

Surely this type of behavior and goading the public is just as inflammatory as Don Imus' "nappy-headed hoes", and deserves repercussion, apologies and/or firing(s)! Are not WE as human as the Rutgers University's female basketball team? Are not our persons as at risk when made to be viewed a certain way to the general public (that may hold individuals of low intelligence who might take this type of talk to heart and act on it)? I believe this type of speech borders on the criminal, in that it can incite violence on transgender individuals...

To me it's even more insulting that this happened on a network that was founded by a transwoman and I cosign what my trans sister Cheryl said.  It's also galling to note that this broadcast happened days after a Los Angeles transwoman was brutally beaten and left for dead as the transphobia runs amok in Bossip's comment threads.

But back to focusing on Sirius XM and this Oh Hell No moment.   Lex and Terry need to be suspended or fired for advocating violence against transwomen that as the lengthening TDOR name lists tell us, far too many people are willing to carry out.

TransGriot Update:  A Change.org petition has already gotten started with the goal of getting 500 signatures to demand that Clear Channel apologize for Lex and Terry's transphobic antics. 


SiriusXM has already apologized for it.  They issued the following statement regarding this issue and Clear Channels responsibility for programming the Lex and Terry show.


We apologize for this programming and don’t in any way condone it. The Extreme Talk channel and the Lex and Terry show are programming providing to us by Clear Channel. The channel and all the shows on it are under the control of Clear Channel. We are required to carry the channel based on pre-existing agreement with Clear Channel. We have made Clear Channel aware of this issue and the complaints from listeners.

Patrick Reilly
Senior Vice President, Communications

TransGriot Update: The Lex and Terry show has been dropped by Clear Channel from the SiriusXM Extreme Talk channel..  Lex and Terry according to GLAAD are apologizing for the jacked up comment.

1 comment:

scarlet_filth said...

I'm sorry..but their reply is bullshit. Let them say something about killing a POC and see if you get the same response from sirius.

Let them make a comment about the holocaust (which by the way killed trans* folk as well) and see if the response is the same from sirius.

Let them make a comment about Mathew Shepard deserving his terrible fate and see what happens. I am so fucking sickened by this.