As you may have heard on the show we’ve been discussing that radio show at the Sacramento California radio station whose hosts have been suspended after saying things like: "transgender people are freaks, they are abnormal. They have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them.
One host said if his son ever put on high heels he would hit him with those same shoes.
This story has bothered me much more than most we discuss, because this one is so filled with words of hate towards the very notion of being queer. In fact it’s bothered me so much, I even woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it, the story triggered words that still echo in my own mind to this day. They’re words my father told me, and even though he passed on almost decades ago I can still hear the sound of his voice saying, "You’re nothing but a pansy." when I was about fifteen or sixteen. To that remark I know I came back with some smart-ass teenage retort I was famous for, and he repeated what he said, just more slowly with more disgust dripping from them: "You’re nothing but a pansy."
Break it down:
"You’re nothing."
"You’re nothing."
"You are nothing."
Isn’t it funny that I can, in my mind, still hear those very words, even though 25 years have gone by?
I share this because I know there are a lot of straight people who listen to the show and read this blog. I know there are a lot of parents who listen to PROUD FM because their young kids are identifying as queer, or the parent at least suspect as much. I also know there are plenty of people listening and reading who have people in their lives like those Sacramento radio hosts, who would probably sooner beat their kids with shoes or words rather than deal with the wonder of the fact their kid is queer and discover glory in that.
If this is you or someone you know, consider long and hard if ever the time comes when it appears your kid is gay, as I obviously did to my father. Choose your words and your actions carefully. Try saying: I love you and let that be the only words you say and action you take.
And sure beats anything less still echoing in your kids mind twenty five years after they were said, when he finds himself all grown up and on the radio, reporting on the horrible words still being said of a kid simply because they’re queer.
You can hear “A Word On …” live daily at 4:10 pm on The Shaun Proulx Show, 103.9 PROUD FM.
great stuff.