Letters

Listener's Respond to Homophobic Bet

These two e-mails were sent in response to a homophobic Super Bowl bet made on KJR in Seattle.

To Rich Moore
Program Director, KJR AM 950

As a gay man who loves sports and listens to your station, I am offended by your announcer's gay baiting. 

This bet traffics in the wrong-headed notion that gay men are falling all over themselves for [heterosexual] men. And that any het man can walk in to a gay bar, turn our pathetic little heads, and walk out of there with our phone numbers. 

Look, I'm no more interested in a heterosexual male than I am interested in a woman. Call me well adjusted. It's not going to happen. Why would any gay man pursue a het man (pointless) when he can pursue a gay man and get exactly what he wants? Get a fucking clue: gay men have no interest in straight men, especially when surrounded by other gay men. 

There is nothing 'tortuous' about going to a bar - gay or straight. I've been to both. I've watched Seahawk games, Mariner games and Sonics games in both gay and straight bars. My straight friends have been to gay bars with me and, surprise surprise, no one hit up on them. Or gave them their phone number. Or groped them. Or took a single indecent liberty. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

And given the girth of your broadcasters--fat asses are antithetical to gay culture--the idea that they would be viewed as anything other than a pathetic, lard-butted homophobe is laughable. ''Get a clue. You wouldn't act fearful of walking in to a 'black' bar, or a 'Vietnamese' bar, or 'Mexican' bar. So why the insane homophobia about going in to a gay bar? 

Do you have any idea what city you live in? Seattle is one of the great cities in the US for gays and lesbians.''

Sincerely,
John Kerr

Sirs:

 In this age of the Internet and instantaneous worldwide communication mistakes get amplified. This one, I think, is going to get to screeching pretty quickly. 

Gay baiting is the last bastion of the bigot. You don't get to make fun of blacks, women or other minorities on your show, and if your show is anything like the rest of cookie cutter sports programming around the country, making fun and humiliation are all you've got going for you. So you make fun of the last group you get to, gay men. 

Perhaps if you actually had something interesting to say about sports, you wouldn't need to humiliate each other on the air. Instead, rather than discussing the upcoming Super Bowl (admittedly a bland edition of a bland franchise) you're spending your time finding new ways to humiliate each other and your listeners.

Jonathan Bell