Message from:
Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020
John Myers, Director of Operations and Programs
Email to:SARATOGANY@aol.com
The Real or Perceived Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Student Protection Project

CSS-NYS Note:This radio talk show host should be considered a child abuser......John Myers

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Des Moines Register, April 20, 2003
Box 957, Des Moines, Ia., 50304
(Fax:515-284-8560 ) (E-Mail:letters@news.dmreg.com )
( http://desmoinesregister.com )
http://www.dmregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/21034936.html

Basu:When talk radio incites

By Rekha Basu, Register Columnist

Much of what passes for discourse on talk radio isn't worth dignifying with a response. Wild assertions are offered without supporting facts. Trivial things are generalized and distorted out of all proportion to score political points. Bluster and ridicule are turned on efforts for justice and equality, and scapegoats are made of easy targets.

There's a simplistic if paranoid formulation behind these rants: Government and taxes are bad. America needs to be rescued from the clutches of the politically correct. The country lacks morals and discipline. The world is going to hell in a hand basket.

But in the past few weeks, a Des Moines talk-radio host has crossed the line between idle raving and inciting. He's used the power of his control room to pick on teenagers. And it's gone beyond ignorant and offensive to downright creepy.

What provoked WHO radio's Jan Mickelson into his weeklong rampage was a national Day of Silence that members of Roosevelt High School's Straight and Gay Alliance were taking part in April 9. SAGA is one of 52 student-led extracurricular clubs (Bible Studies is another). It supports gay and lesbian students and has some members who are neither.

The event was in solidarity with victims of intolerance. Remember Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student who was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die?

When the news reached Mickelson, the darling of local conservative talk radio - a man who can't seem to let a mention of gay folks go without grabbing his mike and his soapbox - it was manna raining down from heaven.

For starters, he referred to SAGA as "the sodomy club" so often that, according to Al Foote, the counselor who is club sponsor, some listeners thought that was its actual name. He made the false claim that its activities were on school time with taxpayer money and involved all students. He concluded the school was pushing sexual activity and homosexuality on the kids.

"You've got activists now in control of the Des Moines school system and . . . they are defining the rules," he railed. "They didn't ask your permission, they're just doing it. And, then if you say no you don't like it, they call you a bigot."

Complaining that society cares too much about gay people's feelings, Mickelson said such concern is unwarranted "if you are a pervert and want to spin a sexual agenda at our expense." But then he suggested being gay is a myth. "It's junk science that says they are, and tells them to define themselves on the basis of their inclinations."

Mickelson even tried to link the SAGA event to falling test scores.

He graphically described to one student caller how he envisoned a sex act between two men. Foote says, "I thought it was totally out of line to be talking like that to a high-school student."

And the radio host exhorted listeners not to stand for any of it.

Roosevelt's phones lit up with hundreds of calls from outraged listeners, some so offensive that Principal Anita Micich had to replace student phone clerks. She had adult campus monitors ready in case of trouble. Repeatedly, she explained the school isn't pushing anything on anybody, and whatever your view of homosexuality, it's wrong that people are being discriminated against.

Foote says he also fielded calls after Mickelson or someone on the show accused him of "promoting my gay agenda with taxpayer money." One caller said, "Shame on you," and told Foote he was praying for him. For the record, Foote has been married 26 years and has three sons, and the event was student-planned.

Studies suggest gay students are two to three times as likely to attempt suicide as straight students. So schools have an obligation to help them find strength and support. "They're concerned about these issues," said Micich of SAGA members. "They did none of this with any malice toward anybody." And she's proud of them.

For all the grief and disruption Mickelson caused, maybe he did SAGA a favor. He put a face on the hatred they were trying expose:his face.

Mailing Address
WHO Radio
1801 Grand Ave
Des Moines, IA 50309

Phone Numbers
Main:(515) 242-3500
Studio:(515) 284-1040 / (800) 469-4295
Fax:(515) 242-3798

General Manager:Joel McCrea
JoelMccrea@ClearChannel.com

Program Director:Van Harden
VanHarden@ClearChannel.com

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John Myers
Director of Operations and Programs
(518) 587-0176

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