Syndicated radio hosts Lex and Terry say they will make a formal apology and have promised to work with GLAAD and transgender advocates to address the issue of anti-trans violence on the air, following an anti-transgender incident that occurred on their program earlier this week.
On Monday, Lex and Terry had a discussion of a story that involved a Florida teenager accused of shooting a transgender woman. (Many of the media reports of this story have been bad, misgendering the victim and failing to provide proper context.) and the following exchange took place -
(audio courtesy of Cristan Williams via transadvocate.com)
The Lex and Terry show began discussing this issue saying, There’s a teen that shot a tranny after finding out that it was a man after they had a little sexual encounter. A co-host responded, I don’t blame him. I would have shot his ass too.
Cristan spoke with an executive at SiriusXM, the XM side of which carried the show nationwide as part of a pre-programmed channel. SiriusXM made it clear that it does not support the comments of the Lex and Terry show and has taken steps, via an official statement to distance SiriusXM from the show. Comments by listeners on twitter indicate that the show has been removed from the channel.
We thank SiriusXM for its swift and decisive action on this matter. Clear Channel, which carries the show on its IHeartRadio network (and the show is produced at a Clear Channel station in Dallas) has yet to make a public statement about these comments, and they must do so. A petition asking Clear Channel to stand up for the transgender community and denounce the comments made on the air by Lex and Terry can be found here.
On Friday, GLAAD spoke with an agent for the show, who said that the hosts now understood the severity of the incident and the harm that statements like this can (and do) cause, and that a formal apology from the hosts would be forthcoming. Lex and Terry will also work with GLAAD and members of the transgender advocacy community on a way to meaningfully address the issue of anti-transgender violence on the air. We do not yet know the contents of the apology.
We will provide updates as more information becomes available, and we sincerely thank all of you who alerted us to this through our incident report page.