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 A radio DJ at Brisbane’s Nova 106.9 FM has launched a scathing attack on local trans activist Robyn Whittaker and members of the LGBT community ‘lacking in humour’.
The attack by breakfast radio host Meshel Laurie (pictured) comes after Whittaker complained about three 'transphobic' segments on the station.
On Monday, October 26, Nova announcer Brendan ‘Whippy’ Dangar poked fun at pop star Lady Gaga for not being “real”, stating “actually, she’s a dude”. Whittaker complained to the station, saying it insinuated that “to be gender variant somehow makes you not a real person, not valid or worthy of respect”.
On Tuesday, November 3 during the ‘Meshel, Ash & Tim’ breakfast show – hosted by Laurie, Ash Bradnam and Tim Blackwell – Brisbane Broncos NRL player Ben Te'o joked about two “trannies” he had met in a US bar. Te'o, who said he paid the “trannies” six dollars to make them go away, told of “saving the life” of a man who almost went home with the women without knowing they were “blokes”. “I had to warn the guy – he would have ruined his life,” said Te'o, in a segment that went on in a similar vein for almost five minutes.
Then on Monday, November 9, Nova announcer 'Lehmo' joked about son of music icon Cher, Chaz Bono. Bono, a female-to-male transsexual, was only undergoing a sex change as an excuse to wear polo shirts, he claimed, to raucous laughter from other presenters.
In a letter to the station, Whittaker said the “damaging and disrespectful” jibes would not be tolerated if directed at other minorities.
However, in an email response to Queensland Pride about Whittaker’s complaints, Laurie said she had many transsexual friends and attacked Whittaker as ‘humourless’.
“For the record, I worked as a receptionist in a transsexual brothel in Port Melbourne for four years in the late nineties and retain many friends from that time,” Laurie told Queensland Pride.
“I, like them, am pretty thick-skinned about these things and try not to buy into reactionary diatribes like that of Msssssss (sic) Whittaker,” she wrote.
“The sector of the LGBT community with which I’m happily associated is the sector with a sense of humour, thus Mssssssss (sic) Whittaker and I shan’t be friends.”
Laurie, who compered this year’s Big Gay Day Summer Street Party at the Wickham Hotel, added: “I really hope to be involved in more Big Gay Days too.”
Maree Brown, manager of the Wickham, refused to respond to Queensland Pride when asked if Laurie would be invited to host future events at the venue.
But Sean Ryan, General Manager of Nova FM Brisbane, distanced the station from Laurie’s comments, and the trans jokes on air.
“We don’t condone those comments,” Ryan told Queensland Pride. “That’s not who we are. The comments were inappropriate and the staff involved have been spoken to.”
Ryan went on to claim that Nova had “always been supportive of the gay and lesbian community” and said the station had lesbian producers, and that an openly-gay man had his own show on Nova, called Camp As Tits.
Ryan said he had also issued a written apology to Whittaker over the on-air trans jokes – a claim rejected by Whittaker.
“I haven’t received any apology at all,” she said.
Whittaker added that any meaningful apology would be made on air and posted on the Nova website.
Responding to Laurie’s attack, meanwhile, she said: “As a transgender, I have the right to stand up for who I am and react against a five minute on-air vilification attack, regardless of how much Meshel [thinks] that having transgender friends or working in a brothel affords her the right to denigrate my kind.”
She added: “No sleep has been lost over the lack of a false friendship with the likes of Meshel and her Nova team, she can be well assured of that. And let me also assure her that I have a very good sense of humour ... shock jock cheap shots aimed squarely at a minority to destroy their self esteem and garner negative feeling ... is thankfully not my idea of comedy.”
Queensland Pride is seeking comment from Brisbane Broncos management on Te'o's involvement in the matter.
An online petition aiming to ‘Stop GLBTQ discrimination on Nova 106.9 FM’ has been started here.
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