Conservative radio talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger told CNN’s Larry King on Tuesday that she’s not going to not renew her contract at the end of the year because she wants to “regain my First Amendment rights.” She is expected to continue her show on the Internet or may go to satellite, as did Howard Stern.
This time Schlessinger, 63, became the center of controversy after she used the N-word 11 times on-air in talking to an African American caller about how she doesn’t understand why rappers can use the word while others can’t. Media Matters has the audio of the rant and a transcript.
Schlessinger, who’s been in radio for 30 years told King: ”I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry or some special-interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent.”
Schlessinger later apologized: ”I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the N-word all the way out — more than one time. And that was wrong. I’ll say it again — that was wrong.”
But while regretful, she says her freedom of speech rights “have been usurped by angry, hateful groups who don’t want to debate — they want to eliminate…..”I decided it was time to move on to other venues where I could say my piece and not have to live in fear anymore….I’m not retiring. I’m not quitting. I feel energized actually, stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country.”
Schlessinger – whose PHd is in physiology, not psychiatry – has long been a target of LGBTs. Los Angeles activist Robin Tyler teamed up with blogger John Aravois and three others in March 1, 2000 to launch StopDrLaura.com to successfully force Paramount Television to cancel Schlessinger’s much ballyhooed TV talk show. Schlessinger repeatedly and unapologetically called gays and lesbians “biological errors” and deviant with such pronouncements as: “How many letters have I read on the air from gay men who acknowledge that a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys?”
Schlessinger later tried unsuccessfully to appease gays – though she subsequently became friends with open lesbian talk show host Tammy Bruce and wrote an introduction to one of Bruce’s books.
Read More →
Right wing-leaning lesbian radio talk show host Tammy Bruce drew about 40 people to a private “Don’t Tread on Us” reception hosted by the gay Republican group GOProud at the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel in San Diego Saturday. (Pictured: Jimmy LaSalvia, Jessica Lee, Tammy Bruce, Christopher Barron. Photo by Rex Wockner)) About 20 mostly LGBT people protested the event outside. The Manchester Grand Hyatt has been under an LGBT/union boycott since July 2008. 
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a long relationship with the LGBT community – thanks in part to his activist cousin John A. Perez, who in March became the nation’s first 
I confess, my jaw dropped when I read that GetEqual’s Robin McGehee was making $89,000 as co-director of the new activism group, GetEqual. After all, I work in the LGBT press for enough money for food, rent and to take care of my two dogs.
Scores of political luminaries were among the approximately 400 people who attended the celebration of life for longtime 
I was among the lucky LGBT reporters who worked with the Sirius/XM Out Q news team of Tim Curran and Aaron McQuade to put together their Year in Review specials. My assignment was Prop 8 and in case some of you missed the special, I decided to post the script. I think the interview with EQCA executive director Geoff Kors was illuminating, for instance, in how he suggested that the upcoming Harvey Milk Day in California schools will help take away one of the Religious Right wing’s key arguments against marriage equality. And Shannon Minter calling Ted Olson and David Boies ” a Dream Team beyond description” indicates that the LGBT community is becoming more unified in their support of the federal challenge to Prop 8 that goes to trial next week. Please click inside to read the script. 
OK – political break over. Robin Tyler offers a counter-point to the POV provided below by Jeanne Cordova. Robin says: “Probably the most debilitating LGBT response to the Maine defeat is a fatalistic “straight people hate us, we should settle for less than legal equality.” This is the essence of Jeanne Cordova’s post.” Click inside for more.
Openly gay Los Angeles Police Commission Rob Saltzman was among about 150 people of all ages who rallied at the Metro station at Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Ave Wednesday night marking the one year anniversary of the passage of Prop 8. Several also carried signs criticizing Maine for banning their marriage equality law from going into effect.
And so we end the Prop 8 anniversary series where we began – with love and marriage. From her honeymoon with her wife Diane Olson in Hawaii, Robin Tyler shares what this long experience and struggle has meant to her. After reading her comments, look at the photos of their re-committment ceremony – with Rabbi Denise Eger, Rev. Troy Perry, Matt, Sara and Chris from Equal Roots, attorney Gloria Allred and a number of other LGBT marriage activists who are in this movement for equality for the long haul. Click inside to read Robin’s story. 
Subscribe to RSS
