GLAAD’s call to action over tabloid’s “evil lesbian” headline
An American gay rights group has urged people to complain to the tabloid newspaper New York Post after staff refused to alter a offensive headline.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which monitors US media, contacted the paper to complain about its treatment of a child abuse story.
“Evil Lesbian Mom Left Toddler to Die Slow Death: DA,” was the Post headline, which can still be viewed on their website.
“The Post’s decision to describe the subject of this article using the phrase ‘evil lesbian,’ when it clearly would not highlight the orientation of a heterosexual suspect, is the latest incident in the paper’s long, documented history of anti-gay slurs,” GLAAD said in a statement on their website.
“In addition, the story used the gratuitous and sensationalistic term ‘lesbian lovers.'”
“The Post does it again,” said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programmes.
“Yet another inflammatory irresponsible headline designed to defame an entire community rather than inform the story.”
GLAAD says it contacted editors at the New York Post but they refused to change the offensive headline on its website.
The organisation is encouraging people to contact the paper and demand changes.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned title has long been hostile to the sensibilites of the LGBT community.
In October 2007 the Post contained a Page Six item about an upcoming dating show on Fox Reality Channel (also owned by News Corporation) called There’s Something About Miriam.
The item referred to Miriam, a transgender woman from Mexico, using the slur “she-male.”
The Post has also been heavily criticised for using the term “toe tapper” (a reference to the alleged bathroom activities of Senator Larry Craig) as a demeaning way to describe gay men.
The tabloid paper has made a point of inflaming gay opinion, publishing cartoons showing gay men getting married to sheep.
