December 15, 2006 — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Worcester, Mass. – With the passage of gender-neutral housing policy at Clark University last week, the National Student Genderblind Campaign (NSGC) and www.genderblind.org have received widespread print, TV, and radio coverage. In the heightened discussion of this new student movement that is now growing with rapid momentum, the National Student Genderblind Campaign is formally denouncing the blatantly sexist, heterosexist, and misinformed commentary of FOX News affiliate FOX25.

On the morning news program on Tuesday, December 12th, FOX25 News based in Boston, which serves the New England region, aired a daily segment called “Let it Rip” that featured gender-neutral housing. The segment as cited on Fox’s website says, “Every weekday morning the FOX25 Morning News crew holds forth on the important issues of the day in the always thought-provoking and frequently outrageous ‘Let It Rip.’” The anchors on the show are Emmy-Award winning reporter, Kim Carrigan and Gene Lavancy. The commentator’s name is Doug V.B. Goudie.

The segment was completely negligent in understanding the nature of gender-neutral housing, despite a previous report by the same network a few days earlier. The anchors and commentator went on insulting and offending a slew of people including women and the GLBTIQ community. Excerpts:

 

Goudie: This is a bad idea of the first order…and I went to Hamilton where we had coed bathrooms which by the way weren’t so groovy either for the ladies. Why not up the ante? Oh hey Gene, I’m Stacey, I’ll be your roommate, I’ll put up some lilac curtains and I have some potpourri over here…are you kidding me? Life’s tough enough once you get into the real world.

Lavancy: What does she (Stacey) look like?
Goudie: Harvard… she’s smart…so how good can she look?

Carrigan: Married men, we’re going [to] assume married men get something out of else besides living with a wife… besides being roommates, okay…and that’s tough enough for a poor married guy, isn’t it…you’re getting a fringe benefit and it’s tough enough to live with her, isn’t it. Why would you live with her if you were not getting that fringe benefit.

By next Monday, NGSC will issue a statement to FOX25. The NSGC is working with other organizations to admonish the network for such egregious, socially irresponsible coverage. We hope that our calls will make FOX cognizant of their offensive, ignorant, and misguided journalistically compromised segment.

As news media such as the Worcester Telegram, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Herald, the New England Bay> Windows, and many others begin to discuss the issue of gender-neutral rooming options in a balanced, fair, and just manner, the National Student Genderblind Campaign kindly requests that media inquires now be directed to media@genderblind.org. Thank you for your interest, involvement, concern, and continued cooperation.

Further, the NSGC is proud to announce that Brittney Hoffman, Youth Program Coordinator of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, will debate the issue of gender-neutral rooming as a proponent of such policy this Saturday (December 16) live on national television. Please tune in to FOX News, Saturday, at 8 PM Eastern as this necessary discussion continues across the country.

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