May 21, 2010, by
Bo Shell, art director at Atlanta gay publication Georgia Voice, this week in his blog expressed concern about a Rock 100.5 Regular Guys contest in which the loser has to "kiss a dude," calling it "nonchalant homophobia."
Co-hosts Larry Wachs and "Southside" Steve Richman each are challenged to lose body fat. The one who sheds the most fat gets $2,000 from the other guy. The presumed loser has to kiss an unspecified guy for 10 seconds on the lips.
Here is the Web site explaining the challenge.
On Wednesday, they even tried to entice Bert Weiss from sister station Q100 to be the person the loser has to kiss. Weiss demurred, even with the incredible enticement that I might write about it. (That's true. I certainly would have.)
Shell’s’ argument:
This kind of homophobia, which is likely a well-intentioned oops-homophobia, is a particularly big deal because of how public and nonchalant it seems to be. It's easy to offend by saying "we hate gays," but this more subtle "doing gay stuff is nasty" slips by the radar as less jarring but is equally inappropriate.
Shell recommends they do something more painful – like waxing.
Wachs responded on air this morning: “We’re exploring homophobia our own way. You come to your own decision as listeners. Maybe you like gay people after listening to us. Maybe not. Who cares?”
His boss Rob Roberts declined to say anything about the situation except the challenge won't change.
Shell, in an interview today, said he didn’t expect The Regular Guys to do anything. He wasn’t making it a cause. He just wanted to explore his own feelings based on what they’re doing and his own standards for guys. “I don’t think knew what they were doing was harmful or offensive,” he said.
The Regular Guys have been accused of homophobia before, even making the cover of Southern Voice several years ago when they were on 96rock. But their show hasn’t faced such accusations in awhile.
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