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Matt McCoy
State Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, told The Des Moines Register Wednesday that he is planning to organize a boycott of any businesses who purchase advertising on Jan Mickelson‘s WHO-AM radio program in response to remarks he made regarding homosexuality and AIDS.
As first reported by The Iowa Independent, Mickelson said on the air that AIDS discriminates against people who engage in “stupid behavior,” and since homosexuality is a “sexual disorder” that violates natural law, it “isn’t rocket science” to conclude AIDS discriminates against homosexuals. The statement drew immediate outrage from LGBT-rights organizations One Iowa and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), who demanded WHO-AM’s parent company — Clear Channel Communications Inc. — rebuke the host.
In a statement read shortly before Mickelson’s program began last week, Clear Channel did just that, saying Mickelson’s statements “confused strong opinion with medical fact, and contained factual errors regarding HIV/AIDS, it’s spread and current efforts to inform the public about this disease.”
McCoy, who is openly gay, told The Register he plans to launch a website to encourage boycotts of other businesses that sponsor Mickelson or other programs that speak inaccurately or unfairly about gay and lesbians.
From The Register:
His first target: Toyota of Des Moines even though he drives a vehicle purchased from the dealership.
“It’s the last one I’m ever going to own, that’s for sure,” said Sen. Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines.
…
“I think Toyota of Des Moines is a perfectly fine dealership,” [McCoy] said. “I just think they shouldn’t have a chief bigot as their spokesperson.”
WHO-AM’s marketing manager said the station has not had any advertisers withdraw from Mickelson yet, and a manager at Toyota of Des Moines said he has no plans to pull the company’s ads.
This is not McCoy’s first run in with WHO-AM. In May 2009, another of the station’s hosts, Steve Deace, and his pastor concluded that because McCoy was gay he couldn’t call himself a Christian. McCoy, who is an active member of Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines, said Deace’s remarks “crossed the line of decency.”
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