Update: Amazon.com Removes Anti-Gay Calendar After Community Speaks Out
Following outreach by GLAAD and the gay community, a highly offensive and anti-LGBT calendar by cartoonist Joe King titled "I'm Not Gay, I'm Just a Sissy: 12 Months of Sexual Confusion," is no longer for sale on Barnes and Noble's website. A spokesperson for the company confirmed it was never sold in stores. GLAAD is calling on Amazon.com to do the same and stand up for its LGBT customers by pulling the anti-LGBT calendar from its website immediately.
King's cartoons employ outdated and highly-offensive stereotypes about LGBT people, and more specifically, gay men and transgender women. According to Daily Kos, King has responded to this controversy on his Facebook page – with the use of even more dehumanizing and insulting comments against the transgender community, the gay community, and people living with HIV/AIDS:
"Hoo-we! Hell hath no fury like a he/she scorned... The telephone tree of tantrums is lit up like a Las Vegas marquee for "Boy-Lesque" today with hate mail, threats of boycott and even the risk of Jesus spitting on me for my "Sissy" calendar. I SAID I WAS A SISSY UP FRONT. Ironic who the real bullies are isn't it? Let's see if I get a call from Oprah's people or even Anderson Cooper..."
But King didn't end there.
The "truth" is that AIDS is an "elective" disease. It STOPS the day guys quit sticking it to each other. And for the tragedy of women and children infected... THAT stops the day their gay husbands and fathers stop cheating on them. Anyone need MORE education, science or funding to understand THAT?
“This calendar has no business being sold and supported by reputable retailers,” said Herndon Graddick, Senior Director of Programs and Communications at GLAAD. “King has a right to his opinions, however anti-gay or anti-transgender they may be, but retailers also have the right to decide that they don’t want to support hateful and dehumanizing content like this.”
