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"Hateful words and generalizations about sexual orientation and gender identity have a direct impact on people's lives," says a message from Fox Pride.
From left: Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin
A Fox Corp. LGBTQ+ employee group has condemned the homophobic and transphobic rhetoric coming from the Fox News Channel.
"Fox Pride denounces statements made regarding sexual orientation and gender identity on FOX News in the past week," reads a message posted April 5 to the group's company-wide Slack channel. "While the internal support and resources Fox Corp. offers to LGBTQ+ employees are amazing and supportive, the public facing messaging and rhetoric is the opposite. We find it disheartening and a step backward in the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community."
Fox Corp. is the parent company of Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox TV, Fox Entertainment, and other Fox brands. The message was first reported by FTV Live, a website covering TV news. Its story is behind a paywall, but the Daily Beast has coverage as well.
The conservative Fox News Channel features a variety of hosts, contributors, and guests who regularly spout anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, such as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, and more. Recently, Fox News talkers have been defending Florida's "don't say gay" law and spreading the lie that those who oppose the law are pedophiles who want to groom children for abuse. This past weekend, Levin hosted playwright David Mamet, who claimed teachers are "inclined ... to pedophilia." Levin did not challenge him or ask for documentation.
The channel has also condemned the Walt Disney Co. for its opposition to the Florida law and has often featured hateful comments about transgender female athletes. And just this week, it has used a New Jersey proposal for LGBTQ-inclusive education to claim that children are being sexualized and subjected to "psychological torture," even though the proposal it cites hasn't been implemented, Media Matters reports.
"FOX News is one of the most watched cable networks in the nation and we must be mindful that the impact these words have on the LGBTQ+ community -- especially youth," the Slack message continues. "LGBTQ+ youth have the highest rate of suicide and words matter. Hateful words and generalizations about sexual orientation and gender identity have a direct impact on people's lives. We are working to address and make sure our voices are heard."
The Slack message came in response to the Human Rights Campaign's removal of the parent company from its list of top employers for LGBTQ+ people. It no longer has a score of 100 on HRC's Corporate Equality Index. "Fox News has a history of sharing misinformation and disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community," HRC Senior Press Secretary Aryn Fields said in an April 1 statement. "We know from our own research, which we put out earlier this week, what their disinformation and misinformation means for the LGBTQ+ community: perpetuating stigma and marginalization of transgender and non-binary people. At a time when transgender people -- especially transgender children -- are under attack in statehouses across the country, rhetoric has real consequences."
"We can no longer allow Fox Corporation to maintain its score if Fox News personalities and contributors continue to deny the existence of transgender people, minimize the violence transgender individuals face, refer to parents of LGBTQ+ youth as perverts, or equate leaders of LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusions efforts with sex offenders," Fields continued. "Each of these actions happened in the last 72 hours. Enough is enough."
Reached for comment on the Slack message, a Fox Corp. spokesperson wrote, "We are fully committed to freedom of speech and freedom of the press because we know these precious rights as well as diversity of thought and opinion benefit us all," the Beast reports. A Fox News spokesperson offered the same statement.
A source described by the Beast as a "Fox insider" said employees are "outraged" at the on-air rhetoric. "The thing is, internally, the company values diversity," the source said. "They invest in it and foster it from a management perspective. The on-air Fox News product, however, spits in the face of it. The employees are getting sick of it."
