Audio Snapshots
Audio Snapshots are a series of non-narrated radio features extracted from recorded interviews conducted for the three-part radio series. These six vignettes, some in a Q & A format, illustrate the complicated issues of homophobia, heterosexism, in-school bullying, religious oppression, and the various forms of antigay violence LGBT people face. These features serve as windows into the lives of sexual minorities and their allies who are impacted by hate, prejudice, and discrimination. Experts who study these social mechanisms, behaviors, and beliefs offer deeper insights into how they work to fuel antigay bias.
Snapshot I | The Other Side of the Door
As David Hewitt walked through broken glass and stepped around large pools of blood, he kept wondering what would have happened if he had ignored the loud thud he heard coming from his upstairs neighbor’s apartment. David’s friend, Joe Grissom, was now lying in a hospital with facial lacerations and multiple skull and eye socket fractures, the victim of an antigay attack. David and Joe talk about how a night that was meant to be fun almost ended up being deadly. Interview Script
Snapshot II | In the Chapel
The religious right is waging an all-out war against homosexuality. Many faiths are now using religious-exemption arguments in an attempt to write antigay discrimination into law under the guise that their religious freedoms are being persecuted. Rich McCarty, a gay ordained Protestant minister and expert on sexual virtue and the Bible, walks us through an empty Catholic Chapel where he challenges the doctrines and teachings of those religions that condemn and discriminate against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people. Interview Script
Snapshot III | No Homo Promo
LGBT-identified students were being erased from hallways and classrooms in the Anoka-Hennepin District of Minnesota. That’s what the long-standing No Homo Promo policy was designed to do. Called a “Gag Policy” by some teachers and staff, the policy became a permission slip for antigay bullying and harassment that sent a clear message: "Gay kids should not be seen or heard." And the policy worked. LGBT students began committing suicide. When “out” teacher Jefferson Fietek was hired on at the Anoka Middle School for the Arts, his full-time job as a theater arts teacher also included trying to keep school kids alive. Interview Script
Snapshot IV | Aftermath
The murder of Matthew Shepard brought with it a media storm that drew the rest of the nation to the small isolated town of Laramie, Wyoming. While many hate crimes against LGBT people occurred that same year, Matthew’s murder resonated with people in a unique way. Beth Loffreda, author of Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Antigay Murder, discusses why she thinks that nation stood up and took notice. Interview Script
Snapshot V | A Few Words On Homophobia
In 1965, Dr. George Weinberg coined the term homophobia, the irrational fear, disgust and revulsion of gay people and homosexuality. But in 2012, the Associated Press decided to bar the term in its reportage, saying it wasn’t “accurate” enough. But antigay attitudes cannot be justified as a set of beliefs and values when they are used to attack and discriminate against LGBT people. Dr. Weinberg stands in defense of keeping the word around. Interview Script
Snapshot VI | Privilege Blindness
Mass shootings, the rape of women, and the gay-bashing and murder of LGBT people are all violent acts perpetrated mostly by men. Aggression and violence are seen, socially, as part of the blueprints for masculinity. But are biology and testosterone responsible for this violence? And how do the hierarchies of privilege work: White privilege, heterosexual privilege, and male privilege? Is there a connection to these social power struggles that lead to violence when we afford some groups less power than others? Harry Brod, professor of philosophy and humanities at the University of Northern Iowa, evaluates male violence, gender constructions, and privilege, and how they work together to oppress minorities. Interview Script
Music Credits for Audio Snapshots