From: [email-masked] (Rex Wockner)
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 1994 02:55:35 -0700 (PDT)

GAYS PICKET TALK-SHOW HOST WHO SUED PRIDE PARADE

by Rex Wockner

(Story filed July 23, 1994)

SAN DIEGO -- About 40 gays and lesbians picketed the Catamaran
Hotel in Mission Beach last Wednesday while radio station KSDO
hosted a reception inside for advertisers.
	The station is home to anti-gay talk-show host and former
San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock, who led the recent failed effort
by homophobes to sue their way into the gay-pride parade.
	The protesters carried signs denouncing Hedgecock and urging
advertisers to boycott his show.
	Many people who passed in cars honked their horns and yelled
encouragement to the picketers. Two motorists shouted anti-gay
slurs.
	Inside, Hedgecock told [INSERT NAME OF THIS NEWSPAPER], "I
think they have every right to protest and every right to speak
their piece, and I wish they would give me and others the same
rights in the gay and lesbian pride parade, but at least I think
over the last week we now know who's really tolerant and who's
intolerant."
	KSDO staff refused to let a [INSERT NAME OF THIS NEWSPAPER]
reporter enter the reception to interview Hedgecock but the
reporter later slipped in an unguarded side door. Hedgecock did
not appear to mind speaking to the gay press.
	In a written statement, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD), which organized the picket, said: "There is a
growing nationwide sentiment that some radio talkshow hosts have
gone too far with their personal attacks, groundless accusations
and irresponsible statements. ... We are exposing ... Roger
Hedgecock for his bigoted hate-mongering and irresponsible
broadcast journalism."
	GLAAD said the following businesses advertise on Hedgecock's
show: Broadway department stores, Little Caesar's Pizza, Motel 6,
Radio Shack, Sears, Stefano's, Pacific Nissan and Drew Ford.
	The protesters also circulated a list of what they said were
quotes from Hedgecock's program.
	They quoted him as saying: "My definition of homosexuality
is a person who has dropped all moral barriers ... to descend to
a level of utter depravity, to stick their penis into the back
end of the butt end of another male. ... If you made the same
assertion of your love for a German Shepherd, I would still be
appalled if you want to stick your penis into his rear end. ...
And what is the next step? If you're going to go for kids and
other guys and dogs, where do we draw the line?"
	Hedgecock also reportedly said over the air: "We are looking
for 10,000 people to completely dwarf this so-called pride
parade. What is there to be proud of, anyway -- that they've
perpetrated the most-devastating plague since the Black Death in
the 16th century?"
	He also allegedly said, "It's easy to see why gays want so
much to be in the military and be the Boy Scout leaders, because
that's where the boys are."
	KSDO General Manager Susan Hoffman says Hedgecock's
statements are "his own opinions and not necessarily the opinions
of the radio station. There's a disclaimer at the beginning of
the show," she noted.
	"With the parade over," Hoffman continued, "Roger is moving
onto other subjects. Having been mayor, Roger is best at helping
people in San Diego when they have problems. He knows a lot of
ways to go in and help people who are trying to work through the
system."
	Hoffman also said anonymous callers have threatened KSDO
advertisers by phone, saying: "We'll put you out of business. We
have ways."
	"I'm concerned about my advertisers being threatened," she
said. "Anybody is concerned when they get a threat from someone
who won't give their name."