Bill O'Reilly
PINK BRICK DELIVERED!
Watch Board President Mikayla Connell deliver the
Pink Brick to Bill O'Reilly in person on his show on
June 4, 2008:
YOUR
PINK BRICK MESSAGES TO BILL O'REILLY
At this
year's 2008 San Francisco Pride Celebration, we
collected hundreds upon hundreds of signatures on a statement
that the Pride Celebration Committee will be sending to
Bill O'Reilly as part of his Pink Brick recognition.
Here is the statement:
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Dear Mr. O'Reilly, Your efforts to mislead your viewers and listeners about issues regarding the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community does more than just leave a misleading impression—it reinforces ignorance about and hatred toward our community. In the past year you have misconstrued positive representations of LGBT people to be recruitment campaigns and manufactured news about the supposed threat of lesbian gangs. Our community, in the face of widespread discrimination, needs your support, not sensationalism, in our pursuit for equal rights and an end to discrimination. I urge you to uphold your journalistic duties to provide coverage that is truly fair and honors the human dignity of all people, regardless of their sexuality and gender identity. |
Many of you added your own personal message, so we thought we'd share just a sample of what folks from all over the world had to say to Mr. O'Reilly at this year's San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration:
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"I am an Australian and think people as close-minded as you should open up and live a little." -Melbourne, Australia |
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"May you transcend your narrow mind!" -Oakland, California |
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"Mr. O'Reilly, all Americans, even the most conservative, have gay family members. I simply ask that you speak with members of your own family and consider them before you fan the flames of hatred that [a]ffect us all." -San Francisco, California |
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"[...] I hope one day you realize everyone should have equal rights." -San Diego, California |
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"Us Brits don't approve of gay bashing in the 21st century!" -London, United Kingdom |
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"Two years ago you denounced a party at my school as immoral, put video of it online, and criticized us! That party was a total celebration of life! Before you criticize something, think about what you're destroying." -Providence, Rhode Island |
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"The type of hate you are spreading across the airwaves is breaking down the sense of community that this country was built on." -Houston, Texas |
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"Let peace and love guide you, not hate." -Bakersfield, California |
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"Love is good - give it a try someday." -Boston, Massachusetts |
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"Wake up and realize that it is 2008. you have lost your bigoted war and just make a terrible impression for your countrymen. Shame!" -London, United Kingdom |
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"Mr. O'Reilly, our 'Pink Brick' is too good for someone as bigoted as you!" -Houston, Texas |
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"The world would be a better place if we could only be inclusive, not exclusive [...]." -San Francisco, California |
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Bill O'Reilly  Unlike past recipients,
Bill O'Reilly's receipt of this award
cannot be attributed to any one stance
or event. His consistent efforts
to mislead his viewers and listeners
about issues regarding the LGBT
community and LGBT people does more than
just leave a misleading impression—it
reinforces ignorance about and hatred of
our community. While there
are many instances to which we might
refer, his
lesbian
gang segment on The
O'Reilly Factor on June 21, 2007
epitomizes the way in which O'Reilly has
discarded truth in favor of baseless
slander and fear-mongering. |
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Not mentioned in this segment on
"lesbian gangs" was the fact that there is no
evidence that the women involved in the attack on
Wayne Buckle were members of any criminal gang. Also
unmentioned was the fact that the women were
responding to Buckle's unwelcomed sexual advances
which resulted in his flicking a cigarette at the
women after one of them rebuffed his sexual
overtures.. That segment also featured in the background a highly provocative, looped video of women fighting. |
The insinuation was that these women represented the group Dykes Taking Over, which O'Reilly's segment indicated was an example of a lesbian gang. Had the audio accompanied that video, which is widely available on internet video sites, it would have quickly revealed that these young women were fighting over a boy—so much for violent lesbians.
Sensationalism trumped truth. The footage was provocative and meant to instill fear and in so doing, to drive up ratings by means of unabashed sensationalism. It is extremely difficult to conclude from the available evidence that the purpose of the segment was to describe any real trends in gangs across the country when the evidence of which O'Reilly made use was faulty and misleading. (You can review the video with audio here)
MORE O'REILLY
On air, O'Reilly challenged SF Pride's Board President Mikayla Connell to cite examples of O'Reilly's disrespect for the LGBT community. In the spirit of education and Mikayla's long list of grievances against O'Reilly, we add the following:
| O'Reilly expresses outrage over a lesbian teen couple being voted "Cutest Couple" by their classmates. |
O'Reilly
and his guest mischaracterize the California
Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.
The right to marriage was not created "out
of whole cloth," but rather was determined
in the 1947 Perez decision. O'Reilly
refers to the decision as an "insult" to the
people of California. |
| O'Reilly expresses outrage over the San Diego Padres' Gay Night coinciding with children's night at the ball park. |
ABOUT THE PINK BRICK
The Pink Brick recipient is a person or institution
which has done significant harm to the interests of
LGBT peoples to receive the Pink Brick. This person
is selected by public vote for receipt of the Pink
Brick, a faux “award” that represents the first
brick hurled at the Stonewall Rebellion on June 27,
1969..
How the Prink Brick Recipient is Chosen
The general public nominates potential recipients
for the Pink Brick in January. Public polling is
conducted in March when anyone, anywhere can
participate in the Pink Brick vote.
George W. Bush received the Pink Brick in 2007 for his support of an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman and in 2006 Arnold Schwarzenegger had the Brick hurled his way for his veto of a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage in California.
In 2008, a majority of those community members polled elected to hurl the Pink Brick at Bill O'Reilly, beating out the Human Rights Campaign who came in second and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.