A radio duo's on-air discussion of the Golden Globe Awards has sparked the ire of a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media outlets after the pair implied that gay entertainment honchos prefer casting women with bodies "that remind them of a 14-year-old boy."
As Media Matters is reporting, co-hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou discussed the awards with news contributor Shannon Farren on the Jan. 16 edition of Clear Channel's "The John & Ken Show." After Farren observed that many of the stars who strolled the red carpet looked "emaciated," Kobylt went on to note:
"Gay guys control the fashion industry and the casting industry and the whole Hollywood look. And gays like bodies that remind them of a 14 year old-boy. Guys like curves. Guys like curves. Absolutely, positively. It's biological, because a woman with curves looks like she can bear your children successfully and that's biologically what a man is looking for. So sexually a guy is much more turned on by a woman with curves than these 14 year old-boy stick figures. And that's how I know for sure, I don't need to do any research or any proof that it's gay guys who control the entire casting industry."
Media Matters' Remington Shepard was among those incensed by the host's remarks: "Kobylt's claim that 'gays like bodies that remind them of a 14 year-old boy' suggests that gay men are largely attracted to children and invokes the persistent myth that gay people molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals."
UPDATE: Kobylt addressed the complaints on the following day's broadcast, adding that he felt his Golden Globe comments had been misinterpreted. "For the last ten years, Ken and I have been covering pedophile cases...whether it's the Catholic Church or Penn State," Kobylt said. "More than anybody I've ever heard, we've made it clear that pedophilia and homosexuality are unrelated."
Kobylt and Chiampou are no strangers to controversy: the pair also sparked a backlash this week among Los Angeles' Korean community after Kobylt discussed a lawsuit against his "Korean" painter. When pressed as to why the painter's ethnic background was relevant, Kobylt noted, “…there’s a lot of, like, Korean painter scam guys” and “there’s certain cultures that become involved in certain lines of work,” according to Neon Tommy, a blog produced by University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
Last fall, several Latino groups protested against the show when the duo read the phone number of Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a staff member with the Coalition of Humane Immigration Rights of L.A., on the air. The local immigration rights advocate received hundreds of hate-filled calls following the broadcast, according to The Los Angeles Times.