An employee group at Fox Corp. composed of LGBTQ individuals has spoken out about the homophobic and transphobic talking points on the Fox News Channel.
A message posted earlier this month to the group’s company-wide Slack channel reads: “Fox Pride denounces statements made regarding sexual orientation and gender identity on FOX News in the past week. 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 brands like Fox Sports, Fox TV and Fox Entertainment, but the anti-LGBTQ programming on Fox News is casting a long shadow over the media giant.
Of course, Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham have long histories of airing anti-LGBTQ messages, but the rhetoric has intensified in the wake of Florida’s recently enacted “Don’t Say Gay” law. Supporters of the law have regularly labeled critics as pedophiles who want to groom children. Playwright David Mamet appeared on the network and falsely claimed male teachers are “inclined” to pedophilia.
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The network has also denied the existence of transgender people in its repeated attacks on trans female athletes, and called a New Jersey proposal for LGBTQ-inclusive education a form of “psychological torture.”
Related: Caitlyn Jenner’s Fox News contributor gig is going as horribly as you’d expect
“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.”
A Fox Corp. spokesperson responded to the Daily Beast: “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 message follows the news that the Human Rights Campaign has removed Fox Corp. from its list of top employers for LGBTQ people. “Fox News has a history of sharing misinformation and disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community,” HRC Senior Press Secretary Aryn Fields said in a 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,” the statement continues. “Each of these actions happened in the last 72 hours. Enough is enough.”
A “Fox insider” added to the Beast: “The thing is, internally, the company values diversity. 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.”
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I know this is a dumb question but I am going to ask it anyway. If the benefits at Fox are so great then why didn’t they say just what these benefits are? Free healthcare and prescriptions? Employee stock ownership where the company will double your contributions? Just what makes this place (Fox) such a great place to work at? I don’t get it.
BennyTheHill
CNN is a leftwing news network and this is what they said today regarding Joey Biden’s 33% approval rating: “Joe Biden’s Approval Rating Worst in Elected History.”
WOW!!!
Sometimes even CNN tells the truth!!!
Fname Optional Lname
Joe Biden has nothing to do with Fox News spewing venom at LGBTQ community. But let’s also not focus on the fact that Biden was handed the task of cleaning up 4 years of the nightmare Trump created.
CNY1983
it still baffles me that idiot republicans and log cabin turds still think they can influence people. knock yourselves out, no one cares about manson family value conservative republicans.
Den
One wonders what obviously dull folks like Bennythe hilarious think they are doing here. Do they enjoy broadcasting their stupidity to the widest audience possible? So they understand that anyone intellectually deficient enough to be manipulated by their spew would be in a care facility? Are they in some care facility?
TMBisAOK
STFU Bennythehill with your warped agenda and stay on topic!
bachy
The Williams Institute has estimated that 0.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender. Studies from several nations, including the US, conducted at varying time periods, have produced a statistical range of 1.2 to 6.8 percent of the adult population identifying as LGBT.
Historically, fomenting sexual hysteria through bizarre, hateful allegations against a small, vulnerable population is how the McMartin preschool trials and other similar cases (to say nothing of the Salem witch trials) were initiated. Anyone with a knowledge of the history of bigotry, cruelty and violence against the vulnerable should be aware of the danger of this kind of reporting. It’s not just clueless– it’s evil.
LegionKeign
6.8% is way too low.
These polls don’t factor in folks who lie or hide their orientation and these polls never include any data from nations where it’s illegal to be GLBT.
ingyaom
This is why I’m glad only about half of 1% of the US population watches FOX.
According to AdWeek:
Average Total Viewers: 1,547,000 (Fox News)
In the demographic that really matters, that number drops to: 244,000 (AGE 25-54).
So when they say “most watched cable news”, remember how few people are actually watching and how old they are.
BennyTheHill
MSNBC and CNN added TOGETHER don’t even reach .010 of the population.
LOL!!!
Preppy1000
BennyTheHill? STFU!!!!
BennyTheHill
Preppy1000:
You don’t like the truth? Too f-ing bad.
Crayonap
This reads like one more apology piece for the Fox Network. If HRC was until recently recommending Fox as a place for LGBTQ workers, then that is a real problem. If you work for Fox you are the enemy at this point and have been for quite a while; don’t be the token that legitimizes the scam.
RobF
HRC is a SHAM! I’ve completely written them off when they endorsed Al D’Amato over Chuck Schumer for the New York Senator.
dbmcvey
Did they just notice how toxic Fox News is?
gjg64
Maybe some of those LGBT Fox employees should be brave enough to hold a sign behind Carlson et al, saying that during a show like the Russian producer did recently.
barryaksarben
I refused to work for a anti gay company and I’d leave one if I disvovered ti was anti gay. This does look like they are offerring a backhanded excuse to let their bosses off the hook
Major
I’m glad they are finally speaking up… but will that change things?
They are all represented by the “news” anchors that are heard and seen on the TV. I’d be embarrassed as all get out.
Ken A.
LGBT employees of FOX, well you can’t complain, you’re working for them you deserve what you get. They can always leave.
gregg2010
Not always. It’s called the old Golden Handcuffs syndrome. Those employees should work as they can to change the toxic atmosphere of Fox “News.”
ZzBomb
I mean like how would you not make the connection that Fox News is part of Fox Corp before applying for a job there? It’s not like Fox Crop or Fox News just recently sprang from no where!?
Bengali
I don’t Fox is being defended for the benefits they offer; only that it’s being brought to light as a reason many employees choose to stay. While some of you are saying you’d leave there if they were that way, the way things are these days, if they get great benefits it may keep them their longer. Many people have to stay in jobs they hate if the income is good vs. what they might be able to get at another company. Fox is a true shithole and I hope the ground opens beneath them but we don’t always get to work where we want to.
Doug
I can’t understand why any gay person would work at Fox. “Fox Pride..?” It’s an oxymoron, like a gay Republican.
Mack
I think a few of those were commenting here. Or just trolls on the gay sites.
Jaquelope
Or Jewish Na-zi.
Walker
People who are LGBTQ work at News Corp because they want to be in journalism, and journalism opportunities, in particular full-time, well-paid ones have shrunk immensely in the past ten years and are all controlled by a handful of media companies. Before you start blaming people for wanting to support themselves doing something they’re good at, maybe blame media consolidation. Or capitalism.
I mean, this is an article on Queerty, which has a tiny full time staff, no investigative reporting, and no copy editors. Should everyone be competing for jobs there, instead?
I haven’t worked at a News Corp publication for five years and was constantly embarrassed about it and made to feel ashamed by people who worked for capitalist companies and industries that were just as toxic but not as visible. But I did my job and so did the many, many other liberal and.progressive queer staffers. If you think everyone should be able to just pick and choose where they work, maybe get to work reforming the way our country provides health care, retirement income, and a basic standard of.living, first.
RobF
Fox Pride!?!?! And HRC removed Fox News from its preferred employer list??? God! Hell has definitely frozen over! What reality am I living in????
Fahd
What an awful twist of fate, to be gay and talented, and wind up a Fox News employee. One plays the cards one is dealt, however.
Employees have Exit, Voice, and Loyalty as their approaches to their labor relationships. They can quit, they can speak up or strike, and they can shut up and do what they’re told. These Fox employees have chosen Voice and more power to them; same goes for the LGBTQ+ employees at Disney and Netflix and elsewhere who are letting their voices be heard. This is how change happens.
Meanwhile, however, I am not lifting my curse on Rupert Murdoch and Fox. I despair that the free West won’t be able to withstand so much disinformation while authoritarian dictatorships like Russia and China keep their huge populations enslaved in propaganda bubbles. (btw, Hungary’s 10 million and elsewhere, too.) Good luck, world!
Den
If Benny the tools figures are correct (and i doubt they are as he likely lacks the skills to evaluate lies he eats up), that means that 1% of the population watches more accurate networks, twice the population that watches Fox. And those would be people with the education, intellect and income to make a difference.
Den
Remember (or reread the article) these are LGBT employees of Fox Corp, the parent company. This includes stations and programming that is supportive of LGBT progress. This makes the situation a bit more nuanced. I would hope that few of these people work specifically for Fox News.
cuteguy
Faux News is known for inciting hatred and vitriol. Perfect example is how they unleash the GQP trolls on here. BennytheHill is an obvious one. There is just pure hate there.
BennyTheHill
“Faux” News?
You must be referring to MSNBC and CNN:
They lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop and emails, Russian collusion in 2016 election, Jussie Smollett, Kyle Rittenhouse, Nick Sandmann, the January 6th protest, etc., etc., etc..
Richpontone
Looking at a picture of “The Prune known as Dupert Murdoch” is the best advertisement for being Gay.
The only one who would want to be in the Sack with that is a political Hack.
rbernard
FOX News is irredeemable, has divided our nation, and it was a profound mistake for Ronald Reagan and Roger Ailes to fast track Rupert Murdoch’s US citizenship and do away with the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine.