Barnes & Noble stops selling homophobic calendar
Thu. December 29, 2011 3:52 PM by GoPride.com News Staff
Amazon continues to sell anti-gay calendar
Barnes & Noble has stopped selling a highly-offensive and homophobic calendar by Christian cartoonist Joe King after gay groups expressed outrage on Wednesday.
The illustrated calendar called, I'm Not Gay, I'm Just A Sissy, includes twelve cartoons that employ outdated stereotypes of gay men.
The month of February shows a gay man caring a sign that reads, "We all have AIDS."
King defended his calendar on Facebook where he posted insensitive comments about HIV/AIDS, calling the disease "elective."
The calendar, which was being sold by Barnes & Noble and Amazon, drew outrages on Wednesday after it was reported by Towelroad.com and a number of other LGBT news sites including GoPride.com and OnTopMagazine.com.
GLAAD reached out to both companies. Barnes & Noble has stopped selling the calendar, but Amazon continues to stock the item.
"This calendar has no business being sold and supported by reputable retailers," Herndon Graddick, senior director of programs and communications at GLAAD,said in a statement. "King has a right to his opinions, however anti-gay or anti-transgender they may be, but retailers also have the right to decide that they don't want to support hateful and dehumanizing content like this."
King decries censorship from the LGBT community and says he has the right to free speech.
"I feel like David vs. the gay Goliath," King wrote on Facebook.
The illustrated calendar called, I'm Not Gay, I'm Just A Sissy, includes twelve cartoons that employ outdated stereotypes of gay men.
The month of February shows a gay man caring a sign that reads, "We all have AIDS."
King defended his calendar on Facebook where he posted insensitive comments about HIV/AIDS, calling the disease "elective."
The calendar, which was being sold by Barnes & Noble and Amazon, drew outrages on Wednesday after it was reported by Towelroad.com and a number of other LGBT news sites including GoPride.com and OnTopMagazine.com.
GLAAD reached out to both companies. Barnes & Noble has stopped selling the calendar, but Amazon continues to stock the item.
"This calendar has no business being sold and supported by reputable retailers," Herndon Graddick, senior director of programs and communications at GLAAD,said in a statement. "King has a right to his opinions, however anti-gay or anti-transgender they may be, but retailers also have the right to decide that they don't want to support hateful and dehumanizing content like this."
King decries censorship from the LGBT community and says he has the right to free speech.
"I feel like David vs. the gay Goliath," King wrote on Facebook.