Online retailer Amazon.com has stopped
selling cartoonist Joe King's I'm Not Gay, I'm Just A Sissy
2012 calendar after gay groups expressed outrage.
Gay
South Florida's Steve Rothaus reported that the calendar is no
longer available on Amazon.com.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD) had asked booksellers Barnes & Noble and
Amazon.com to drop the calendar. A spokesman for Barnes & Noble
confirmed on Thursday that the calender is no longer for sale at its
web site, and added that it was never sold in retail stores.
The calendar, which includes the
tagline, “12 Months of Sexual Confusion (Not that there's anything
wrong with that!),” drew outrage after gay blog Towleroad.com
brought attention to it on Wednesday.
In a Facebook post, King hit back,
accusing critics of bullying him.
“Hoo-we! Hell hath no fury like a
he/she scorned. … The telephone tree of tantrums is lit up like a
Las Vegas marquee for ‘Boy-Lesque’ today with hate mail, threats
of boycott and even the risk of Jesus spitting on me for my 'Sissy'
calendar. I SAID I WAS A SISSY UP FRONT. Ironic who the real
bullies are isn't it? Let’s see if I get a call from Oprah's
people or even Anderson Cooper. ...”
He also addressed one of the cartoons
included in the calendar which includes the caption, “WE ALL HAVE
AIDS!”: “The 'truth' is that AIDS is an 'elective' disease. It
STOPS the day guys quit sticking it to each other. And for the
tragedy of women and children infected … THAT stops the day their
gay husbands and fathers stop cheating on them. Anyone need MORE
education, science or funding to understand THAT?”
GLAAD called the product “dehumanizing”
in calling on booksellers to dump the calendar.
“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.”