Newspaper accused of spreading anti-LGBTQ ‘hate speech’ to every resident in WI town
Residents of a small town in Wisconsin are accusing their town’s newspaper of spreading anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech to everyone in town, reports say.
The “hate speech” comes in the form of ads, editorials and letters in The Evansville Review that label “LGBTQ+ people as perverts who are “grooming’ children for sexual abuse,” LGBTQ Nation reported.
Evansville Review editor Kelly Gildner did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment. She “proclaimed freedom of speech and said the publication prints content that doesn’t necessarily reflect any single viewpoint,” LGBTQ Nation reported.
City Council member Cory Neeley told McClatchy News he was fed up that the paper kept sending him the material, even after he contacted management to notify them he had unsubscribed years earlier and no longer wanted to receive the paper.
There’s even a running joke in town about it, Neeley said. It goes: “Oh you, get the Review? So does everyone that doesn’t want it,” he said.
The paper’s management didn’t respond, he said. So he and his wife, Susan, started an online petition asking the paper to stop sending the material to residents who don’t want it, he said.
“It seems to me they do it because they believe it’s the right thing to be doing. ... They consider it their duty to print some of this stuff,” Neeley told McClatchy News in an interview. “Whatever they want to print is fine for them, I just don’t want it. It can potentially be harming our children if they read it.”
Residents in town told WKOW 27 that the material made them feel unsafe.
One, Liz Gillitzer, told the station she’s lived in Evansville her entire life, but recently started questioning whether the town is the right fit for her.
“The fact that they are sending this ad sheet to every single home within the city limits is irresponsible,” Gillitzer told the station. “It’s abhorrent.”
McClatchy News obtained various examples of the ads and found that many of them are funded and written by Ronald Gay, the pastor at Grace Independent Baptist Church.
Gay told McClatchy News he felt he had “a moral obligation” to write the anti-LGBTQ content after he learned of kids in town who were questioning their gender identity and experimenting with their gender expression.
He also took issue with the City Council flying the rainbow Pride flag on the same flagpole as the American flag at City Hall, he said.
“I find these things concerning. I’m seeing this change in time in our country and I see it as very destructive,” he said. “Obviously I can’t change the world, but as an individual, I feel I should speak up.”
But the paper has editorial discretion to choose what they do and don’t print, Neeley said.
“Ron Gay’s speech is really, really dangerous speech,” Neeley said. “I believe if we normalize a lot of this hate speech it leads to things like the club shooting down in Florida. People are radicalized and … think they’re doing some sort of religious act in killing and harming LGBTQ people.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Newspaper accused of spreading anti-LGBTQ ‘hate speech’ to every resident in WI town."
