Rights groups want Latino media to end gay pranks, on-air ridicule

Rona Marech, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Roberto Hernandez quit his job after being the victim of ...

When the call came on his cell phone, Roberto Hernandez was driving to work in San Francisco. The caller, who identified himself as Juan, said in Spanish that he had met Hernandez at a gay bar and wanted to see him again.

"Refresh my memory, there are so many Juans," said a puzzled Hernandez. The man described himself as slim with "a very nice butt." Eventually, the caller offered to give Hernandez his phone number -- then announced that the conversation was being broadcast live nationwide on the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show," a Spanish-language morning radio program.

"Why did these people have to treat me this way?" Hernandez said of his public outing, which led the Federal Communications Commission to fine the station owner $28,000 this year. "Why the hell do they think I deserved something so brutal and humiliating?"

Such on-air mockery of gay men, lesbians and transgender people is common on Spanish-language radio and television, media watchers say, and it has raised the ire of gay rights groups.

"If I were to put on a scale the sensitivity of Spanish-language radio to gay and lesbian issues, I would have to put it at less than 1 on scale of 1 to 10," said Iván Román, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. "It's ridiculous. It's seen as perfectly normal to ridicule gays and lesbians, to see them as less than human."

In a regular segment on "Los Guapos de la Mañana," a morning radio program that airs on KBUE-FM in Los Angeles, a transgender female character discusses celebrity gossip while a song about a gay man who died of AIDS is played in the background, according the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which has posted recordings of the show on its Web site.

In New York, gay and lesbian activists have repeatedly protested the popular radio show "El Vacilon de la Mañana" which airs on WSKQ-FM. They have criticized hosts for such antics as making a prank call to the mother of a man they pretended had been arrested for public gay sex and airing a parody of a salsa song about a man who was raped by another man.

Calls to WSKQ were not returned. But Andrew Mars, corporate vice president at Liberman Broadcasting Corp., which owns KBUE, said, "We absolutely have no problem with our morning show. We don't attack any gender or nongender. I would categorically deny it."

The Bay Area has almost 10 television stations and dozens of Spanish- language radio stations, including KSOL, the local station that aired the conversation with Hernandez.

At the time of the 2002 incident, Hernandez, 44, was selling advertisements for the company that produced the "Raul Brindis and Pepito Show, " which is how he suspects the hosts got his cell phone number. He was so demoralized by the prank -- and the company's refusal to punish anyone after he complained -- that his performance went downhill and he eventually quit, he said.

He filed a complaint with the FCC that led to the fine and the agency's determination that the station had unlawfully failed to obtain Hernandez's consent before broadcasting the conversation. And he is suing Univision -- which bought the company from the Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. after the incident -- for sexual harassment and invasion of privacy.

He contends in the suit that his work environment became so intolerable after he spoke up that he had no choice but to leave. His case went before an arbitrator this week; a decision is expected in the coming months.

"Obviously, it's very hard to be gay in Latin countries," said Hernandez, who grew up in Mexico but has lived in San Francisco since 1991. "I moved away to a place that would welcome me -- and to find this is very traumatic."

A Univision representative declined to comment because of the pending litigation. However, FCC documents show that Univision officials argued they weren't obliged to notify Hernandez that the conversation would be broadcast because he was an employee.

Univision's lawyers also said the company shouldn't be held responsible because it wasn't the corporate parent at the time and described the prank as an "isolated event" that didn't meet its programming standards.

The incident prompted Univision to send its radio stations a list of words DJs aren't supposed to say on air, said Monica Taher of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. A Univision representative wouldn't confirm that but said, "Univision, like most broadcasters, especially now is very sensitive to indecency, and policies are in place to make sure the talent abides by the rules."

Gay rights advocates say vulgar language, cruel hoaxes and sexual jokes are common in Spanish-language media, but they are particularly alarmed at what they consider to be rampant homophobia. Words such as joto -- a pejorative term for a gay man that Raul and Pepito used repeatedly before and after calling Hernandez -- are commonly used on some shows to encourage anti- gay violence, the advocates complain.

After pressure from gay groups, companies including Chevrolet and KFC recently withdrew advertisements from two Spanish-language television talk shows in which audience members physically attacked gay men, lesbians and transgender people. Those shows aired in key Latino markets, including San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.

But such improprieties are often undetected or ignored, and when the FCC catches violations, the fines are small, said Lisbeth Melendez Rivera of the National Latino Coalition for Justice.

"If you had an English DJ saying 'faggot' and 'fudge packers' -- don't tell me the FCC wouldn't get on their butts," Rivera said. "I guarantee you the same words in English would bring a higher fine. ... We want parity on this issue, and this is not parity."

Between 2000 and April 2004, the agency fined Spanish-language programs $44,800 for indecency or obscenity, an FCC spokeswoman said. The FCC has one Spanish speaker in the enforcement department and uses translation services, she added.

Román, of the Hispanic journalists association, said the Latino community is not more hateful than others, but perhaps "we feel more free to express our homophobia."

"Spanish-language radio and television to some extent reflects the mores and cultural values of the country of origin," he said, noting that some shows are beamed in from countries that are "way behind the curve" when it comes to fair treatment of gays and lesbians.

Still, those concerned about portrayals of gay men and lesbians in the media say they see signs of progress. Hernandez's case is setting a precedent, said Taher of the anti-defamation group.

"This will allow us now to keep pushing for more accuracy and objectivity when it comes to LGBT issues on the radio," she said.

Hernandez, for his part, is working for another Spanish-language media company now. Speaking out is difficult, he said, but "I guess for the first time I've faced one of my fears in life -- to be open and tell my story, to tell people how bad it can be to treat people this way."

E-mail Rona Marech at rmarech [at] sfchronicle.com.

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