Kyle Sandilands has been found to have breached broadcasting decency rules after making a comment about gay men and Monkeypox during a 2022 instalment of The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
After an influx of Monkeypox cases was declared a Communicable Disease Incident of National Significance, Kyle declared on-air that he “wasn’t letting any gays” near his family.
“The Monkeypox, the big gay disease floating around, it’s only the gays getting it,” he said in August 2022.
Critics described his off-colour comments as “hate speech”. Now, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found that Kyle “stereotyped gay men as irresponsible in regard to their sexual health”.
“This made them the prime carriers of a virus that presented a danger to the community and, as a result, they were not deserving of sympathy or compassion.”
In a statement on August 10, ACMA Chairperson Nerida O’Loughlin described Kyle’s sentiments as “insulting”.
“We acknowledge that the program’s audience does not expect the presentation style of either the program or the presenter to always be formal and nuanced,” she said.
“Although there was a basis at the time for a public discussion about [Monkeypox] that involved reference to gay sexuality, the segment went beyond any acceptable standards by conveying that gay men were irresponsible, were a risk to the community and did not deserve any sympathy even when presenting for medical assistance.”
“Broadcasters have a responsibility to maintain appropriate levels of decency… In this case, the comments by Sandilands were overly disparaging and insulting.”
KIIS FM defends The Kyle and Jackie O Show following Kyle Sandilands’ Monkeypox comments
According to the Commercial Radio Code of Practice, radio content “must not offend generally accepted standards of decency (for example, through the use of unjustified language), having regard to the demographic characteristics of the audience of the relevant program.”
KIIS FM, the station behind The Kyle and Jackie O Show, claimed the segment meant no ill-will towards the LGBTQIA+ community.
“While the segment may have contained some unfavourable descriptions of those susceptible to the virus, being homosexual males, the segment was intended to bring about awareness to the community of the public health risk surrounding the transmission of the monkeypox virus and the availability of a vaccine to prevent transmission against infection,” the broadcaster wrote in its submission to ACMA.
The latest ruling comes after the same radio show was found to have breached decency standards in a separate investigation.
It came after Kyle dubbed the Paralympics the “Special Olympics” and labelled the games as “horrific” in September 2022.
Want even more goss? Listen to the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
Know something that we don’t? Spill the tea here!
Get the tea first! Follow So Dramatic! on Instagram and tune in on Mondays to get your reality tea fix with the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto.
