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To the Seattle Seahawks and KIRO Radio (parent company Bonneville):

We, the undersigned, believe that due to his impressively expansive history of racism, homophobia, transphobia, hatred for individuals experiencing homelessness, and other abusive behavior, that it is long past time for you to end your professional relationship with Dori Monson. The Seattle Seahawks claim to stand for justice, equality, and inclusiveness, yet they continue to let this man host the pre-game, halftime, and post-game shows on their radio broadcasts. The Seahawks claim to stand for the black lives matter movement, the LGBTQ+ community, and ending homelessness, yet by continuing to employ Dori Monson, they expose that these are nothing but attempts at good PR.

Dori Monson has a long and detailed history expressing bigoted opinions, stirring up anger as he attempts to be the Seattle market’s Rush Limbaugh. I have compiled several instances of Monson’s toxic behavior, for which he has been well-compensated.

We’ll start with #RVGate, which Monson used to drum up hatred and fear of those experiencing homelessness. Briar Rose Williams bought a trailer for $1 on Facebook with the intent to clean it and use it as a temporary home for her and her boyfriend, who were expecting a child. Her godfather and boyfriend coincidentally parked it in front of Seattle Council member Lisa Herbold’s home, and that’s when Monson attacked.

While searching for the owner, speculation ran rampant about whose RV it was, and a fan of Monson’s show spray painted “DORI 4 GOV” on the side of the vehicle. In an article about the RV situation, Monson shared the video and said “A listener — not the person who towed the RV — has even spray-painted “DORI 4 GOV” and “LISTEN TO DORI NOON 97.3” on the RV. We do not condone or encourage the destruction of private property … but I must admit, it was quite funny.” KIRO radio also sent reporter Carolyn Ossorio to investigate the RV, where she broke in and declared it to be uninhabitable. This is when Williams returned to find her vehicle vandalized and surrounded by news teams.

Williams revealed that the plan was to clean the RV and park it at an RV camping site to use a temporary home. His show’s rampant speculation and encouraging of vandalizing listeners put Williams and others experiencing homelessness of extra abuse and ridicule simply for trying to get their lives together. Monson donated a paltry $100 to the family as a lame mea culpa. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/a-trailer-showed-up-in-front-of-a-seattle-councilmembers-home-is-it-a-political-stunt-or-a-coincidence/

Before the coincidence was revealed and he was forced to backtrack, Monson had this to say on his show following the vandalism (source: Real Change’s Timothy Harris: https://www.realchangenews.org/2019/10/16/directors-corner-when-rv-becomes-political-firestorm): “You see, there is something much greater at play here. And that is that people have had it. We finally seem to have reached the boiling point. We are sick and tired of the drugs, the crime, and the absolute mess that our region has become. Now it looks like there will be some serious citizen revolting going on.”

Reaching ever lower, Monson even took a swipe at Greta Thunberg.

“What does the Left do? … They use children as their human shields. They riot and throw bricks through windows. Whereas this person has parked an RV in front of someone’s house … and is now done. If you don’t want to be bothered by this form of protest, it doesn’t have to bother you at all. It doesn’t invoke your children. It doesn’t stop traffic. It’s not violent. It doesn’t involve you one bit.”

Next, we have the POC Yoga fiasco. Monson played the old “whites-are-actually-the-oppressed” racist dogwhistle card when going after Teresa Wang’s yoga studio intended exclusively for people of color. You know, “reverse racism”. He chose to highlight a class description that included “white friends, allies, and partners are respectfully asked not to attend.” Monson did his best to make himself irresponsible for the actions of his listeners, claiming that he didn’t have a problem with it, while using the other side of his mouth to call it racist, exclusionary, and dismissively referring to it as the “no-whites yoga class”.

After Monson’s rant, Wang received over 200 hate e-mails and calls, and death threats. Wang agreed to an interview with KIRO reporter Jillian Rafferty, which Monson edited and criticized on air.

Wang explained her decision to do the interview: “The only reason I took that interview with Dori is because they basically threatened me. was gonna do a live thing on me … [with or] without a statement from me. And I felt so pressured.”

Monson’s reckless and bigoted attacks on Wang and her studio directly led to her receiving hatred and threats directed at her, emboldening other aggressive bigots to feel correct in their misguided beliefs. This barrage of abuse forced Wang to shutter POC yoga.

(Credit to Idabelle Fosse for collecting Wang’s quotes: https://www.change.org/p/carl-gardner-general-manager-at-bonneville-international-seattle-cgardner-bonneville-com-ask-kiro-to-fire-dori-monson-and-apologize-to-teresa-and-seattle-s-community-of-color

There’s also his support for president Donald Trump. If you’re still denying, in October of 2020, that Trump is a racist, fascist, violence-encouraging threat to the world and U.S. democracy, I can’t help you. Monson constantly takes to twitter to defend Trump, dropping this jaw-dropping whopper following Trump and Biden’s September 29 debate. “Trump wins on issues Chris Wallace was a one-sided disgrace Joe Biden did much better than expected over 90 minutes I doubt if any voters were changed” (Link: https://twitter.com/dorimonson/status/1311133634716336129 Imagine the black hole of hate that must exist in one’s heart to say that Trump’s stances on “the issues” are winning of anything other than contempt.

There’s also his loud support of Loren Culp, the Republican candidate for Governor of Washington. The very same Culp who refuses to enforce new gun safety laws passed in I-1639 by the people of Washington. The very same Culp who dismissed the claims of a 17-year-old victim of sexual assault. The accused, Roy Moore, ended up pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree child molestation in 2015, and Culp absolved himself of any responsibility for mishandling the investigation. Monson continually carried water for Culp on twitter during October 7, 2020’s debate. See The Spokesman’s story here: spokesman.com/stories/2020/jul/05/washington-governor-candidate-loren-culp-faces-law/

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community (I am a trans woman), Dori’s constant hatred directed for all of us has been disrespectful and dangerous. In an article titled “Why does political correctness mean the transgender person is always right?“, Monson said that there was nothing wrong with a misgendered trans woman being laughed at in her face when she attempted to correct the man. Monson mocked the idea of trans sensitivity training, once again claiming that it was actually “normal” folks (you know, cisgender white people), who are the real victims regarding trans issues, because apparently it’s a bigger tragedy that they might have to put some effort into treating us with respect, rather than the ridicule, fear, and hatred we face simply for existing in public.

Dori’s transphobia reared its ugly head once again on October 8, 2020, when, addressing the Inslee/Culp debate, he tweeted:

“Inslee: we follow science in WA. The state where I could go to Olympia tomorrow and change my birth cert to say I was a girl on 10/2/61

HAHAHAHAHA"

Link: https://twitter.com/dorimonson/status/1314040215011430402

The most egregious and reprehensible offense in Dori’s history, is, of course, having Joey Gibson, founder of white supremacist group Patriot Prayer, on his radio show multiple times over the years. The Patriot Prayer calls themselves “pro-Trump conservatives”, and deny white supremacy, but they maintain facebook friendships with many known white supremacists and do more to encourage white supremacist violence than suppress it. In fact, he’s seen in the featured image of a Monson article flashing the white power symbol: https://mynorthwest.com/1070356/dori-patriot-prayer-joey-gibson/ Gibson has been on the show multiple times to defend his racist buddies from justifiable scrutiny for their hateful beliefs. Monson continues to give a megaphone to far-right agitators of violence and white supremacy.

While it’s unlikely that KIRO radio will fire Monson, because as of 2012 they paid him at least six figures per year to spew his hateful rhetoric (source: https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/dori-monson-a-tempest-of-outrage/ the Seattle Seahawks have no such obligation. If KIRO was interested in doing the right thing, Monson would have been gone decades ago. This wimpy, poor-man’s impersonation of Rush Limbaugh gets ratings and makes them money, so they will continue to turn a blind eye to the actual harm his words do to our community.

The Seattle Seahawks, however, do not make their money because of Dori Monson’s racist hate-mongering. There are myriad of more deserving local sports personalities that could replace Monson without sacrificing the Seahawks’ credibility with the social justice causes they claim to support. The organization has nothing to lose, and everything to gain by replacing Monson, not the least of which being giving someone more deserving the opportunity to take such a prominent role with the team. The Seahawks have continued to be silent on this issue despite mounting pressure on social media to fire Dori Monson. It’s time for them to answer.

You cannot claim to support Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ+ community, and homelessness outreach while simultaneously employing a twisted and racist individual who embodies the opposite of your stated values. You can’t have it both ways.

It’s time to fire Dori Monson.