Mark Saxenmeyer was fired by ABC affiliate KSTP-TV in Minneapolis after making a “joke” about a gay couple, Paul Melchert and James Zimmerman, who, along with their twin children, were invited to the White House’s annual Easter egg hunt. The joke was meant to be a private exchange between Saxenmeyer and his co-worker Katherine Johnson but ended up going live on the station’s website.
Saxenmeyer initially pitched the story on the gay dads, which ended up being written by Johnson. While she was writing her web script, Saxenmeyer added a few lines that weren’t supposed to make it into the final piece.
“She was in the process of writing her Web script on her computer, so I wrote a few things into the Web script to make her laugh. I said, ‘Make sure you delete that because obviously that would not be funny out of context’,” Saxenmeyer told the Star Tribune. “She deleted most of it. There was one little part she missed when she closed it.”
Saxenmeyer was fired over calling Melchert and Zimmerman “big HOMO dads.”
Not that the line is witty, funny or pertinent to the piece — but you’re really going to fire a homo for calling two other homos what they are: homos?! I don’t get it. I don’t really understand why Saxenmeyer felt the need to call them “big HOMO dads,” and I really don’t understand why he felt the need to capitalize the word homo, but it seems to me like KSTP-TV needs to lighten the fuck up.
If anyone should be fired it should be Johnson for not proofreading her work!
“I made a profoundly stupid mistake,” Saxenmeyer said. “I have apologized profusely. It was stupid, inappropriate, irresponsible. It is beyond comprehensible. When you are gay, you sometimes feel you can say things because they are coming from a place not of disrespect or evil. I just feel so terrible. I feel like I’ve kicked myself in my own butt here. I will forever regret this.”
Jesus. Mountain out of a molehill, much? I suggest you apply at Xtra, Mr Saxenmeyer, where calling people big homos isn’t an insult, but a compliment!
Why you can trust Xtra
