"GLAAD has a responsibility to their non-telecommunications, non-labor union underwriters as well as their many private donors to protect LGBT persons from negative portrayals in the media. By ignoring the Sprint multimedia campaign that portrayed transgender/transsexual persons negatively in the media and then speaking out in favor of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger for which the Sprint campaign was against was a complete betrayal of trust of not just the LGBT community but also of the entire media community and the private underwriters who do not feel that GLAAD should be able to pick their battles. This is purely a conflict of interest. If the LGBT, especially the T gets victimized again, if GLAAD does not support the cause for reasons other than negative portrayal in the media, don't expect them to help. Perhaps its time for a media watchdog organization that does not get involved in issues not related to media monitoring and therefore can not have their judgment clouded to return favors to underwriters. GLAAD has obviously shown they are not capable of this objectivity."

We have heard of mothers trying to kill their kids and family pets being put down. Why? Because of speech that has incited these and potentially other actions with negative consequences. Let's not also forget the lost work time and overall lack of productivity that resulted from this broadcast and outdoor media hoax.

Some may argue that this is protected speech and it may be. But when this speech incites physical injury to human life, then suddenly the protection diminishes, maybe not in the law but in the conscience of many.

Well, it's been one week since REC Networks was mentioned in tech, telecom and business blogs around the world regarding the Sprint "Man in a dress" ad that we spoke out about. Honestly, I was never expecting the story to go that viral.

During the days that followed, I was criticized as being "too oversensitive" on this issue, even by some in the gay and lesbian community. To my critics, like I said, I did not see the ad as intentional transphobia, perhaps an old school ad man who thinks the man-in-a-dress concept still puts shock in men that the ad would be effective. The issues I had were strictly the timing of this ad and the pending Employment Non-Discrimination Act legislation as well as legislation in other states to provide more equal rights to people without regard to their gender identity.

At the same time, I have received messages of thanks from trans rights and women's rights advocacy groups for my actions.

As I mentioned in my previous statement, this was a major wake-up call to the non-profits who are also fighting this effort. While the non-profits should have done a much better job in screening these ads before putting their stamp of approval on it, the ad copy was the ultimate responsibility of Sprint.

As I have said in the past, REC is not a GLBT advocacy entity even though I am personally involved in advocacy to support transsexuals and intersex people who have a medical need for civil rights. So with that out of the way, let's get into the reason why I (and REC Networks) opposes the AT&T purchase of T-Mobile.

First of all, yesterday's announcement of the Gender Policy by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association totally caught me by surprise. As someone who has been advocating policy that is inclusive to transsexual and intersex women who are going through non-surgical hormone replacement therapy to participate in sanctioned inter-league play, I welcome this new policy.

Recently, Franny (remember her?) put up a Facebook group for the callers of K-Fone, another voice system that has ran until recently. The interesting thing about K-Fone and many of the REC systems was that it was developed on the same platform. First a quick tutorial on the generations of REC systems:

Perhaps, it's time for this to happen. NPR has got too big.. There was once a time when college radio stations were actually located at the college and were programmed by students and members of the community at large. But these stations out of greed towards the promotion of other university programs got bigger. Transmitter antennas moved off of campuses and on to mountaintops. Powers increased and suddenly public radio was big-time. With that, stations sprouted formats. Gone are the day of local music, local views, local people and most importantly, the students. This has been taking place for a long time now with the latest victim of this vicious cycle, the University of San Francisco.

The FCC requires Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) radio stations to "further an educational program". This is something that the mega-NPR affiliates are failing to do. Instead of keeping their budgets low and educating their community as well as the university students, they are courting after the wealthier underwriters of the community for large donations to pay overblown salaries and to support activities that do nothing but quietly promote the underwriters and do nothing for the local community.