Kyle Sandilands is currently facing backlash after he made a series of insensitive comments about the disease Monkeypox.
News.com.au has reported that on-air Sandilands described Monkeypox as “the big gay disease floating around!” He then joked that he wouldn’t let his newborn son near his producer, Brooklyn Ross.
Sandilands is known for being controversial, but these comments have been slammed. People on the internet are even asking for him to be fired.
It has caused such an outcry because the rhetoric Sandilands was pushing forward is similar to how the LGBTQI+ community were treated at the height of the HIV epidemic. It is spreading misinformation that could cause real-life consequences for so many people.
Columnist Andrew Hornery slammed Sandilands in his weekly Sydney Morning Herald column. He wrote: “Sandilands, who appeared on the back of a float in the 2018 Sydney Mardi Gras, has deeply offended the marginalised groups he claims to have long championed, including gay men, who are confronting potentially the greatest health crisis and stigma to impact them since the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1980s.”
Naturally, Twitter has also weighed in.
Please remind me – what’s the point of Kyle Sandilands? If you can’t say something constructive, maybe keep quiet?
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) August 28, 2022
This is a whole new low even by Kyle Sandilands’ standards. @KIIS1065 and all their sponsors are complicit by having their brands attached to his name. Time and time again he’s caught in controversy and these comments are homophobic, hurtful, and only spread stigma. Sack him now. pic.twitter.com/aKF4JgDh0l
— Josh Salmon 🇦🇺 (@josh_salmon) August 28, 2022
Kyle Sandilands is honestly one of the most disgusting people in Australian media but he’s had so many free passes because he’s a “shock jock” which means we expect him to be awful so it’s okay! https://t.co/N0a2dQhcl9
— Tim Hutton (@TimHuttonAu) August 28, 2022
Sandilands is one of the highest-paid radio hosts in the country and has one of the highest numbers of listeners. So, there’s no ignoring that his words matter, and it’ll be interesting to see if he apologises.