Gay rights group keeps at RDS

The Quebec Gay and Lesbian Council has lodged a complaint against RDS over remarks made by two sportscasters about figure skater Johnny Weir.

The group on Monday filed a complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, calling for further apologies from the French-language network following on-air remarks by hosts Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg it considers ‘homophobic.’

The pair remarked last week during RDS’ coverage of the men’s figure skating competition that the 23-year-old American athlete should be subjected to a gender test and that his trademark flamboyant style ‘sets a bad example’ for the sport.

Mailhot and Goldberg later apologized. The network also issued a statement acknowledging the ‘tactless comments on the appearance and manner of a figure skater’ before adding that the pair ‘never meant to defame an individual or a sexual orientation.’

Those apologies were not enough for council president Steve Foster, however.

‘They only apologized for the comments they made on his outfit,’ he told Canadian Press. ‘We hadn’t even asked for an apology for those remarks. It’s the rest of the comments: on his masculinity, his femininity, the fact he should skate as a woman.’

Two sportscasters for Australia’s Channel Nine also drew fire last week after they joked about Weir’s sexuality.