As first reported by The Iowa Independent, Mickelson said on the air that AIDS discriminates against people who engage in “stupid behavior,” and since homosexuality is a “sexual disorder” that violates natural law, it “isn’t rocket science” to conclude AIDS discriminates against homosexuals. The statement drew immediate outrage from LGBT-rights organizations One Iowa and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), who demanded WHO-AM’s parent company — Clear Channel Communications Inc. — rebuke the host.

In a statement read shortly before Mickelson’s program began last week, Clear Channel did just that, saying Mickelson’s statements “confused strong opinion with medical fact, and contained factual errors regarding HIV/AIDS, it’s spread and current efforts to inform the public about this disease.”

McCoy, who is openly gay, told The Register he plans to launch a website to encourage boycotts of other businesses that sponsor Mickelson or other programs that speak inaccurately or unfairly about gay and lesbians.

From The Register:

His first target: Toyota of Des Moines even though he drives a vehicle purchased from the dealership.

“It’s the last one I’m ever going to own, that’s for sure,” said Sen. Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines.

…

“I think Toyota of Des Moines is a perfectly fine dealership,” [McCoy] said.  “I just think they shouldn’t have a chief bigot as their spokesperson.”

WHO-AM’s marketing manager said the station has not had any advertisers withdraw from Mickelson yet, and a manager at Toyota of Des Moines said he has no plans to pull the company’s ads.

This is not McCoy’s first run in with WHO-AM. In May 2009, another of the station’s hosts, Steve Deace, and his pastor concluded that because McCoy was gay he couldn’t call himself a Christian. McCoy, who is an active member of Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines, said Deace’s remarks “crossed the line of decency.”

(Photo: Flickr Creative Commons/George Ferris)