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A Little Headway? - We Hope So.

Posted by John Goodrich on Tuesday, Aug 2, 2011

In the July issue of GQ, the magazine named Boston as the Worst-Dressed city in the US. But, they couldn't just leave it at that. Instead, they thought it was necessary to describe the city's style like this: "Boston suffers from a kind of Style Down Syndrome, where a little extra ends up ruining everything."

Once again, our kids get placed as a objects of ridicule in the media. Once again, no one producing this article thought enough about those it hurts to stop it from being printed.

Luckily, Dads out there are watching out for our kids. Brad from California, the father of a child with Down syndrome, wrote to GQ and pointed out how hurtful this statement is. He stressed that after all our kids have to go through (surgeries, therapies) - they don't need mean-spirited setbacks from others.

GQ actually answered with an apology and edited the reference to Down syndrome out of the online version of the article. We can hope that the apology was sincere and that Brad (and I'm sure there were others as well) made some headway towards understanding in the GQ office.

However, his subsequent reply back reminding the editors that much damage has been done in the printed copies of the magazine and suggesting that GQ goes the extra mile and issue a printed apology with a PSA has so far gone unanswered.

Let's all take this as a reminder that these kinds of statements still happen too often - and we have to be ones to bring about change.

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