Joy Reid Homophobic Blogposts

Submission 7,368

Overview

Joy Reid Homophobic Blogposts refers to the ongoing controversy regarding a series of homophobic remarks allegedly made by MSNBC host Joy Reid about a Florida politician. After the posts resurfaced, Reid denied having made the comments and claimed that her blog archives had been manipulated.

Background

On November 30th, 2017, Twitter ^[1] user @Jamie_Maz posted a series of tweets showing screencaptures of MSNBC host Joy Reid's former blog "The Reid Report." In the posts, @Jamie_Maz claims that Reid made made homopohic posts about Florida politican Charlie Crist, accusing him of being a closeted homosexual. The first post (shown below, left) says, "1/x From 2007 to 2009 @joyannreid authored a dozen homophobic posts not only attempting to out Charlie Crist as gay, she attacked & mocked him for being so. She repeatedly referred to him as 'Miss Charlie' and tagged posts about him under 'gay politicians.' (thread)" Within six months, the post received more than 1,700 retweets and 2,500 likes.

Over the course of 10 tweets (shown below), @Jamie_Maz writes that Reid "mockingly" called Crist "Miss Charlie," joked about how "he didn't want to see his wife naked" and used the tags "not gay politicians."

Developments

Joy Reid's Response

On December 3rd, 2017, Variety^[2] published a statement from Reid about the controversy. In the statement, Reid apologizes for the posts, which she called, "Insensitive, Tone Deaf and Dumb." She wrote:

"As someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm. It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb. There is no excusing it – not based on the taste-skewing mores of talk radio or the then-blogosphere, and not based on my intentions."

Read Full Statement

"This note is my apology to all who are disappointed by the content of blogs I wrote a decade ago, for which my choice of words and tone have legitimately been criticized.

As a writer, I pride myself on a facility with language -- an economy of words or at least some wisdom in the selection. However, that clearly has not always been the case.

In 2007 I was a morning talk radio host and blogger, writing about Florida politics (a blog I maintained until 2011.) Among the frequent subjects of my posts was then-governor Charlie Crist, at the time a conservative Republican, whose positions on issues like gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples in Florida shared headlines with widely rumored reports that he was hiding his sexual orientation. Those reports were the subject of lots of scrutiny: by LGBTQ bloggers, writers and journalists, conservative blogs, a controversial documentary film called “Outrage,” and even by the comedic writers at South Park. But it was my own attempt at challenging Crist on my blog that has now raised the issue of not just my choice of words, but what was and is in my heart.

Let me be clear: at no time have I intentionally sought to demean or harm the LGBT community, which includes people whom I deeply love. My goal, in my ham-handed way, was to call out potential hypocrisy.

Nonetheless, as someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm. It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb. There is no excusing it – not based on the taste-skewing mores of talk radio or the then-blogosphere, and not based on my intentions.

In addition to friends and coworkers and viewers, I deeply apologize to Congressman Crist, who was the target of my thoughtlessness. My critique of anti-LGBT positions he once held but has since abandoned was legitimate in my view. My means of critiquing were not.

In the years since I went from blogger to opinion journalist, I have also learned, through brilliant friends and allies in the LGBT activist community, how to better frame my critiques of those who challenge people’s right to love who they want, marry them, and walk in the world as fully free people.

Re-reading those old blog posts, I am disappointed in myself. I apologize to those who also are disappointed in me. Life can be humbling. It often is. But I hope that you know where my heart is, and that I will always strive to use my words for good. I know better and I will do better.

Allegations of Hacking

On April 23rd, 2018, Mediaite^[5] posted a different series of posts allegedly made by Reid. The second batch of posts, they write, defend homophobia, gay jokes and mocking homosexuals. Additionally, she mocks Some of these posts (examples below) state:

"most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing"^[6]

"Broke Back Mountain. (I admit that I couldn’t go see the movie either, despite my sister’s ringing endorsement.)"^[7]

"Does that make me homophobic? Probably."^[8]

Reid claimed that the these particular posts were fabricated, following an alleged breach of the archives in December 2017. She told Mediate that the posts were made by an "external party" that "manipulated material from my now-defunct blog." She said:

"In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.

"I began working with a cyber-security expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.

"Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups."

Following Reid's and her lawyer's investigation, the Internet Archive, an not-for-profit online record-keeping database, found no evidence to support the claim.^[9]

"This past December, Reid’s lawyers contacted us, asking to have archives of the blog (blog.reidreport.com) taken down, stating that “fraudulent” posts were “inserted into legitimate content” in our archives of the blog. Her attorneys stated that they didn’t know if the alleged insertion happened on the original site or with our archives (the point at which the manipulation is to have occurred, according to Reid, is still unclear to us).

"When we reviewed the archives, we found nothing to indicate tampering or hacking of the Wayback Machine versions. At least some of the examples of allegedly fraudulent posts provided to us had been archived at different dates and by different entities."

However, a cybersecurity expert working with Reid said that he had found evidence of manipulation, specifically the posts in question (statement below), which had been "entered with suspicious formatting and time stamps."^[10]^[11]

Online Reaction

Following the release of the first series of posts, on December 1st, 2017, an anonymous poster on the 4chan ^[14] board /pol/ that "Joy Reid is one of us (shown below).

After the second series of posts were released, many on Twitter discussed the controversy. Twitter^[15] user @leahmcelrath tweeted, "Fwiw, I do encourage @JoyAnnReid to reach out and engage with the LGBTQ community and to meet with trans folk in particular. I hope she’ll use this situation as an opportunity to expand her understanding and empathy. But, damn y’all, give people room to grow. We ALL need it." The post (shown below, left) received more than 50 retweets and 500 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter^[16] user @0xKruzr tweeted, "Can't help but wonder why @JoyAnnReid can't just say 'hey, I said a lot of ignorant shit on here a number of years ago and it sucked. Sorry about that.'" The tweet (shown below, center) received more than 25 retweets and 225 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter^[17] user @haircut_hippie tweeted, "today's Joy Reid story is really reminding me of how common anti-gay/ homophobic/ etc views were among mainstream liberals a very, very short time ago." The post (shown below, right) received more than 160 retweets and 1,000 likes in 24 hours.

On April 24th, Twitter^[3] published a Moments page about the conversation around allegedly fabricated posts.