MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid has claimed that recently-circulated homophobic blog posts appearing to be pulled from her own site are fake news.
More specifically, she says she’s been hacked. In a statement to Mediaite, she claims an “external party accessed and manipulated material from [her] now-defunct blog to include offensive and hateful references.”
But while it’s theoretically possible that she was in fact hacked, and that the hacker fabricated old blog posts discussing, among other pseudo-offensive things, being grossed out by gay sex, the story isn’t sitting well with many observers.
Writing for The Intercept, famed journalist and author Glenn Greenwald breaks down the issues involved in what is either a story about a sophisticated, highly specific cyber attack on a public figure, or a story about covering up one’s past to avoid embarrassment.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Since Reid’s blog has long been removed from the web, the old stories were either discovered or planted using the WayBack Machine, a tool that archives the internet.
If true, it would be the first known hacking of the WayBack Machine, and no small feat at that. Again — it’s possible (anything is possible online), but is it likely?
Cybersecurity expert Jeffrey Carr told The Intercept:
Regarding the Wayback Machine, I don’t know. I’ve never heard of that happening but it doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen, I guess. Was it the very last post that she published? Because if it wasn’t (and depending upon how her blog was set up), then there may have been more than one copy that would need to be hacked. My old Blogspot blog is like that. … That’s an awful lot of work for a hacker to do, and for what end? To make a homophobic person appear MORE homophobic?
And that leads into another confusing piece of the puzzle: In December of last year, Reid issued a public apology for — wait for it — some old blog posts she’d written that appeared homophobic, including mocking then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as “Miss Charlie” and saying he’d spend his honeymoon “ogling male waiters.”
It’s not exactly Jerry Falwell-level homophobia, but by today’s standards, the comments don’t read too well.
Reid called these and other statements she made on her blog “insensitive, tone deaf and dumb,” and for the most part, that was that; people evolve.
So to Carr’s point, why would a hacker expend considerable effort to show that someone who has publicly acknowledged evolving on LGBTQ issues wrote some less-than-PC things a decade ago?
CNN reporter Nathan McDermott seems to think something’s amiss as well, tweeting “Joy Reid uses the old, ‘I was hacked!’ defense after newly discovered homophobic posts from her blog were revealed.”
Joy Reid uses the old, "I was hacked!" defense after newly discovered homophobic posts from her blog were revealedhttps://t.co/pOxDi9AcUm
— Nathan McDermott (@natemcdermott) April 23, 2018
To add to the intrigue, a staffer for the Internet Archive: WayBack Machine addressed the issue in a blog post of his own, sharing this behind-the-scenes timeline:
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.
We let Reid’s lawyers know that the information provided was not sufficient for us to verify claims of manipulation. Consequently, and due to Reid’s being a journalist (a very high-profile one, at that) and the journalistic nature of the blog archives, we declined to take down the archives. We were clear that we would welcome and consider any further information that they could provide us to support their claims.
If Reid really was hacked in the way she describes, there is a massive story waiting to be uncovered. Who would do this and how could they pull it off?
And if she reached for a convenient lie in the hopes that the whole thing would blow over, well, she just made it a much bigger deal.
Nowuvedoneit
I don’t buy her explanation. Why would anyone hack her account to post things when she’s really not that well known? Why waste time in taking over an account of somewhat on air personality? In the grand scheme of things she’s not that important.
DCguy
She’s not exactly unknown, she has her own TV show and multiple articles have painted her as one of the faces of the “Resistance”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/style/joy-reid-msnbc.html
Kieran
@DCguy We’re all very familiar with Joy’s “face”. It’s the ugly face of American homophobia. And yes, self-righteous leftists can be just as homophobic (consciously or unconsciously) as anybody else.
Nowuvedoneit
DCguy well outside of MSNBC she isn’t that well known, it’s likr the Foxnews personalities who aren’t known outside of their echo chambers.
bambamboom777
There has been a quiet open campaign to attack Joy Reid in the last few months. She is definitely well-known among the alt-right, who see her as a target to be destroyed. Glenn Greenwald has been after her and MSCNBC, as well as anyone who criticizes Russia or Assad, not to mention anyone who doesn’t openly hate Hillary Clinton, for quite a while now. His motivation has nothing to do with exposing homophobia and that is clear to anyone who is familiar with his history.
DCguy
Let’s say that what she said about Charlie Crist is true. She called him “Miss Charlie”.
So she called somebody who at that time was a closeted Republican politician, voting against lgbt issues “Miss”.
I have seen multiple lgbt accounts or blogs refer to Lindsay Graham as “Miss Lindsay”. I don’t really have a huge problem with hypocritical politicians being confronted with their hypocrisy and self hate, maybe it’s just me.
Kieran
Joy Reid has reportedly said a lot more than just “Miss Charlie” in reference to a man she believed was secretly gay. She apparently has a real problem with gay men and in the past she did little to hide it. Stop trying to defend her bad behavior.
mhoffman953
@DCguy
She’s a media personality and we’re commenters on a blog.
Plus, if you read the article from The Intercept and clicked the links, you’d see she has said way more than the one comment you are referencing. She made fun of women for having “lesbian haircuts”, called Ann Coulter a “shim”, said the thought of gay sex grosses her out, mocked Brokeback Mountain because it features two men having sex, and much more. Stop defending anti-gay people just because they have “some” political beliefs similar to you.
Also, it wasn’t just her old blog that had these comments, some of those were deleted tweets that were uncovered too.
The way I look at it is, I imagine what if someone that wasn’t left leaning and wasn’t a black woman said it. Imagine if a straight white guy from FOX News said the same stuff in the past and it resurfaced. How would everyone feel then? He would lose advertisers and probably lose his job. Should the same not happen here?
Vince
@mhoffman953. Aren’t tweets easy to produce and verify though? I mean I’d like to see the actual tweets instead of she said this and that.
Vince
She does have a lot of enemies on the right I would imagine though.
mhoffman953
@Vince
If you go through the article and do a Google search, many of the tweets still exist. Here’s just one for example: https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/19374227866
Paco
Again, it’s strange that the tweet went unnoticed for 8 years and had no replies until 2 days ago, @mhoffman953.
Paco
And the person she is replying to only has a handful of tweets from 2014. Not adding up.
Kieran
@mhoffman953: I wonder if Joy Reid ever looked in a mirror?
@JoyAnnReid
“@ricksanchezcnn: i’m going to interview ann coulter tonite , what do u want me to ask her?” /don’t you mean “shim?”
bambamboom777
I agree with DCguy. I don’t find those statements aimed at Charlie Crist to be homophobic at all. Especially in the context they were made. Those statements are no different than what most gay men were saying at the same time. Of course, had Crist been an openly gay man, advocating pro-gay issues, then yes, of course it would have been homophobic. This is a divide and conquer campaign to separate the gay community from its allies and is part of a bigger campaign to divide the Left into a number of warring factions spending all their energy attacking each other instead of the real enemy. Don’t fall for it.
Vince
So far this is a lot of to do about nothing.
ewe
Open homophobic and transphobic remarks are not nothing to a lot of lgbt people
Paco
Strange that it took a decade for this stuff to be “discovered” and another site reported that all the homophobic articles somehow had zero comments made by readers.
ewe
Nobody knew her till later perhaps. Many people incite others to gain an audience
Smith David
I like her A.M Joy spot. She is very informed and attempts to stay factual. Compared to the nest of vipers on capital hill, she is an angel.
madcat
She’s an ally now and she’s apologized for past comments. This is nonsense. Upstart reporters looking for clicks and right wingers trying to take down someone who’s done more for the LGBT community than they have whatever the posts say. We need to quit letting the right divide us over this idiocy. Let’s focus on those who are showing these attitudes NOW.
Roan
“In one way, the fact that Joy Reid is a *now* a loud voice for LGBT equality should be our only concern as the goal of the LGBT movement has always been to change minds. But the claim of having been hacked is definitely troubling.” – Joe of JoeMyGod
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Kangol
I like her on-air presence and find her to be one of the better progressive TV show hosts, but if she posted homophobic remarks she should own up to them and apologize. Fully. No half-apologies, no claims of being hacked (if it isn’t true), just say, “Look, I have had issues with gay people in the past, and I am working through them now.” She has been a strong ally of LGBTQ people and equality in recent years, so should be able to understand why her past posts–beyond the “Miss Charlie Crist” one–were hurtful and harmful. She’s got it in her to do self-correct, and she should.
As for her “being the face of homophobia,” that is absolute nonsense. The face of homophobia in the US today is the collective face of all the monstrous politicians, clergy, businesspeople, etc., people with power, who do everything they can to attack LGBTQ people, promote anti-gay legislation (which affects millions of people), fight against marriage equality, advance homophobia and homophobic laws overseas, and so on. It must pain right-wingers to grasp that the people they adore not only have made a few past homophobic posts or statements, but continue to harm LGBTQ people, which is why they go after Joy Reid. Seriously, waste your breath trying to “change” or chasten Donald Trump or Mike Pence or Mike Pompeo, to name three high-level Repubicans advancing homophobes and homophobia and transphobia. They’re doing far more damage, and are continuing to do so.
Kieran
This is exactly why so many of us see liberals as a bunch of shameless hypocrites. Honophobes get a pass on their homophobia as long as they spout a leftist political viewpoint. That’s total bullshit. Either homophobia is wrong and should be attacked or it’s not. No cherry picking based on whether the homophobe hates President Trump or not.
Kangol
What are you whinging about? I’m a progressive and I said she should apologize if she wrote them and is lying about it now. I also said No half-apologies. None. If she’s lying, she should own up to it and fully apologize, whether she’s an ally or not. Con-servatives can’t even bring themselves to denounce outright homophobic behavior today. Silence about right-wing homophobia is anything but golden. Are you fighting for LGBTQ equality or mainly fighting against liberals, a majority of whom strongly support LGBTQ equality? Because the same cannot be said for US conservatives. Not now, and surely not in the past.
Kieran
The fact is, without the deciding vote of a US conservative (Justice Anthony Kennedy) who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, we wouldn’t have gay marriage equality as the law of the land in the US. Let’s be grateful it was a gay ally like Kennedy who cast the deciding vote and not a closet homophobe like Joy Reid.
Kieran
The Wayback Machine captured these posts at or near the time they were posted – over ten years ago. For Reid’s account to make sense, someone would have had to access Reid’s blog with Dark Web credentials, then travel back in time.
Joe Bernstein Retweeted ErikWemple
If this is true, Nichols and Reid should identify which posts they allege are fabricated and which are real. Remember, Reid has already acknowledge some of the posts are real — and apologized for them.
assiandude
I believe that Ms Reid blogged what is being reported and am disturbed by her defense that appears to be untrue. We forget how much has changed in that past 15-20 years. Blogs were not widely reposted and appealed to a smaller targeted group of readers so a lot of things were posted which should coming back to haunt the more “liberal” entertainers who have changed their postings and public persona. Hilary Clinton was very late in voicing her support for gay marriage as were 95% of the left during this time. I recall that Mark Wahlberg admitted and apologized for gay bashing in his youth and has been forgiven except for perhaps his victims.
I think this is comparable to the #metoo backlash but in this case it appears that the actions of the past aren’t as consequential for a history of gay bashing as it is for sexual harassment, as least as long as they appear to be allies. Imagine the press response if she were nominated by Trump for a position. This would be in all the news and people would be up in arms about her homophobic past.
bambamboom777
There were no comments on her blogs. No one remembers her saying those things. Somehow they’ve just gone unnoticed for all these years? No I’m not buying it one bit. Something isn’t right here and Glenn Greenwald has an axe to grind with CNN. The entire right wing wants to bring down anyone in the media who they don’t agree with. I’m sticking with Joy Reid until I am given proof that she is a homophobe and I see her out there preaching homophobia in the present. I haven’t see that so far, yet I have seen that in the people who would like to bring her down. Divide and conquer is how the right wing operates. We are fools if we fall for it.
redcarpet30
Glen Greenwald? The same one who helped leak stolen NSA information to the delight of Russia and then tried to cover for Russia after the election? That Glen Greenwald?
I trust him about as far as I can throw him. I trust his motivations even less.
If it were any other reporter I would’t Entertain the idea of hacking the way back machine. But With glen Greenwalds history I can’t help but consider it.
KaiserVonScheiss
You mean the NSA information that showed the NSA was illegally spying on the American people, that informaton?
The same information that proved James Clapper committed perjury when he lied to congress about such spying?
bambamboom777
Thank you! Glen Greenwald is the LAST person I would trust in anything. The man is in an all-out war against what he considers “liberals, the main stream media, the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, the investigation into Russia, Mueller, the DNC, MSNBC, etc.” This man has made it his life’s mission to destroy anyone associated with the above-mentioned. And he claims to be a “progressive”. Yeah, if Glen Greenwald is involved, a red flag needs to go up at once. He hates Joy Reid. And once he gets rid of her, believe me, Rachel Maddow is next on his hit list. Glen Greenwald is the one who needs to be exposed, not Joy Reid.
NateOcean
You beat me to it!
I really don’t know much about Joy Reid, but you can be sure that if Glen Greenwald is involved in this story, look in the opposite direction for the facts.
mhoffman953
@NateOcean
CNN and many left leaning bloggers are corroborating and reporting the same story. Seems odd that you’ll defend Joy Reid’s homophobic remarks and disavow the gay man reporting it, Glen Greenwald
bambamboom777
Glen Greenwald has an ulterior motive and exposing “homophobia” is NOT it. And reporters from MSNBC’s main competition have their own motives. Let’s look at the whole picture and not be misled by trickery. Also, let’s look at where all these accusations actual originate and follow the money trail. I smell alt-right and Putin all over this. Glen Greenwald has a history of going after anyone who criticizes Putin or Syria. He’s a fake left liar, as are his fanboys and similar bloggers.
KaiserVonScheiss
I don’t buy Reid’s claim at all. I personally don’t care about what her opinions were or are.
However, I find her claim hilarious. It’s all too common these days to blame such things on hackers, trolls, or Russians. It’s pretty much the go-to defence now.
ewe
She’s s disgrace and should lose her job
madcat
I’m willing to forgive anyone who’s consistently anti-Trump for things they said 10 minutes ago, let alone 10 years ago.
ewe
Then you will always be looking over your shoulder cause joy Reid is no ally to lgbt people.
skyboy63
If gay men can vote for Trump, I can keep supporting Joy Reid.
DuMaurier
I personally wouldn’t use gay Trump supporters as a role model, but that’s just me. As far as Reid goes, if she said these things it was a long time ago (sorta) and attitudes change. But if she’s lying about it’s the same as her saying it today.
ewe
Go right ahead. There are plenty of self hating gay men out there you can hook up with.
argleflarglebargle
So because she said some stupid things 10 years ago on a blog that only exists on the wayback machine that she has long since apologised for…. what? What exactly? Are we meant to never forgive her despite the fact that she said she was sorry and changed her views? For crying out loud, THIS is why it’s so hard to get people on our side! We can not keep attacking people for things they said a decade ago and apolgised for. She changed, that’s literally what we want from people is for them to change their minds and it happened. People will see this and go “Oh, why bother, they’re just going to attack me no matter what” and we’re screwed then!
mhoffman953
@argleflarglebargle
But she didn’t apologize for this. She claims hackers must’ve mastered time traveling and magically went back in time and hacked her and then magically captured archives (not just Wayback Machine but other archives) all around the internet. Instead of being honest, she gave a spineless response
“We can not keep attacking people for things they said a decade ago and apolgised for. She changed, that’s literally what we want from people is for them to change their minds and it happened”
Something tells me that if it was a right-leaning cable news person, you wouldn’t be saying the same thing. Plus how do you know she’s changed her mind? But to lie (a very dumb lie) puts that in question
She used her blog to claim that gay men prey on “impressionable teens” and hasn’t apologized for it. So if you give her a pass on that, then don’t complain when no one takes you seriously, as you take the moral high ground about someone you don’t like who says similar things
Ronbo
Reid obviously viewed gays as “less than” and/or worthy of derision and insults. She pulled a “Hillary” trying to blame others for her own actions. Reid is deserving of ridicule as she is an ironic example of bigotry.
Ronbo
MSNBC is a great example of the fake left. Phil Donahue was fired for doing the right thing in opposition to unending war while Reid is promoted.
Kieran
@Ronbo Yes, I’ll never forget how “progressive” MSNBC fired Donahue. their top rated program host, because he refused to tone down the anti-War rhetoric on his program in the run up to the Iraq War.
o.codone
It is a frightening and sober moment to see gays bend over backwards and take homophobic insults on the chin just because this commentator is a liberal, (and a black female). With friends like this, who needs enemies? Hell no, I’m not going to take this from this lying woman! She’s a hater and she’s not getting a pass from me just because of her politics. What is wrong with you guys that you excuse this disrespect? It looks like the battered victim syndrome where you just take it and take it and take it as long as the bully says they love you. F*%k that!
davidjohng
I agree. An apology isn’t enough. I think she needs to look at herself. A real “moving on” is some public reflection on how your hateful thinking got formed. Her blog comments aren’t mild. They belie someone who thinks gay men are “less than” and to be ridiculed as “feminine” as if that is something shameful. What environments were you raised in to not only internalize that but to think it’s ok to publicly express it? And she considered herself a progressive??I am an older gay man and living through intense hostility even from “progressive” str8 people who didn’t consider LGBT issues on a par with their other causes and groups. Frankly “evolving” is not only apologizing (anyone can do that, sincere or not, and we don’t know) but having some insight into how one got that way and see the many ways homophobia is so damaging to the gay individuals. If this had been a racial issue coming back to bite would the reaction be the same? Frankly I think MSNBC needs to do their investigation and if there was no tampering to fire her if only to send a message that LGBT people are equal humans and therefore we are to be respected as such.
Yoshito
Frankly I don’t care if she was homophobic in the past. A lot of people were. As long as she didn’t kill anyone and she’s no longer that way she’s okay with me. We all have things in our pasts that we’d rather not remember me thinks
CastleSF
It is amazing that how most liberal leaning people on this forum are so blindsided by their “selective forgiveness.” It’s OK to be a little biased as we all are at some point of our life but don’t accuse others of intolerance when you yourselves are marred by the same flaw.
Paco
I’m just amazed that she was able to fly under the radar for so long. Social media is getting lazy. She really needs to just admit she once felt that way but has since learned better and has evolved. Trying to cover it up just seems like her views have not changed.
I can forgive people for having past biases if they own up to them and show they have really evolved and have stopped trying to hurt and undermine the people they were biased against.
o.codone
How about this. We all acknowledge that she has evolved and her homophobic attacks have been cleansed by a suitable penance and she is forgiven. Fine. Now, take your crazy sh&t and go TF home. You’re NSFW. We never want to hear from you again. You have no credibility here. You’re liable to say anything and we cannot take that risk. It’s over.
Nah, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey goodbye.
CastleSF
I don’t understand this. The moment you criticize the political philosophy of liberal leaning folks, they immediately accuse you of being pro-Trump or that you belong to Fox News. This My Way or Highway mentality is exactly the carbon copy of the right wing hallmark. Both extremely narrow minded and both equally intolerant.
o.codone
@madcat. I don’t understand the reference to clutching pearls, but no matter. You are the most dangerous kind of apologist. The kind that apologizes on behalf of haters who have hurt us and who would do it again if they could. “Here’s a free pass to gay bash, trash talk and speak hatred in the faces of gay people everywhere”. Why would you do that?
What next madcat, “the KKK is just about the BBQ, and Hitler is just politics after all”? I’ll ask you again dude, what IS wrong with you?
madcat
It’s not that hard. I care about what people are saying now. Those are the battles I choose to fight. Fighting battles with anyone’s past is a right wing distraction. You seem to be interested in stirring up outrage as distraction. There are far worse things being said now by other people than what was said to years ago by someone who clearly doesn’t think that way now. Move along, nothing to see here.
mhoffman953
@madcat
“I care about what people are saying now”
So then you should care that Joy Reid thinks you’re stupid enough to believe her story about time traveling hackers.
People would move on if she’d just own up to it and say sorry. She didn’t do that. Instead she’s claiming some hacker with magical powers went back in time and hacked her. Anthony Weiner used the same defense when someone claimed he was sexting underage girls.
Joy Reid shouldn’t treat us like we’re stupid
madcat
I’ll decide what I should and shouldn’t care about based on everything she’s saying now. Anthony Weiner wasn’t worth defending before he was texting underage girls.
CastleSF
I am not familiar with Ms. Reid but if I may add that when President Obama candidly shared that his views on homosexuality and same sex marriage had been evolving over the years, not only did he sound believable and sincere, he also backed up his words with numerous actions that have since benefited the gay citizens tremendously. Maybe we can give same benefit of doubt to Ms. Reid? Ultimately it is not what one says but what one does that shows one’s true color.
Kieran
In today’s edition of “Democrats Sure Got It Good,” I give you the far-left Daily Beast, which is preparing the excuse of “she forgot” to save MSNBC anchor Joy Reid, not only from years of documented gay-bashing, but from the fact that she likely lied about being hacked.
DCguy
Except you can’t link to it to prove your statement.
mhoffman953
@DCguy
As you’ve been told time and time again, its all linked in the news reports. But I’ll be your guide for the internet today.
Most of it can be found here: https://twitter.com/Jamie_Maz/status/986674364979523597
Since your blinders are on, Joy Reid defended an NBA player’s anti-gay comments, said she couldn’t watch Brokeback Mountain because it’s gross then justified that it probably makes her homophobic and she’s ok with that, defended a marine general for saying gay sex is immoral, opposed a woman’s nomination to the Supreme Court because she might be a lesbian, claimed gay men have pedophile tendencies by being attracted to very young, underage boys and forcing them into immoral lifestyles, claimed that manipulating genes of a baby to make sure he wasn’t gay would be an interesting moral question, mocked gay celebs who might be gay, bashed Anderson Cooper for being gay, mocked Rachel Maddow for supporting gay marriage, claims gay marriage is stupid, and much more
No one would care if she just said sorry and that this was a while ago. Instead, she’s treating the public for fools by saying time traveling hackers hacked her.
I wouldn’t even care if she said those things or if those were her views, it’s her phony image and made up response that’s the problem.
mhoffman953
@DCguy
The only one defending someone who is anti-gay is you right now with your defense of Joy Reid. As I told you before, when you’ve had several of your policy breaking comments removed in this post, all of the links are provided from the people reporting the story. We can’t take you by the hand and show you how the internet works
madcat
Don’t muddy the waters by leaving out that these comments, if they were hers, were from 2006 and do not reflect her current views that she espouses on tv weekly to a much larger audience than a blog. As opposed to Fox News where vile views are still being voiced daily.
madcat
Since she began showing up on tv she has been a vocal and vigorous LGBT ally.
Kieran
Do you have any clips to share with us of Joy being an advocate for the gay community? Or are you just blowing smoke?
madcat
This morning on her show, she’s so far had on 8 LGBT community leaders on to discuss the impact of the things she said and the real world effects of even casual micro aggressive comments. They also discussed how attitudes have changed in 10 years. She opened her show apologizing for any comments she’s made and saying they do not reflect her current beliefs. 10 years ago we wanted people to change their attitudes, we shouldn’t retroactively punish them now that they have.
mhoffman953
@madcat
“This morning on her show…”
This morning?!? I thought Kieran was asking what she has done in the past, not this morning. It sounds like the whole thing was just damage control.
Plus, why did she have to open her show apologizing if she didn’t write these things? I thought the time traveling hackers did
madcat
As anyone who watches her show would know, she regularly hosts segments on LGBT rights, the transgender military ban, the rollback of adoption rights in red states and the consequences of Trumps appointing conservative judges to the Supreme Court. Of course she’s addressing the subject but none of her guests were on for the first time as LGBT leaders. The most obvious takeaway from all this is that no one who’s attacking her cares a bit about LGBT issues and are largely ignorant of her recent advocacy. LGBT issues come up practically every show!
ewe
Joy Reid is a load trying to salvage her career. Paul’s dean was crucified for much less.
davidjohng
Her most recent “apology” was more of a real apology because she included some insight into her earlier environment and the influence on her thoughts and beliefs in 2006. People forget just how outrageously and vocal homophobia was only 10-15 years ago and what was accepted. I am personally ready to forgive that part of her. But I’d like the mainstream liberal media to focus more on the oppression that the LGBT community continues to face and affects of discrimination, micro-aggressions and exclusion have on individuals in the community. I’m a mental health therapist who sees quite a few gay men and it’s no secret that gay men experience much higher rates of alcoholism and other addictions that the mainstream along with other mental health issues. Chronic micro-aggressions belittling our identity and invalidating our experience and damaging our self esteem only add to this. Just the other day there was a court case in Texas where a “str8” man who murdered his gay male neighbor and was able to successfully use the “gay panic” defense and plead to a much lesser charge and receive only probation. That tells me about “institutionalized homophobia” and the view of the LGBT as “lesser than” is still very much alive., That’s why in this case I forgive myself for being cautious and taking my time to forgive someone who jumped on the band wagon to stigmatize and hurt a community (and in effect individuals) she now says she embraces. There’s a lot of dead bodies back there.
stuffedpuppy
Why are LGBT(Q) people so flaky? If Miss Reid did indeed have so-called homophobic comments so long ago, sure it might not be pretty but remember that, above all, she had/had freedom of speech! So do you when you treat the homophobes of name-calling ad nauseum…
HOPEFULLY Joy Reid has evolved on these matters (since) and i believe her to be a very talented MSNBC host/journalist.
As far as Greenwald being an enemy of the state or an agent of the alt right…please seek immediate proffesionnal help! His work with Laura Poitras and Ed Snowden was priceless in exposing the attack on our freedom. DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ