LGBT Organization Rescinds Award from Joy Reid as She Doubles Down on ‘Hacking’ Excuse

PFLAG, an LGBT organization, has rescinded its “Straight for Equality in Media” award from MSNBC host Joy Reid, while she continues to double down on her excuses over newly-revealed homophobic blog posts.

“When we extended our invitation to Ms. Reid to honor her at our 45th anniversary celebration, we did so knowing about the blog posts from the late 2000s regarding Charlie Crist. We appreciated how she stepped up, took ownership, apologized for them, and did better—this is the behavior and approach we ask of any ally,” declared PFLAG National President Jean Hodges. “However, in light of new information, and the ongoing investigation of that information, we must at this time rescind our award to Ms. Reid.”

In the newly-revealed blog posts, Reid made several homophobic comments, including, “most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing,” and “adult gay men tend to be attracted to very young, post-pubescent types.”

“Most straight people had a hard time being convinced to watch ‘Broke Back Mountain.’ (I admit that I couldn’t go see the movie either, despite my sister’s ringing endorsement, because I didn’t want to watch the two male characters having sex.) Does that make me homophobic? Probably,” added Reid, while in others she referred to homosexuality as “gross,” expressed opposition to gay marriage, and accused dozens of celebrities of being gay.

Instead of apologizing, which Reid did last time when other homophobic blog posts were discovered, the MSNBC host claimed the posts were the result of hackers who had managed to modify the Wayback Machine, a website used to view old sites which have since been changed or deleted.

Despite Reid’s excuse, a representative for the Wayback Machine claimed the company had “found nothing to indicate tampering or hacking of the Wayback Machine versions.”

It was also discovered that the Library of Congress had archived the blog posts in 2006, while another security expert expressed doubt over Reid’s hacker claims.

In response, Reid’s cybersecurity consultant, Jonathan Nichols, claimed on Tuesday that the incriminating comments about homosexuality instead “may be the result of screenshot manipulation.”

“These instances may be the result of screenshot manipulation with the intent to tarnish Ms. Reid’s character,” declared Nichols. “Oddly, there were no responses in the comments section of the entries, despite the inflammatory nature of the posts. If those posts were real, they would have undoubtedly elicited responses from Ms. Reid’s base.”

However, the Twitter user who discovered many of Reid’s comments on the Wayback Machine — before Reid forced the website to stop allowing people to see her old blog — responded, “Nothing was doctored or altered or created… What you see is what I saw on the Wayback Machine site.”

According to HuffPost, a spokesman for Reid’s show on MSNBC claimed the “alleged hacking” was “subject to a federal investigation.”