An LGBTQ advocacy group has rescinded its media award to MSNBC's Joy Ann Reid after a slew of homophobic posts from a blog were revealed, Mediaite reported Tuesday.
Reid was to have accepted PFLAG National's "Straight for Equality in Media" award at the organization's 45th anniversary next month, Mediaite reported.
But Twitter user and Internet sleuth Jamie Maz — who Mediaite reported first unearthed Reid’s anti-gay tweets from 2007 to 2009 about then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist — found dozens of other anti-gay slurs in the old blog, The Reid Report.
Maz found the articles using the "Wayback Machine," the Internet digital archive that stores old online content even after it has been removed or deleted by the publisher, Mediaite reported.
Reid apologized in December for the Crist posts. But instead of another apology for the new anti-gay trove, Reid on Monday told Mediaite the posts — which defended homophobia, gay jokes, and mocking gay people and homosexuality — were put in by an "external party" that "manipulated material from my now-defunct blog."
The Intercept reported experts were unaware of any previous instances of the Wayback Machine being hacked and altered — and said the work required would have had to be extensive and sophisticated.
PFLAG National appeared unmoved.
"PFLAG National — the nation's first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, their families, and allies — has rescinded its Straight for Equality in Media award to political analyst Joy Reid," the organization's president Jean Hodges told Mediate.
"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," continued Hodges. "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."
"[I]n light of new information, and the ongoing investigation of that information" the organization "must at this time rescind our award to Ms. Reid."
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