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Is Joy Reid Homophobic? (No.)
OK. Let’s talk about Joy Reid. As many know, an amateur sleuth on Twitter who has previously unearthed some anti-gay remarks about Florida politician Charlie Crist has supposedly unearthed old blog posts right-leaning websites like Mediaite are publishing. The posts are supposedly screenshots of Reid’s old blog, in which she supposedly wrote anti-gay remarks, and which she says she shut down in 2011.
Reid also says that the newly unearthed anti-gay posts are not hers, that she did not write them. She also says she was hacked, and hired a cyber security expert who issued a report that states her blog was breached.
NBC News reportedly is not taking Reid off the air, and is allowing the law enforcement process to take place – Reid says she notified law enforcement last year when she found the fraudulent blog posts.
There are also some tweets that some are calling anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-LGBT, homophobic, transphobic, etc.
On the right, some are demanding NBC/MSNBC fire Reid, some are asking about an advertiser boycott, some are insisting she be punished – mostly because the left has been so effective at holding actual wrong doers accountable. The countless corrupt politicians/political operatives/fundraisers, etc. associated with the RNC and the Trump team have come under scrutiny from the left because of the wrongdoing, immoral, and possibly illegal acts that we see unfold literally every day.
The right sees this as payback.
But let’s do a few things. First, as far as the blog posts are concerned, Reid says she did not write them. A security expert says her site was breached. And she’s contacted law enforcement. Also, former Salon editor-in-chief Joan Walsh, who previously published Reid’s work from her old blog, says “none of us ever saw the kinds of homophobic posts she’s now accused of.”
“Also, to my knowledge, the offensive posts had no comments on them, while the posts she acknowledges had some lively comments debates,” Walsh adds.
Others have spoken out in support of her and her work:
I had an Open Salon blog at the same time as @JoyAnnReid and my posts got picked up by Salon a few times too. I read her fairly regularly and have ZERO recollection of anything homophobic in her writing. If there had been, you better believe I would’ve commented!
— Drew Emery (@InlawsOutlaws) April 25, 2018
I’m a black gay man, and I’ve known Joy Reid since my days at MSNBC. She interviewed me for her book years ago and spoke to my students in one of my Columbia classes a year or two ago. She has always treated me with dignity and respect, and I respect and appreciate her as well.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) April 25, 2018
I have no idea whether @JoyAnnReid wrote those blogs. But if she in fact said what she said, she’s since changed her opinion–which is what I thought honest intellectuals do in the face of new information. She’s a smart, savvy voice in a sea of Trumpian madness. I stand with Joy.
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) April 25, 2018
We also should look at who’s pushing the “Joy Reid is a homophobe” lie:
Did MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid lie to conceal alleged anti-gay posts or was she targeted by time travelling hackers? https://t.co/pj8sK6dRfC
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 25, 2018
I have no idea if Joy Reid wrote the blog posts Mediaite supposedly claims she did, and I’m not going to focus on them, as many others have.
But, the credibility of those who are “unearthing” these likely fraudulent blog posts should be questioned at this point, not Reid. She says they’re not hers, she was hacked, she has an expert supporting that statement, she contacted law enforcement when she found them, and a well-respected editor familiar with her work says she never saw homophobic posts. At this point the onus is on her accusers to prove their allegations.
Because the ones who are pushing this story is the anti-gay right. Fox News. Breitbart. The “alt-right” media outlets and “reporters.”
Now, there’s a lot that’s been written about the posts, not a lot that’s been written about her tweets.
So let’s look at some of the tweets some have characterizing as appalling.
And yes, a few are offensive. But many people on the right are pointing to are not.
Remember, these are from 2010 and 2010.
Yes, this is offensive:
“@ricksanchezcnn: i’m going to interview ann coulter tonite , what do u want me to ask her?” /don’t you mean “shim?”
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 23, 2010
This is not:
George ‘Rentboy’ Rekers resigns, is still not gay http://blog.reidreport.com/2010/05/george-rekers-resigns-is-still-not-gay/
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 12, 2010
(For those who don’t know, George Rekers built an entire career out of attacking LGBT people. He made a fortune testifying in court on the “dangers” of gay people. Until he was caught returning from a European vacation with a gay male prostitute.)
Is this homophobic? No. Accurate? I have no idea nor reason to think Rush Limbaugh is gay, but apparently Reid did. Was she disparaging gay people in this tweet? Doubtful.
#Rush Limbaugh’s fourth marriage offers a hopeful message for fat, grimey closet-cases everywhere. Get rich. (Karl Rove, you’re on deck!)
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 5, 2010
Last year in December Reid apologized for calling Charlie Crist “Miss Charlie.” He accepted her apology. Here’s a portion of what she wrote:
“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.”
If anyone has evidence of recent attacks on LGBT people Reid has made, let’s take a look at those.
The point is, if Reid were making anti-LGBT remarks today, absolutely we should hold her accountable. But there’s no evidence of that, and there’s plenty of evidence of her work supporting the LGBT community.
She has more than proven herself to be an LGBT ally today, and in the years since she made her questionable comments.
Does the LGBT community want the anti-LGBT right to decide who and what is anti-LGBT and homophobic?
Does the LGBT community want to take down our allies? That would leave us in a very lonely place.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
