Joy Reid apologizes for ‘insensitive, tone deaf’ anti-gay posts

The MSNBC anchor says old blogs about GOP politician were not intended 'demean' LGBT community

Dec 4, 2017

Joy Reid issued an apology this weekend for blog posts she had written in the past that many felt contained anti-gay language.

The posts were aimed at then-Florida Governor Charlie Crist. In the posts, Reid called the politician “Miss Charlie” and claimed that he was a closeted gay man, criticizing him for his anti-gay stances in the process.

“Now that he’s married to a girl,” she wrote in one post, “Charlie Crist is being sought out for all KINDS of good stuff… [The GOP] are wooing Miss Charlie to run.”

The MSNBC host has since issued a statement of apology, which reads in part, “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,” she added.

She went on to apologize for using sexual orientation as a “means of critiquing” someone’s stances and concluded, “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.”