PFLAG Rescinds Award to Joy Reid Over Antigay Blog Posts

PFLAG has taken back an honor it had given to Joy Reid, reports CBS News.

The LGBT organization rescinded its Straight for Equality in Media award after the surfacing of several antigay blog posts, which were allegedly written in the mid to late 2000s by the MSNBC host.

Twitter user @Jamie_Maz posted screenshots of these posts last week from the Internet Archive. In them, Reid allegedly refers to gay sex as "gross," states gay men "tend to be attracted to very young, post-pubescent types," and compiles "totally not gay" lists that out closeted figures at the time like Clay Aiken and Anderson Cooper. Another criticizes out MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for being "at the left-most end of the political spectrum" concerning LGBT rights.

This is not the first controversy to stem from Reid's blog, which is now defunct. In December, the media personality acknowledged and apologized for resurfaced posts in which she mocked Charlie Crist, the former governor of Florida, and speculated that he was gay.

However, Reid has denied authorship of this new batch of homophobic content. Jonathan Nichols, a "cybersecurity consultant" hired by Reid, told the New York Timesthat her blog was "breached" in December, when "fraudulent entries" were published "with suspicious formatting and time stamps."

Moreover, Nichols said there was "significant evidence" that some of the posts being shared on social media had been edited "to tarnish Ms. Reid's character." Reid has yet to release a statement.

The Internet Archive released its own statement Tuesday refuting that posts from its Wayback Machine, which were used to find Reid's posts, had been "manipulated." The nonprofit digital library revealed it had been contacted by Reid's legal representatives, which asked it to remove "fraudulent" posts that were "inserted into legitimate content."

"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 At least some of the examples of allegedly fraudulent posts provided to us had been archived at different dates and by different entities," the post read.

Reid has emerged as a liberal figurehead due to her popular MSNBC show, which airs weekend mornings. A spokesperson for NBC told Politico that her show will remain on the air, while law enforcement investigates Reid's hacking allegations.

Regardless, Jean Hodges, the president of PFLAG National, released a statement announcing the revocation. "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," Hodges stated.

"However, in light of new information, and the ongoing investigation of that information, we must at this time rescind our award to Ms. Reid."

Review the list of the controversial alleged posts on Twitter.