MSNBC host Joy Reid stands by her belief that she did not make homophobic statements on her personal blog 10 years ago.
Reid spent the first several minutes of her show explaining why, before bringing on a panel to discuss LGBTQ issues.
First the explanation:
“I hired cyber security experts to see if somebody manipulated my words on my former blog and the reality is they have not been able to prove it. But here’s what I know. I generally do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me. But I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and I have written in the past why some people don’t believe me. I am not exempt from being cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for. I own that. I get it. And for that I am truly, truly story.”
Reid said she “grew up in a household that had conservative views on LGBTQ issues: “I look back at the ways I talked about people and gender identity and sexual orientation and I wonder who that even was. But the reality is like a lot of people in this country that person was me.”
I like to think I have gotten better as a person over time, that I am still growing, that I’m not the same person I was 10 or 5 or even one year ago and I know that my goal is to try to be a better person or a better ally. Now the reality is I have to own the things that I have written, and tweeted, and said and I’m hoping out of all of this there’s an opportunity to talk about the ways hurtful speech does imperil marginalized communities.