The owner of Gay Times Magazine has suspended the new Editor, just weeks after he was installed in the post after antisemitic, homophobic, body shaming and anti-Asian tweets were discovered.
Josh Rivers, the new editor of Gay Times has been suspended following the discovery by Buzzfeed, of antisemitic, lesbian hating, body shaming and anti-Asian tweets in his Twitter timeline.
Loving the new beacon of inclusivity that Gay Times have appointed as their Editor. pic.twitter.com/CxusU4C0qV
— Jake Johnstone (@hijakejohnstone) November 15, 2017
When Josh Rivers got the job, he promised Gay Times would serve its “diverse and culturally inquisitive audience”. But @PatrickStrud went back through his Twitter history and found racism, anti-semitism, transphobia, and bodyshaming pic.twitter.com/70IAgfsW41
— Stuart Millar (@stuartmillar159) November 15, 2017
The majority of tweets, were published between 2010 and 2015, the antisemitic Tweet read,
“I wonder if they cast that guy as “The Jew” because of that f**king ridiculously large honker of a nose. it must be a prosthetic. Must be”.
Rivers who was working on a mandate of promoting inclusivity and diversity at the magazine has a number of incendiary comments on his Twitter account between 2010 and 2015. Some of the tweets which have been deleted described Jews as “gross” and some directed hatred towards lesbians, overweight women and men, and Asian and Chinese people.
Previously Josh had been a marketing exec at the company.
In a post published on Twitter, Rivers wrote, that he was “sorry”.
To every single person who is hurt, offended and disappointed: I’m sorry. pic.twitter.com/XAwz7llKxc
— Josh Rivers (@_joshrivers) November 15, 2017
The magazine released a statement, which said that Rivers’ past tweets did not “align with the values of Gay Times”.
It could have been worse, at least he didn’t come out as gay at the end of the apology.