Michael Lucas – Photo: Stas Vokman, via Instagram.
Michael Lucas, a gay adult film actor and director, is criticizing “hypocrisy” and what he calls a “double standard” in the entertainment industry when it comes to offensive language or politically incorrect behavior.
In an interview with right-wing news and opinion site Breitbart.com, Lucas says there are “two sets of rules” in the industry: one for conservatives, and one for liberals.
He specifically fixates on the apparent unwillingness of MSNBC to fire Joy Reid after she became embroiled in controversy for offensive blog posts she had written from 2005 to 2009, when she was a radio host in Florida.
In the blog posts, Reid expresses anti-gay sentiment towards members of the LGBTQ community, calls out conservative politicians she believes are closeted, and, in other posts recently dug up by BuzzFeed, indulges in conspiracy theories that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government.
Reid has been under fire for her past blog posts for the past six months. In December, she apologized for posts in which she frequently speculated that Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor from Florida who is now a Democrat in Congress, was gay and that his marriage was a sham designed to make him more appealing as a potential vice presidential candidate in 2008.
Although Reid was not the only person to make such speculations — Crist has been plagued by gay rumors, spread by both Democrats and his fellow Florida Republicans, for much of his career — many conservatives have taken issue with the manner in which Reid attacked Crist, claiming the “gay” label was simply used as an easy way to smear her ideological opponents.
Reid was then besieged by criticism in April after other anti-LGBTQ blog posts came to light in which she speculated about singer Clay Aiken and CNN reporter Anderson Cooper’s sexual orientation years before the two came out, criticized Brokeback Mountain and other films that portrayed gay men kissing or having sex, speculated about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ sexuality, and accused gay men of preying on “impressionable teens.”
Reid and her lawyers claim the second batch of posts were the work of a hacker, but have been unable to provide evidence for that claim. The Internet Archive claims there is no evidence that Reid’s old blog was ever hacked or changed. Despite this controversy, Reid has remained on air and has not been disciplined or fired.
It’s that lack of action that Lucas and other conservatives are now decrying, especially since ABC cancelled Roseanne — which, despite its largely non-political story lines, was held up as an example of a show espousing conservative viewpoints due to both Barr and her character’s stated support of President Trump — almost immediately after Barr’s storm of controversial tweets.
Lucas calls Reid a “lying homophobe” for claiming that the anti-gay posts were not her own work.
“Roseanne was fired swiftly for her disgusting, racist comments, so why wasn’t Joy Reid when she made her disgusting, homophobic comments?” asks Lucas. “I think the answer is simple: Roseanne Barr is an outspoken Trump supporter, while Joy is an influential left-wing political commentator with a huge following.”
He adds that it appears that “you can get away with homophobia as long as you are a liberal propagandist with a big mouth.”
“Let’s see if she will be fired now after it turned out that just like Barr, she was spreading a conspiracy theory that it was the U.S. government and not al-Qaeda that was behind the 9/11 attacks,” says Lucas, a fervent supporter of Israel who has spoken at length about the threat that radical Islam poses to the gay community. “I would not be surprised if she weasels her way out of this situation. After all, she was saying that it was the Republican Bush administration that killed 2,996 of its own people.
“I wonder if she would have spread this propaganda about 9/11 if a Democrat were in the Oval Office?” Lucas says. “Reid is basically helping al-Qaida by raising these insane conspiracies.”
UPDATE: Reid has issued a statement offering an unconditional apology for any blog posts she wrote that have offended people.
“While I published my blog, starting in 2005, I wrote thousands of posts in real time on the issues of the day,” she says. “There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today, I’m sincerely apologizing again. … I’m sorry for the collateral damage and pain this is causing individuals and communities caught in the crossfire.”
MSNBC has also issued a statement about the controversy.
“Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful,” the statement says. “They are not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true.”
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Michael Lucas, a gay adult film actor and director, is criticizing “hypocrisy” and what he calls a “double standard” in the entertainment industry when it comes to offensive language or politically incorrect behavior.
In an interview with right-wing news and opinion site Breitbart.com, Lucas says there are “two sets of rules” in the industry: one for conservatives, and one for liberals.
He specifically fixates on the apparent unwillingness of MSNBC to fire Joy Reid after she became embroiled in controversy for offensive blog posts she had written from 2005 to 2009, when she was a radio host in Florida.
In the blog posts, Reid expresses anti-gay sentiment towards members of the LGBTQ community, calls out conservative politicians she believes are closeted, and, in other posts recently dug up by BuzzFeed, indulges in conspiracy theories that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government.
Lucas’ criticism echoes charges that other conservative media outlets or pundits have raised after Reid commented on the cancellation of the TV series remake of Roseanne following racist and anti-Semitic tweets from the sitcom’s star, Roseanne Barr.
Reid has been under fire for her past blog posts for the past six months. In December, she apologized for posts in which she frequently speculated that Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor from Florida who is now a Democrat in Congress, was gay and that his marriage was a sham designed to make him more appealing as a potential vice presidential candidate in 2008.
Although Reid was not the only person to make such speculations — Crist has been plagued by gay rumors, spread by both Democrats and his fellow Florida Republicans, for much of his career — many conservatives have taken issue with the manner in which Reid attacked Crist, claiming the “gay” label was simply used as an easy way to smear her ideological opponents.
Reid was then besieged by criticism in April after other anti-LGBTQ blog posts came to light in which she speculated about singer Clay Aiken and CNN reporter Anderson Cooper’s sexual orientation years before the two came out, criticized Brokeback Mountain and other films that portrayed gay men kissing or having sex, speculated about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ sexuality, and accused gay men of preying on “impressionable teens.”
Reid and her lawyers claim the second batch of posts were the work of a hacker, but have been unable to provide evidence for that claim. The Internet Archive claims there is no evidence that Reid’s old blog was ever hacked or changed. Despite this controversy, Reid has remained on air and has not been disciplined or fired.
It’s that lack of action that Lucas and other conservatives are now decrying, especially since ABC cancelled Roseanne — which, despite its largely non-political story lines, was held up as an example of a show espousing conservative viewpoints due to both Barr and her character’s stated support of President Trump — almost immediately after Barr’s storm of controversial tweets.
Lucas calls Reid a “lying homophobe” for claiming that the anti-gay posts were not her own work.
“Roseanne was fired swiftly for her disgusting, racist comments, so why wasn’t Joy Reid when she made her disgusting, homophobic comments?” asks Lucas. “I think the answer is simple: Roseanne Barr is an outspoken Trump supporter, while Joy is an influential left-wing political commentator with a huge following.”
He adds that it appears that “you can get away with homophobia as long as you are a liberal propagandist with a big mouth.”
“Let’s see if she will be fired now after it turned out that just like Barr, she was spreading a conspiracy theory that it was the U.S. government and not al-Qaeda that was behind the 9/11 attacks,” says Lucas, a fervent supporter of Israel who has spoken at length about the threat that radical Islam poses to the gay community. “I would not be surprised if she weasels her way out of this situation. After all, she was saying that it was the Republican Bush administration that killed 2,996 of its own people.
“I wonder if she would have spread this propaganda about 9/11 if a Democrat were in the Oval Office?” Lucas says. “Reid is basically helping al-Qaida by raising these insane conspiracies.”
UPDATE: Reid has issued a statement offering an unconditional apology for any blog posts she wrote that have offended people.
“While I published my blog, starting in 2005, I wrote thousands of posts in real time on the issues of the day,” she says. “There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today, I’m sincerely apologizing again. … I’m sorry for the collateral damage and pain this is causing individuals and communities caught in the crossfire.”
MSNBC has also issued a statement about the controversy.
“Some of the things written by Joy on her old blog are obviously hateful and hurtful,” the statement says. “They are not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true.”
Editor’s note: This post was updated to include statements from Reid and MSNBC.