LGBT media condemns Out Magazine for Milo Yiannopoulos puff piece

A coalition of LGBT journalists calls for a higher standard when reporting on the lives of LGBT people.

On Wednesday, September 21, Out Magazine published a profile of Milo Yiannopoulos, the Breitbart Tech editor who is a prominent figure in the alt-right movement and a well-known internet bully. The glamorizing piece, which was originally published with an editorial note defending it, included an exclusive interview with Yiannopoulos, as well as a photo shoot playing on the theme that he’s simply a clown. The following is a response from journalists, columnists, and organizers across LGBT media.

An open letter from members of the LGBT media:

The Out Magazine profile of Milo Yiannopoulos is a serious problem. It’s not because Yiannopoulos was mentioned, nor even because he was profiled. It’s because the profile negligently perpetuates harm against the LGBT community. We expect more from our colleagues.

We are all painfully aware that gay, white, cisgender male narratives have too-long dominated queer media, including those of us who are ourselves gay, white, cisgender men. Just this week, we saw our sisters at AfterEllen.com have to cease editorial operations because a company decided that lesbians were not profitable enough — oblivious to how many bi and lesbian women found important community there. The excess of this narrow branding of the queer community results in erasure of all those who are not highlighted, an erasure that allows stereotypes, discrimination, and abuse to continue unabated against those invisible intersections.

The Out profile of Yiannopoulos represents the peak of this harm. Here is a white supremacist whose entire career has been built on the attention he can get for himself through provocation. His attacks against women, people of color, Muslims, transgender people, and basically anybody who doesn’t like him are as malicious as they come, and he catalyzes his many “alt-right” followers to turn on any target he deems worthy of abuse. This puff piece — complete with a cutesy clown photoshoot — makes light of Yiannopoulos’s trolling while simultaneously providing him a pedestal to further extend his brand of hatred. Indeed, he does so in the profile itself, openly slurring the transgender community, which Out published without any apparent concern.

As members of the LGBT media, we believe we all must hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard. Many of us are members of the LGBT community ourselves, and we all develop content that serves the LGBT community either directly as an audience, or on its behalf by educating broader audiences about our politics and our cultures. We thus have an obligation, at a minimum, to ensure that what we publish — no matter how crass or sensationalized it may be — avoids fostering harm to queer people. Out failed in this regard.

Out claims in its editorial note that this is an “era of social media tribalism” and that “we can’t shy away from covering queer people who are at the center of this highly polarized election year.” The idea that Yiannopoulos is anywhere close to the center of anything is in doubt, but the more important point is that it would be very easy to cover his political impact without glamorizing him and downplaying the bigotry that he helps stir up. Instead, the profile panders to exactly the kind of attention that empowers his vile rhetoric, hiding behind the veneer of false equivalency that has plagued 2016 election coverage.

The political climate right now is particularly toxic, and those of us who report on the LGBT community know firsthand what it’s like to be targeted by those who would oppress us, particularly those of us who have been attacked because of our race or gender identity. We stand apart from those who would sell out the community to promote this toxicity for clicks and profits.

In turn, we recommit to writing about the queer community in a fashion that recognizes and honors its diversity, highlights its struggles, and celebrates the richness of its intersectional cultures. We know we can all do better, and Out Magazine has now provided a perfect example of what not to do.

Signed,

R.J. Aguiar
Bi YouTuber and Social Media Activist

David Badash
Publisher, The New Civil Rights Movement

John M. Becker
Independent LGBT blogger

Trish Bendix
formerly AfterEllen

Alex Berg
Video Producer, The Huffington Post

Gabe Bergado
Staff Writer, Daily Dot

Manuel Betancourt

Dana Beyer, M.D.
Board chair, Freedom to Work

Marcie Bianco
Writer & Curve Magazine contributing editor

Chris Billig
writer, gay4soccer

John Paul Brammer

Les Fabian Brathwaite
Out Magazine

Kristen Prata Browde
CBS News (retired)

Mike Ciriaco
 LA Weekly

Derrick Clifton
Freelance Writer; Identity and Culture Columnist, Chicago Reader

Marceline Cook
The Mary Sue

E.A. Crunden
ThinkProgress

Eliel Cruz
Executive Director, Faith In America

Michelle Ehrhardt
Former Out Magazine intern/freelancer

Patrick Farabaugh
 Publisher, Our Lives magazine

Jordan Firstman
Writer/director

Erin Fitzgerald
LGBT Program Director, Media Matters

Jay Franzone
Director of Communication, National Gay Blood Drive

Asher Ford
UT-Austin

Zack Ford
LGBT Editor, ThinkProgress

Phoebe Gavin
Senior Audience Engagement Editor, ThinkProgress

Ashley Gallagher
Editor at POMEgranate Magazine, freelance writer

Melissa Gira Grant
Journalist

Michael Goff
CEO/Partner, Towleroad; Founder, Out magazine; Former Editor-in-chief and president, Out magazine

Kira Hawke
Non-binary YA Author

Waymon Hudson
President, Fight OUT Loud & Civil Rights Blogger

Evan Hurst
Senior editor, Wonkette

Josh Israel
Senior Investigative Reporter, ThinkProgress

Joe Jervis
JoeMyGod.com

Christina Kahrl
 MLB editor and writer, ESPN.com

Evan Ross Katz
Editor, Mic

Viktor T Kerney
Blogmaster of “Maybe It’s Just Me…” and “MEGASHEEN”

Sue Kerr
 Founder/Blogger, Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents

Mark S. King
MyFabulousDisease.com

Shana Naomi Krochmal
Contributing editor, Out Magazine

Michael E. Lambert

Brody Levesque
Journalist & Author

Bryan Lowder
Associate Editor, Slate

Sean Mandell
Editor at Large, Towleroad

Chase Martin
Publishing Editor, therepubliq

Nicolette Mason
Freelance Writer (Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, Refinery29)

Charles Chan Massey
The Personal Stories Project

Troy Masters
The Pride LA

Cody Melcher
Comedian, Writer, Podcaster, Gentleman Radicalist

Michael McCarron
Founder and Executive Director, Punk Out

Kriston McConnell
Editor-In-Chief of Punk Out

James McDonald
Former Editor at Out Magazine & The Advocate

Alvin A. McEwen
blogmaster, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Noah Michelson
Editorial Director, The Huffington Post Voices

JamesMichael Nichols
Deputy Editor, Huffington Post Queer Voices

Karen Ocamb
Veteran LGBT reporter/editor

Mary Emily O’Hara
Former LGBT Reporter at Daily Dot

Kevin Patrick O’Neil
STOP-Homophobia.com

Tim Peacock
Peacock Panache

Adam Peck
Associate Editor, ThinkProgress

Zachary Reid
LGBTQ writer

Matthew Rettenmund
BoyCulture.com

Roger Rosen

Autumn Sandeen
LGBT Weekly, Trans Progressive Collumist

Ken Schneck
producer/host — This Show is So Gay

Michelangelo Signorile
Host, SiriusXM Progress; Editor-at-large, Huffington Post Queer Voices

Barbra “Babs” Siperstein
Blogger, LGBT Political Activist, DNC Executive Committee Member

Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Transmissions Columnist, Bay Area Reporter

Nigel M. Smith
The Guardian

Meghan Stabler
National LGBTQ Leader

Jesse Steinbach
Out Magazine

Mark Joseph Stern
Slate

Joe Sudbay

Bridget Todd
political outreach, Medium

Andy Towle
Towleroad

Katherine Ullman
Spikyclouds.com

Daniel Villarreal
UnicornBooty.com

Brad Walsh
Musician

Derek Washington
Former Chairman Stonewall Democrats of Southern Nevada, State Lead Get EQUALNV, OUT 100 2015

Rob Watson
LGBT Columnist, Blogger, Editor and Radio Host , Evolequals & The Good Men Project

Andrew Wheeler
Editor-in-chief, ComicsAlliance

Erin Whitney
Senior Editor, ScreenCrush.com

KC Wildmoon
Storyful