Gay Times has fired its newly-appointed editor after a series of offensive tweets were unearthed that showed he had made derogatory comments about Jewish people, lesbians and women, among many other targets.
The magazine on Thursday announced that Josh Rivers’ contract had been terminated with “immediate effect” after suspending him - one-month into the job - on Wednesday, after a Buzzfeed News UK expose.
In a statement Gay Times apologised to its readers and distanced itself from Rivers’ behaviour: “We sincerely apologise for the offence that has been caused, particularly to those members of our wider community to whom such inappropriate and unacceptable commentary was the focus.
“Gay Times does not tolerate such views and will continue to strive to
honour and promote inclusivity.”
The publication said it would relaunched on November 30, “with what is quite
possibly the most significant overhaul in its 33-year history” and all articles written by Rivers had “been removed”.
“The new-look magazine will feature submissions and significant
contributions from the far reaches of our wonderful and diverse
LGBTQ community,” the statement read.
In suspending Rivers, the magazine said his past tweets “do not align with the values of Gay Times, or any of our employees, in any capacity”.
His tweets, made between 2010 and 2011, and some of which have been deleted, included:
On Jewish people:
“I wonder if they cast that guy as ‘The Jew’ because of that fucking ridiculously larger honker of a nose. It must be prosthetic. Must be.”
On transgender people:
“Look here, tranny. 1) you look like a crackhead 2) YOU’RE A TRANNY & 3) your wig doesn’t deserve a mention.”
On Africa:
On a lesbian neighbour:
“I hope that piece of machinery that asshole lesbian next door has been using since 8am cuts off her goddamn hand.”
On a ‘chav’:
“Was so close to casually asking this chav to keep her incested, down syndrome, retard children quiet. But I just switched carriages. #xmas.”
On overweight people:
“Argh, fat old people, bane of my life.” In a further post he attacks someone for being a “fat c***”
Body-shaming:
“People-watching in Soho is amaze. You’ll never see a more confident bunch of ugly people.”