Last week, The Daily Beast published an article titled “I Got Three
Grindr Dates in an Hour in the Olympic Village,” which can only be
surmised
as a gay witch-hunt that harms LGBT individuals.
The
piece written by Nico Hines is a shameful example of the everyday
struggles faced by LGBT athletes and individuals from all over the
world. There
was no point to the story other than to drive web traffic to The Daily
Beast’s website at the expense of shaming and endangering the lives of
the gay athletes he outed.
In a desperate attempt for
clicks, Hines recklessly described the athletes in ways that
could have easily identified and outed these athletes, several of whom
are from countries that outlaw homosexuality.
As Hines wrote himself, several of the athletes the he outed live in “notoriously homophobic” countries and are forced to
live in the shadows.
The loathsome article was on full-display for the world to see for nearly 12 hours. Despite replacing the piece with an
apology letter
published on behalf its editors, The Daily Beast’s “we’re sorry” is simply not good enough.
