London - The editor of Gay Times was sacked on Thursday after an investigation into racist, homophobic and abusive remarks he posted online.
Josh Rivers had been suspended when the tweets, including derogatory comments about Jews, women, lesbians and transgender people, emerged.
He has now been fired with immediate effect. Mr Rivers, who had been promoted from marketing manager, had been editor for less than a month and was preparing for the magazine’s relaunch. All his articles have been removed from the forthcoming issue.
Confirming his sacking, Gay Times said: ‘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 tweets, written between 2010 and 2015, were exposed by BuzzFeed News. One, which has since been deleted, reportedly read: ‘I wonder if they cast that guy as “The Jew” because of that f****** ridiculously larger honker of a nose. It must be prosthetic. Must be.’
The London College of Fashion graduate is said to have described transgender people as ‘tranny’, and also to have hit out at lesbians and ‘fat’ or ‘ugly’ people.
To every single person who is hurt, offended and disappointed: I’m sorry. pic.twitter.com/XAwz7llKxc
— Josh Rivers (@_joshrivers) November 15, 2017
Mr Rivers, 31, the magazine’s first mixed-race editor, has apologised, claiming the posts were written during a period of ‘deep self-loathing’. He told BuzzFeed: ‘I am a product of my environment – like many of us are. I have said things that are not kind or not nice and nor do they reflect the type of person that I have become.’
A spokesman for campaign group Stonewall said: ‘It’s a sad fact that misogyny, discrimination and abuse against minority groups happens within the LGBT community.
‘When it happens, this abuse must be called out.’