When did journalistic integrity die at the Washington Post? In an article published on Monday, Washington Post writer Caitlin Dewey called into question Macklemore’s pre-fame tweets, alleging the Grammy-winning rapper was really a homophobic con artist who used the ‘gay rights’ movement to advance his career. You may also notice she mistakenly references his “Same Love” song and calls it “One Love” instead.

In the article titled “Did Grammy-winner Macklemore used to tweet homophobic jokes?“, Dewey writes:



Depending on whom you ask today, Macklemore is either a hero or something else entirely. One thing that is inescapably, unarguably true: the man behind “One Love” and “Thrift Shop” cleaned up at the Grammy awards last night, and has thus attracted far more attention and scrutiny than he might otherwise. On Twitter, that’s involved people scouring through Macklemore’s 15,000 tweets for unguarded messages sent before he was a star. And the results, critics claim, prove startlingly at odds with his current image as a proponent of LGBT rights. We can’t print either of the offending tweets here, but will summarize it this way: One makes an unfunny “no homo” joke, and the other uses a derogatory word for gay women. The tweets would seem inappropriate coming from anyone, but are particularly wince-worthy given that Macklemore sings the gay anthem of our times and, in fact, supervised a mass marriage, of gay and straight couples, at the awards show yesterday.



She calls into question the following tweet by Macklemore in 2009 “watching dykes vs. drag queens play baseball on the hill…this sucks”:

Macklemore responded this afternoon with the following tweet with a link to an article explaining the tweet: “For those concerned… it’s the name of a softball game in Seattle… sgn.org/sgnnews24/page…”

And here is a flyer for the softball game:

As for the other 5-year-old tweet she points to in the article: “I’m so happy right now. No homo…I love new york! Pause. I’m so not gay! Fuck yea. And I’m so secure in that!” It is almost impossible to take the tweet as a homophobic statement without proper context.

Dewey writes about the tweet:

It’s hard to tell, given the lack of context and tone online — something Macklemore should maybe keep in mind going forward — but all the uncharacteristic exclamation points would imply a certain level of sarcasm.

The article seems a bit desperate to brand Macklemore a homophobe based on two tweets from 2009.

A screenshot of the article for reference:

The WP was not alone in labeling Macklemore a closet homophobe and LGBT opportunist. Thousands on twitter re-tweeted the rappers 2009 tweets:

@glaad AS YOU CAN SEE macklemore is a fraud #GRAMMYs "@macklemore: watching dykes vs. drag queens play baseball on the hill…this sucks" — FreeSpirit (@KingMeBaby1) January 27, 2014

*scrolls through feed of 4 year old homophobic Macklemore tweets* oh boy — Laurence (@LaurenceAJB) January 27, 2014

I'm loving these old Macklemore tweets showing up. He seems super genuine. Might want to scrub these old hateful tweets, buddy. — Desmond (@thatdes) January 27, 2014

Oh did we forget to mention he wrote the gay equality anthem “Same Love” and even used a picture of his gay uncle and his uncle’s partner as the cover art for the song.