Madison Square Garden sues Wired over report claiming venue kept LGBTQ+ celeb database

This story originally appeared on Them. After Wired published a story earlier this month alleging that Madison Square Garden kept an ongoing database that categorized nearly 100 celebrities as “LGBTQIA,” the venue is now suing the tech outlet as well as the writer, Noah Shachtman, who led the reporting. Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., the entity that owns the venue, filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York on July 16 against Wired, Shachtman, co-writer Maddy Varner, and Wired global editorial director Katie Drummond. The suit explicitly denounces Wired’s reporting, alleging that Wired “combed the dark web, obtained data stolen from MSG by an extortionist hacking group, and cherry-picked fragments of that data to manufacture a false narrative portraying MSG as targeting the LGBTQIA community for discriminatory purposes.”The lawsuit specifically called out Wired’s July 9 story “Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities” and said that the implication that the MSG Entertainment is anti-LGBTQ+ is false, calling the reporting “shockingly unethical conduct,” and alleging that the defendants “should be held accountable for their inexcusable action.” “Nothing could be further from the truth — MSG is a fervent supporter of the LGBTQIA community with a long history of inclusion, not exclusion,” the lawsuit reads. Per Wired’s reporting, which was based off a database leaked by hacker collective Shiny Hunters, the venue allegedly kept a list of LGBTQ+ celebrities who might visit the venue, including a specific label indicating their gender identity or sexual orientation. The database of venue VIPs allegedly included labels such as “low risk,” for people such as Edie Falco and Ben Stiller, “medium risk” for rappers such as Fat Joe, and “high risk” for rapper Lil Jon. According to Wired, the database included the label “LGBTQIA” for celebs such as Ricky Martin, Phoebe Bridgers, transgender Geese guitaris