Leading LGBTQ+ newsroom confronts parent company over board member’s MAGA support

The editorial staff of some of the country’s most prominent LGBTQ+ publications presented a united front Monday, publicly demanding answers from their parent company, equalpride, after a report revealed that one of its board members had expressed support for President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.The controversy came just two weeks after equalpride CEO Mark Berryhill enthusiastically announced that Jay Katari would take a more active role across the company. Equalpride has owned the LGBTQ+ news brands The Advocate, Out, Pride.com, Out Traveler and Plus since 2022 and acquired Them this year.In an August 31 email to employees, Berryhill said Katari “genuinely loves what we do at equalpride and believes deeply in our mission.”“I have full confidence in Jay,” Berryhill wrote, describing him as an adviser whose business experience and professional network could help equalpride “think bigger, open new doors, create new opportunities” and enter its next phase of growth. See on Instagram Berryhill told employees that Katari would contact each of them individually. He asked staff to “make the time and prioritize the opportunity to connect with him.”Those meetings were intended to help Katari understand employees’ work, along with the opportunities and challenges they saw, Berryhill wrote. The invitation extended across the company, including to people working in editorial and social media.By Monday morning, the company’s posture had abruptly changed.During an internal meeting, Berryhill told employees he had been surprised by an inquiry from independent journalist Kevin Ortega-Rojas and planned to question Katari about the newly discovered revelations.Berryhill said not everything is always known about board members, and insisted that Katari’s responsibilities were limited to developing new revenue sources and that he would never play an editorial role. When employees noted that Katari had already met with at least one person involved in editor