Blake McCoy Source: Instagram / @blakemccoydc

Gay Anchorman Suspended for Tweet About Obese People, Slammed for Apology

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Social media users slammed a gay anchorman's tweet decrying COVID-19 vaccines for obese people. When the anchorman, who was suspended from his job, issued a boilerplate apology, he again came under fire.

Blake McCoy, an anchor for Fox 5 in Washington, D.C., tweeted, "I'm annoyed obese people of all ages get priority vaccine access before all essential workers," The Daily Beast reports.

"When most stayed home, we went into work everyday last March, April, May and everyday since putting ourselves & loved ones at risk," McCoy went on to add. "Vaccinate essential workers. Then obese."

"McCoy seems to include himself in the essential worker category as a TV journalist, though COVID-19 guidelines do not align with that assertion," the Daily Beast noted.

McCoy was suspended by the television station "pending further review" after the tweet.

But the controversy did not end there. McCoy went back to Twitter and deleted the offending post, after which he issued an apology.

But that apology only inflamed matters, with critics blasting it as "hollow" and the kind of cookie-cutter statement that could be expected from a "media relations department."

What's more, one Twitter user pointed out a subsequent tweet in which McCoy revealed another reason for having deleted the offensive post:

"I deleted because, frankly, who has time to argue with stranger on the internet?"

Moreover, LGBTQ News noted, McCoy has "posted photos on Instagram of his travels around the country – including Hawaii, California, West Virginia, and New York.

"In most of the photos, despite being surrounded by various groups of different people, he is maskless," LGTBQ Nation observed, sharing several Instagram posts that showed McCoy in various scenic settings.




by Kilian Melloy , EDGE Staff Reporter

Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.

Read These Next