Owners Of Gay Pride Magazines ‘Out’ And ‘The Advocate’ Donated To Anti-LGBT Politicians, Report Finds

The owners of two LGBTQ-focused magazines, Out and The Advocate, are men who have donated money to anti-gay Republican politicians, Womens Wear Daily (WWD) is reporting.

Several businesses are owned by corporations, holding companies, shell entities, and other business entities, which are themselves owned by other entities, and so on, often to the point that there are three, four, or more entities between the business and the person who actually owns it.

Such appears to be the case with Out and The Advocate and their intellectual property, which are owned by Pride Media, which is itself owned by Oreva Capital (which also holds the rights to High Times Magazine and its intellectual property), which is owned by stepbrothers Adam Levin and Maxx Abramowitz.

WWD writer Kali Hays suggests that the men bought the magazines (or the companies that own them) simply as a means of generating revenue, not because they’re interested in the causes for which the magazines advocate.

“Levin is said to have acquired [Pride Media] opportunistically, seeing a largely untapped market in LGTBQ media.”

That Levin and Abramowitz are at best disinterested in the magazines’ base and issues and are at worst actively hostile to it, strikes Hays as disingenuous at best.

Here's the Advocate’s front page for October 24 pic.twitter.com/BmY79xwm5Y

— Red Deer Advocate (@RedDeerAdvocate) October 24, 2018

So why does Hays suggest that the owners of the two LGBTQ-focused magazines are hostile to the audience and their causes? Because both men have donated to Republicans who have opposed LGBTQ rights. Devin Nunes, Dean Heller, and Josh Mandel have all suggested rolling back or restricting gay rights, such as the right to buy a home; and all have received money from the now owners of Out and The Advocate.

An unidentified spokesperson for Pride Holdings says that the owners are fiercely protective of LGBTQ rights, despite their donations to anti-gay politicians.

“Adam is a staunch supporter of pro-Israel, pro-cannabis and LGBT issues and consistently works across the political spectrum to ensure he’s advocating effectively on behalf of each of these communities.”

Indeed, while Dana Rohrabacher, who has received money from Levin, has consistently opposed gay rights, he has also supported cannabis reform – a stance that got him high praise in a recent High Times editorial.

Meanwhile, Out and The Advocate are bleeding money, so much so that some employees have found their paychecks delayed or not coming at all. Staff is leaving in droves, and its owners have so far failed to raise the capital they had hoped to raise to save the magazines.

CORRECTIONS: Jon Cappetta, Media Relations Manager for High Times/Pride Media, contacted the Inquisitr to point out some factual errors and mischaracterizations in the original WWD article upon which this Inquisitr report is based.

Cappetta first points out that any suggestion of homophobia with regard to Adam Levin and Maxx Abramowitz is not based in fact.

“Both men are Jews and have had a unique sense of pride instilled in them by their families, were made uniquely aware of the holocaust and the disastrous nature of fascism before they truly understood what that was.”

Cappetta also notes that the two men literally work in the same office with the staff of Pride Media.

As for the claim that Dana Rohrabacher, who was praised in a High Times article for his work in regards to cannabis reform, received money from either Levin or Abramowitz, that is patently false, says Cappetta.

The Inquisitr‘s claim that the organization is “bleeding money” was also a gross overstatement of the facts.

“They formerly used a payment method which kept the magazines costs down by outsourcing the actual editorial work. We no longer do that, and there have been some hiccups getting the new system in place, but it was important both to the organization and the staff that this was course corrected. We’re not anticipating any more payment issues under the new, in-house system.”

Finally, Cappetta notes that only Adam Levin has donated to any of the politicians mentioned in this article, Abramowitz has not. As for the politicians who have received donations from Levin and then gone on to make anti-LGBTQ statements, Cappetta says that none of them will receive any further donations.

The Inquisitr apologizes for the errors.