Last week we reported on Patrick Crowley, an editor at Billboard magazine who was in charge of its ‘LGBTQ Pride' vertical, who was fired after Nik Thakkar, a recording artist, revealed Instagram DMs he received from Crowley in a Buzzfeed story.
The Instagram messages revealed that Crowley had engaged in sexual conversation with Thakkar, eventually requesting nudes. When Thakkar refused to provide them, he found himself removed from a Billboard playlist, a move he claimed was retaliation.
Since Thakkar's story was revealed, five other artists — Kisos, Michael Medrano, Alextbh, Graveyardguy, and Mosayac (read their statements by following the links on their names)— have come out with their own stories of problematic interactions with Crowley.
Late last week, Crowley said he would be suing suing the publication and the artists.The Advocate reportedthat it received a statement from Crowley's lawyers, saying, “Billboard will shortly be served with a lawsuit for, among other things, discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
Crowley's statement painted him as the victim of “fame seekers” according to the publication and said he was a victim of workplace discrimination by Billboard because there have been sexual harassment complaints made against “senior male straight employees” and the publication did nothing.
Billboard has responded, calling Crowley's accusations “baseless.” The publication also encouraged other artists victimized by Crowley to come forward.
Wrote Billboard: “After reviewing the evidence of Mr. Crowley's misconduct, we remain completely comfortable with our decision to terminate his employment. Moreover, after being made aware of additional allegations of inappropriate behavior on his part, we once again would like to urge anyone with knowledge of similar misconduct to let us know about it, either via email at hotline.valencemediagroup.com or anonymously by phone at 1-800-461-9330. As an unequivocal supporter of the community of artists, Billboard condemns the effort by Mr. Crowley's lawyers to intimidate his alleged victims into silence and we pledge to assist them in any way we can.”
