Taylor Lorenz of Washington Post did not write article about homophobic dog meme; viral screenshot is satire

A tweet posted on May 15 with a purported screenshot of a Washington Post headline went viral with more than 450,000 likes and 40,000 retweets as of May 17. 

The screenshot appeared to show an article in Washington Post’s “Internet Culture” section headlined “This dog is the new face of online homophobia,” attributed to well-known technology journalist Taylor Lorenz. 

As the tweet spread, it gained the attention of people critical of the supposed article, including that of Christina Pushaw, the press secretary for Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Pushaw criticized the apparent story by sarcastically calling it an example of “more cutting edge journalism” from Lorenz. 

THE QUESTION

Did the Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz write an article titled “This dog is the new face of online homophobia?”

THE SOURCES

• Twitter user @mailprivilege, who first posted the screenshot
• Washington Post
• Taylor Lorenz
• Search of Washington Post news articles

THE ANSWER

No, the Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz did not write an article titled “This dog is the new face of online homophobia.” The fake article screenshot was posted as satire.

WHAT WE FOUND

A Twitter user who goes by the handle @mailprivilege first posted the screenshot on May 15. They referred to their screenshot in a later tweet as “my edit” and “satire.” In a message to VERIFY over Twitter, @mailprivilege confirmed the screenshot was edited and they were the original creator of the edit.

A Washington Post spokesperson told VERIFY in an email that the news outlet never published the alleged article. Taylor Lorenz, the journalist listed as the author of the fabricated article, tweeted that the screenshot is fake.

The dog used for the fake story’s photo is Whitney Chewston, a dachshund with over 100,000 followers on Instagram. In recent months, the dog has been the subject of memes satirizing common homophobic remarks. The dog’s owners are a gay couple, like the screenshot claims, according to LGBTQNation — but the Washington Post didn’t write an article about them.

A search for “This dog is the face of online homophobia” on the Washington Post’s website yields no results. A May 17 search of “Taylor Lorenz” on the Washington Post’s website returns 19 results, none of which are for an article with that headline.

Lorenz’s Washington Post author’s page does not include such an article, and neither does the Washington Post’s “Internet Culture” section page, where Lorenz’s work is featured.

The Washington Post did publish a Taylor Lorenz article on May 13 — the date listed in the article in the edited screenshot — but for an entirely different story. It’s an Internet Culture article titled: “Followers are a valuable currency. Who should own them?”

Although Lorenz later joked she would actually write the article if she got to 500,000 followers on Twitter, someone else already beat her to the punch. On May 16, LGBTQNation’s Alex Bollinger wrote an article with the same headline as the one in the viral screenshot and referenced the tweet in the story. 

"Through satire and this meme, we’re kind of exposing when people who just aren’t up with the times and people who aren’t very forward toward gay people,” the couple who owns the dog told LGBTQNation.

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