Madison Square Garden sue Wired over gay surveillance claims
Wired reported that Madison Square Garden operates a talent database containing over 39,000 entries that includes sexual orientation markings for approximately 93 LGBTQIA+ musicians and actors, alongside risk assessments assigning artists scores ranging from low to high. The article alleged MSG was monitoring these individuals based on their orientation as part of a larger surveillance system.
MSG has filed a defamation lawsuit against Wired and three named journalists, arguing the database fields—such as sexual orientation, address, and dietary restrictions—serve purely administrative purposes for relationship management rather than discriminatory surveillance or security profiling. The venue contends that reporters obtained stolen data through hackers and deliberately misrepresented benign operational details to manufacture a discriminatory narrative, seeking damages and a retraction.
- Wired published an investigation claiming Madison Square Garden maintained a database flagging LGBTQIA+ artists by sexual orientation and assigning them risk scores; MSG disputes the characterization and is suing for defamation.
- MSG argues the sexual orientation field was standard relationship data, not for discrimination, and that reporters misinterpreted stolen information obtained through hacking to create a false narrative.