Hypocrisy is not a rare theme when it comes to certain anti-LGBT politicians and preachers. The folks over at the Advocate gave a good reminder in that regard, pointing out 17 political figures who secretly craved the things they publicly condemned.
We selected 14 from their list. You can see the full list here.
“Not every antigay crackpot is actually gay, but there’s no shortage of those who actually are,” the Advocate piece states.
“Here are some hypocrites who just couldn’t practice what they preached.”
1. George Rekers
Rekers is an anti-gay activist and co-founder of the Family Research Council who was caught in 2010 returning from a European vacation with a male escort he contacted over Rentboy.com. Rekers justified his actions by saying he hired the escort to only carry his luggage because he recently had surgery. He also said in a Facebook post “I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them.”
“It’s a situation where he’s going against homosexuality when he is a homosexual,” his escort later said.
2. Troy King
In 2008, Alabama Attorney General Troy King was reportedly engaged in an affair with his then young male assistant. He was said to have been caught in bed with the young man by his own wife. King promoted bans on homosexuality and sex toys. He now practices law in Montgomery, Alabama.
3. Richard Curtis
In 2007, Washington State Representative Richard Curtis was accused of soliciting sex from a paid male escort.
Curtis voted against a domestic partnership bill and another bill that would have outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation. After the scandal broke, he resigned from his seat saying, “This has been damaging to my family, and I don’t want to subject them to any additional pain that might result from carrying out this matter under the scrutiny that comes with holding public office.”
4. Glenn Murphy Jr.
Former president of the Young Republican National Federation and anti-gay advocate, Glenn Murphy Jr. was found guilty of sexual assault on a man and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2007. The acts took place at a private party for Republican supporters in Indiana. Murphy was also accused of sexual assault in 1998 but no charges were filed. He is now labeled as a registered sex offender.
5. David Dreier
California Republican Congressman David Dreier who supported the Defense of Marriage Act, reportedly shared a home with his former chief of staff Brad Smith. Smith neither denied or confirmed being gay after being identified as being Derier’s partner.
6. Bruce Barclay
Anti-gay county commissioner of Cumberland County, Pa., Bruce Barclay resigned from his position in 2008 after it was revealed that he hired male prostitutes and used hidden cameras to videotape at least 100 sexual encounters in his home. Barclay admitted to demonstrating a lapse in judgment and admitted to spending $1,500 for each trick. He was sentenced to probation, monitoring, and community service in 2010.
7. Roy Ashburn
After reports surfaced of California State Sen. Roy Ashburn (who claimed his anti-gay votes were at the behest of his constituents) being arrested for driving drunk after partying at a gay nightclub in Sacramento — he admitted to being gay.
“I am gay,” he said in an interview. “Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. But I am gay. But it is something that is personal and … I felt with my heart that being gay didn’t affect — wouldn’t affect — how I did my job.”
8. Larry Craig
In 2007, Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho was arrested on charges of lewd behavior for allegedly making advances at an undercover police officer. Craig pleaded guilty and paid a fine but held that he was not gay and that he only touched the officer by accident. Craig has been accused of multiple sexual relationships with other men.
Craig’s had a strong anti-gay voting record, earning him praise from evangelical “pro-family” activist groups such as the American Family Association and the Family Research Council.
9. Ed Schrock
Republican Virginia congressman Edward Schrock was accused of secretly being gay when gay activist Mike Roger’s website claimed that Schrock was recorded several years earlier using a gay dating service. While in office, Schrock strongly opposed gays serving in the military.
“You’re in the showers with them, you’re in the bunk room with them, you’re in staterooms with them,” he once said.
10. Bob Allen
Former Florida state Representative Bob Allen was arrested in 2007 for agreeing to pay an undercover police officer $20 for oral sex. Allen claimed that he only offered the officer oral sex because he believed he was being robbed. Allen once sponsored a failed bill that called for increase on penalties for committing “unnatural and lascivious acts.”
11. Phillip Hinkle
After responding to a Craigslist ad from an 18-year-old named Kameryn Gibson who was looking for a “sugga daddy, Hinkle bribed Gibson to keep his mouth shut. Gibson’s later called Hinkle’s wife and informed her that her husband was gay. “Please don’t call the police,” she allegedly responded. Hinkle voted for an anti-marriage equality amendment to Indiana’s constitution.
12. Randy Boehning
North Dakota state Representative Randy Boehning revealed his bisexuality after it became known he had sent explicit pictures to a 21-year-old man on the gay dating app Grindr.
In April, Boehning voted against a bill that offered members of the North Dakota LGBT community housing, workplace, and other protections. He said he only voted against the bill because he didn’t feel that his constituents supported the proposed protections.
“You don’t tell everyone you’re going to vote one way and then switch your vote another way — you don’t have any credibility that way,” he explained.
13. Matthew Makela
Another Grindr story! Michigan pastor Matthew Makela resigned from his church after it was revealed that he sent sexual messages to a man on Grindr.
“I love to make out naked. Oral and massage. And I top,” said Makela to the man. Makela once spoke of LGBT people as “aiding opportunistic sickos in preying upon children and others.”
14. Ted Haggard
Former male escort Mike Jones claimed that in 2006, evangelical pastor Ted Haggard paid him for sex in a meth-fueled rendezvous. Months after the allegations, Haggard admitted to having a sexual relationship with a 20-year-old male volunteer and was fired from the Colorado church he founded. He has since come out in favor of marriage equality.
Featured image: Le Blog du Cinéma (Flickr)
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