Jared Polis Stirs Controversy With Remarks on Sexual Assault

Jared Polis Stirs Controversy With Remarks on Sexual Assault

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is getting some blowback on remarks he made at a hearing yesterday to the effect that college students accused of sexual assault may merit expulsion even if they’re not proved guilty.

The gay congressman from Colorado said that how a college deals with such accusations is different from the process in a criminal court, where a defendant may be convicted only if proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. “It certainly seems reasonable that a school for its own purposes might want to use a preponderance of evidence standard, or even a lower standard,” he said at a hearing on campus sexual assault prevention before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. “Perhaps a likelihood standard. … If I was running a [college] I might say, well, even if there is only a 20 or 30 percent chance that it happened, I would want to remove this individual.”

After a witness at the hearing, Foundation for Individual Rights lawyer Joseph Cohn, said applying this standard would deprive students of constitutional due process rights, Polis responded, “It seems like we ought to provide more of a legal framework, then, that allows a reasonable likelihood standard or a preponderance of evidence standard. If there are 10 people who have been accused, and under a reasonable likelihood standard maybe one or two did it, it seems better to get rid of all 10 people. We’re not talking about depriving them of life or liberty, we’re talking about them being transferred to another university, for crying out loud.”

Polis received applause at the hearing, but his remarks were later critiqued by libertarian-leaning scholars and journalists. “There are certain positions where indeed a whiff of suspicion might be enough to get someone removed,” wrote University of California, Los Angeles, law professor Eugene Volokh in The Washington Post. “I just hadn’t thought that being a college student would or should be one of them.

“And that’s especially so when the policy is defended on the grounds that the students will just go to another university,” Volokh continued. “The innocent expelled students would have their education badly disrupted and delayed. But the guilty students would, by hypothesis, just be at another university, where they’ll be able to attack their classmates (just a different set of classmates).”

Reason magazine asked Polis, the first openly gay father in Congress, if he would accept his son being expelled using such a low burden of proof. “If my son had a baseless accusation made against him at a university and it was making his life there miserable, I would suggest he transfer or take courses online,” Polis replied. “It can be a living hell to go through endless campus investigations. I’ve seen this go down, and there really is no winning once the accusation is made even if the process provides formal vindication. Someone who is wrongfully accused needs to do their best to put it behind them and move on. Trying to re-enroll in the same institution would be a constant reminder of the traumatic experience of being the subject of a baseless accusation.”

“If a university were to implement a ‘reasonable likelihood’ standard, it is important that they give the student the ability to withdraw so that their record isn’t tainted, nor should a mere reasonable likelihood standard hurt their prospects elsewhere.”

Polis aide Kristin Lynch defended the congressman to Colorado newspapers, saying he was trying to make the point that safety should be college campuses’ top priority. “We’re happy to debate that with anyone and, to be frank, it’s disappointing that some are casually dismissing the basic premise that universities have the responsibility to go beyond criminal law in protecting students from sexual assault,” she told The Denver Post.

“There’s no stronger supporter for criminal due process than Jared — he’s spent six years in Congress advocating for fixing our broken drug laws and eliminating warrantless government searches and seizures,” Lynch added. “But this debate doesn’t occur in the arena of our criminal justice system. We’re talking about educational institutions and the safety of their campuses.”

Polis also responded to critics via Twitter, saying, “The standard for jail is and should remain beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Video of the hearing is below. It is more than two hours long, and Polis’s comments begin about an hour and 56 minutes in.

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/politicians/2015/9/11/jared-polis-stirs-controversy-remarks-sexual-assault

On 9/11 anniversary, Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin recalls choice that saved his life

On 9/11 anniversary, Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin recalls choice that saved his life

The anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the US always reminds Armistead Maupin of how precious life is.

The author of the popular Tales of the City series of novels and many other books had traveled from his home base in San Francisco to New York City 14 years ago to attend a memorial for Robert Jones who had edited Maupin’s novel The Night Listener.

‘(Publisher) HarperCollins offered me two possible return flights to San Francisco the following day — September 11 — and I chose the later one, since I didn’t want to get up early. The flight I declined was United 93, the one that crashed in Pennsylvania,’ Maupin wrote in a Facebook post on Friday (11 September).

On September 11, 2001, four passenger airliners bound for California from East Coast cities were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex.

Writes Maupin: ‘Rising late at the Soho Grand Hotel I had an unobstructed view of the other two planes as they hit the twin towers.’

A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the the headquarters of the US Department of Defense while United Airlines Flight 93 – the flight Maupin would have been on – crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers.

The post On 9/11 anniversary, Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin recalls choice that saved his life appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/on-911-anniversary-tales-of-the-city-author-armistead-maupin-recalls-choice-that-saved-his-life/

WATCH: This Muslim Flight Attendant Says She's No Kim Davis

WATCH: This Muslim Flight Attendant Says She's No Kim Davis

A Muslim flight attendant suspended from her job for refusing to serve alcohol says her religious freedom has been violated — but that she should not be compared to Kim Davis.

Charee Stanley, a recent convert to Islam, told the hosts of The View this week that Atlanta-based ExpressJet suspended her for numerous reasons relating to her religion, including abstaining from serving cocktails to passengers. While ExpressJet won’t comment on personnel matters, Stanley argues Islamaphobia is behind her suspension.

Stanley said she always made sure other flight attendants could attend to fliers who wanted drinks; in other words, her religious accomodation didn’t inconvenience paying customers.

Stanley’s attorney, Lena Masri, was asked whether her client’s situation was similar to that of Kim Davis, the recently jailed Kentucky clerk who disobeyed numerous court orders when asked to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Masri says the two situations couldn’t be more different.

Watch her explanation in a clip from the show below:

Neal Broverman

www.advocate.com/religion/2015/9/11/watch-muslim-flight-attendant-says-shes-no-kim-davis

Transgender Inmates To Be Integrated According To Identity In San Francisco

Transgender Inmates To Be Integrated According To Identity In San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — By the end of the year, transgender women in San Francisco’s jail system will be housed with other female inmates.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi announced the new policy in a press release Thursday. A striking component of the approach is that it covers inmates who have not had gender confirmation surgery.

But despite the sheriff’s announcement being touted as an unprecedented move, the union representing sheriff’s deputies and one transgender rights advocate found flaws with the plan.

Within weeks, transgender women will begin participating in programs like high school classes and substance abuse groups with other women behind bars. Transgender inmates will then be moved into women’s facilities by the end of the year, after jail staff receive new training.

“Transgender people are marginalized on the streets of America, so it’s not hard to deduce how that’s magnified in prisons and jails,” Mirkarimi told The Huffington Post. “It’s inherently dehumanizing.”

There are currently six transgender women segregated on a floor of the city’s Hall of Justice, which also holds medium- and maximum-security male inmates.

The policy could create as many safety and privacy problems for inmates and guards as it’s trying to solve, according to the president of the union representing sheriff’s deputies.  

“I will not support a safety issue where you’re going to have men who still have their genitalia tell me that ‘Oh I’m female’ just so they can get in the female unit,” said San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association President Eugene Cerbone. He wondered how to assign guards to conduct strip-searches of inmates who haven’t undergone gender confirmation surgery, or how to ensure the safety of a female inmate who might be housed with a transgender inmate with male anatomy.

“The issue is safety for the transgender [people], but he is making it like an experiment,” Cerbone said of Mirkarimi.

Mirkarimi waved off the worries, saying that federal guidelines clearly spell out how to conduct searches and complete other routine tasks. 

“It’s easy to critique from the bleachers. This is something that we’ve been designing for several years. It wasn’t done on a whim,” Mirkarimi said. “Where there are practical concerns where safety is our utmost priority, we can’t allow any breaches.”

Staff training could be one of the most important issues when it comes to protecting inmates’ safety. A federal study of sexual abuse of transgender inmates showed that victims reported being abused by staff as frequently as by other inmates.  

Mirkarimi, a Democrat, is in a contest for reelection, and Cerbone said the sheriff timed the announcement to boost his standing with the city’s liberal voter base. The change in policy comes after two years of negotiations.

Because of the timing, an official from the Transgender Law Center that the policy might not be fully implemented if Mirkarimi loses his campaign.

“It’s been an arduous process, and we’ve only had a verbal reassurance that this is going to happen,” said Flor Bermudez, the law center’s detention program director. 

 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.



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Lush raises $425,000 for LGBTI rights: wants to hear from gay groups that need funding

Lush raises $425,000 for LGBTI rights: wants to hear from gay groups that need funding

Global cosmetics and soap giant Lush has announced that it raised £275,000 ($425,000/€376,000) from the summer sale of its #GayIsOK soap.

The special bar of gold and glittery soap was produced to coincide with Pride season around the world.

#GayIsOk soap

#GayIsOk soap

The bar was produced in conjunction with a wider #GayisOK awareness-raising campaign that the brand ran on social media.

In a press statement, the firm said that 100,000 bars of the special soap were sold around the world.

It was unable to sell the soap in around 80 of its stores in countries were being gay is illegal or in countries such as Russia, where gay ‘propaganda’ laws exist.

However, it’s in precisely those countries that it hopes the #GayIsOk campaign may make a difference.

The money raised (which exceeds the firm’s target of $392,450/€350,000) is being placed in a special ‘Love Fund’. Of that, £50,000 ($78,535/€70,000) has already been earmarked to go to LGBTI worldwide campaigning group AllOut.org.

Community and advocacy groups are now invited to submit applications for grants, up to £10,000 ($15,400/€13,600), from the rest of the fund. The deadline or applications is 31 October, and interested parties can find out more here.

‘The Love Fund wants to attract applications from groups working in areas where anti-LGBT laws are harsh and extreme and where funding is in short supply,’ said a Lush spokesperson. ‘It aims to reach out to any groups who are trying to bring the focus of society, governments and legislators onto this topic.’

‘Time and again we’ve seen how, with enough resources, activists do incredible work to change laws and shift hearts and minds towards full equality,’ said Andre Banks, Executive Director and co-founder of All Out.

‘Too often, activists are isolated and underfunded, but the #GayIsOK campaign has brought a massive new audience to their work and also crucial funds to help them succeed.’

‘A little sparkly soap goes a long way,” said Alessandro Commisso from Lush in a statement. ‘Thousands of Lush customers, All Out members, VIPs and allies of the LGBT community told the world that #GayIsOK and made this an epic campaign!

‘By purchasing the Love Soap they have given us their trust (and their money) to fund grassroots charities and continue to support LGBT rights as human rights, especially where life is not all glitter.’

‘This is an inventive campaign that connects the company’s product with online conversations that so many are having,’ commented Anthony Shop, co-founder and chief-strategy officer of US marketing agency Social Driver.

‘Lush is among a growing list of companies leveraging the energy of its customer to unleash remarkable results for both its bottom line and the community. This is yet another example of how “becoming part of its customers’ selfie” surpasses what traditional marketing approaches can deliver in the 21st century.’

The social media campaign invited people to pose with the #GayIsOK soap, to highlight support for LGBTI people around the world. A few examples of some of the images posted are below.

同姓愛って素敵だと思います👭💗🌈#GAYISOK pic.twitter.com/5JhcaOPe4e — 若月 杏凜 (@arinkurulove311) July 9, 2015

#GAYISOK 🌈

A photo posted by Benjaminadams99 (@benjaminadams99) on

#GayIsOk — украинские магазины LUSH приняли участие во всемирной акции компании (ФОТО) t.co/bOnl1ydwAD #LGBT pic.twitter.com/5iWEqKuhOz — Gay-Alliance Ukraine (@GayAllianceUkr) July 6, 2015

The post Lush raises $425,000 for LGBTI rights: wants to hear from gay groups that need funding appeared first on Gay Star News.

David Hudson

www.gaystarnews.com/article/lush-raises-425000-for-lgbti-rights-wants-to-hear-from-gay-groups-that-need-funding/

James Franco Is The New Carrie Bradshaw; Golden Girls Bloopers Are Cheesecake-Worthy

James Franco Is The New Carrie Bradshaw; Golden Girls Bloopers Are Cheesecake-Worthy

The epic showdown between the top fashion houses of America and France that involved such iconic figures as Liza Minnelli, Josephine Baker and Princess Grace is chronicled in Versailles ’73, a fascinating doc that will air on Logo September 14. The trailer below will give you a taste of the treat you have in store.

Madonna did the French-speaking population of Montreal proud at the first stop of her Rebel Heart tour with an exceptional rendition of “La Vie en Rose.”

Based on this first teaser with the full cast (including vets Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett), Lady Gaga looks entirely capable of running American Horror Story: Hotel.

It’s a weekday that ends with the letter “y” so naturally James Franco has celebrated by posting a bizarro video mash-up of Sex and the City and Breaking Bad, in which he impersonates Carrie Bradshaw having sex with Walter White (also played by Franco). And, oh look, there’s Alicia Silverstone as Charlotte. OK, it’s just for the actor’s AOL series “Making a Scene with James Franco” but still…

Ahead of Logo’s 30-hour marathon of The Golden Girls episodes that will also features skits with RDR superstars Willam, Shangela, Pandora Boxx and Delta Work in drag as our favorite Miami-based cheesecake connoisseurs, check out this blooper reel that’s probably pretty accurate.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/ec-HgyjeX_0/james-franco-is-the-new-carrie-bradshaw-golden-girls-bloopers-are-cheesecake-worthy-20150911

Oops! Rick Perry to Drop Out of 2016 GOP Presidential Race

Oops! Rick Perry to Drop Out of 2016 GOP Presidential Race

rick perry

Rick Perry is bowing out of the 2016 Republican Party presidential race, according to two sources who spoke to The Associated Press today.

Perry will make the announcement tonight in St. Louis at a gathering of conservative activists. The gaffe-prone, longest-serving governor in Texas history struggled to rise above the crowded GOP pack this election cycle and was relegated to the less prestigious “kid’s table” during the first debate last month. Perry was scheduled to appear at the second-tier CNN debate next week alongside long-shots Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Rick Santorum.

Related, Rick Perry: Boy Scouts ‘Would Be Better Off’ Without Gay Adult Leaders

Towleroad’s John Wright has written extensively on Perry’s political career, including his longstanding opposition to gay rights:

Perry championed the state’s 2005 marriage amendment, before holding a ceremonial signing of the legislation at an evangelical church in Fort Worth. When asked what he’d say to gay military veterans who protested outside the signing ceremony, Perry said: “Texans made a decision about marriage and if there’s a state that has more lenient views than Texas, then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.”

Years before, Perry had called Texas’ sodomy ban “appropriate” before it was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas — but by 2011 he had apparently forgotten what the case was even about.

He has also repeatedly compared homosexuality to alcoholism, including as part of his staunch defense of the Boy Scouts’ ban on gays — a crusade which he once likened to opposing slavery.

Perry ran a decidedly homophobic presidential campaign in 2012, which he kicked off with a rally hosted by the American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group.

The post Oops! Rick Perry to Drop Out of 2016 GOP Presidential Race appeared first on Towleroad.


Kyler Geoffroy

Oops! Rick Perry to Drop Out of 2016 GOP Presidential Race

Gender-Neutral Bathroom Bill Gives Philly Trans Folk Hope

Gender-Neutral Bathroom Bill Gives Philly Trans Folk Hope

Single-occupant public restrooms in Philadelphia would have to be designated gender-neutral if a bill introduced Thursday before Philadelphia’s City Council becomes law, reports the city’s Daily News. 

The proposed legislation reflects the views of top public officials like Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, who championed trans-inclusive accommodations in an April commentary penned for The Advocate the same month that the White House created its first gender-neutral bathroom.

Philadelphia’s bill is an effort to make good on promises set down in the LGBT equal rights law that Mayor Michael Nutter (pictured above) signed two years ago to fulfill his stated goal “for Philadelphia to be one of, if not the most, LGBT-friendly cities in the world and a leader on equality issues,” according to a report in The Advocate. The newly introduced legislation does not apply to multiple-occupancy public bathrooms in the city.

Council member Anthony Squilla introduced the bill on behalf of the Nutter administration, the Daily News reports. “It’s making it comfortable for everyone, whether you’re a transgender person, whether you’re a straight person or a gay person,” Squilla said.

“Using a public bathroom can be a highly stressful, rising to even dangerous experience for certain individuals. It basically comes down to people policing other people’s gender,” Helen “Nellie” L. Fitzpatrick, director of Mayor Nutter’s Office of LGBT Affairs, told another Philly paper, The Inquirer, in an article published yesterday. Fitzpatrick is helping to shepherd the bill through the legislative process.

The hashtag #WeJustNeedToPee went viral over the summer on social media as trans women and men posted selfies of themselves in restrooms of the gender they were assigned at birth, adding signs to highlight how ill-fitting their presence was in bathrooms that do not comport with their gender identity. 

The news from Philadelphia comes on the heels of reports of probelms surrounding bathroom access for transgender people, including trans high school students Lila Perry and Gavin Grimm, as well as legislation like Florida’s failed transphobic bathroom bill. Florida’s bill was part of a movement by right-wing lawmakers in several states, such as Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nevada, to police transgender and gender-nonconforming people’s attempts to use the bathroom safely privately, and efficiently without mistreatment.

As for claims that cisgender or heterosexual people would be attacked by transgender people using restrooms commensurate with their gender identity, The Advocate has pointed out that there are no reported cases of attacks by trans individuals in bathrooms. On the contrary, it is transgender individuals like Chrissy Lee Polis who are most in danger as they seek to peacefully relieve themselves. Polis was attacked for being a trans woman at a McDonald’s in Baltimore in 2011, as The Advocate documented.

Problems with inclusive bathroom access have even spilled over into the Brooklyn Supreme Court, where where the judge who oversees the court’s efforts to create a gender-neutral restroom has been stymied by persons who take down the sign that designates the facility as gender-neutral, as the ABA Journal detailed this week. Justice Lawrence Knipel decried the shenanigans in his court, and he put up a sign himself, saying that the sign thieves would be caught and the consequences would be severe: If they are employees, they may be fired, and if they are lawyers they may be disbarred.

Cleis Abeni

www.advocate.com/2015/9/11/gender-neutral-bathroom-bill-gives-philly-trans-folk-hope

The Kim Davis Story Has Little To Do With Same-Sex Marriage

The Kim Davis Story Has Little To Do With Same-Sex Marriage
By James Owens and Rich Weissman

Who cares about this woman? She’s uneducated, simple-minded and provincial. She certainly doesn’t like gays or lesbians. She’s been married four times, had two children out-of-wedlock, and goodness knows what else is in her past. She managed to get her cozy government job because her mother handed it down to her, and now Ms. Davis is doing the same for her son. And she claims to talk with God. Such hypocrisy, such nepotism, such nonsense.

Yet, she is front page news. The likes of Huckabee visit and console her as she fights the fight, claiming that Christianity (specifically her brand) is under attack and being made illegal in America. Claiming she is a martyr for the religious world.

Huh? No one is attacking Christianity or any other religion. Lawlessness is being attacked. Theocracy is being attacked. We are attacking those who want to be able to place their religious beliefs above the U.S. Constitution, judicial system and the law.

But Ms. Davis and her supporters say otherwise. They say they have the right to disobey laws and court orders, and the right to refuse to carry out their job duties as government officials because of personal religious belief. Really? Well, for the moment let’s see where this would go. Imagine these headlines …

Government official refuses to certify any pork product in his jurisdiction because his religion forbids the consumption of pigs. Pork production and pork product sales have come to a halt.

Government official will not issue gun registrations or hunting licenses in her jurisdiction because her religion forbids killing of any animal. Gun sales and hunting have essentially been banned.

Government official halts the transfer of all real property to any woman in his jurisdiction because his religious beliefs forbid women from property ownership. Women will not be able to purchase real estate in this jurisdiction.

Government official rescinds all lending authority to all financial institutions in her jurisdiction because her religion forbids the payment of interest. All mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, credit cards and business lending will be terminated.

And even on the marriage front …

Government official denies marriage licenses to divorced people or people who have committed adultery based on religious beliefs that divorce and adultery are sins against God.

Government official denies marriage licenses to all inter-faith couples based on religious beliefs that people should only marry within their faith.

This list could go on and on. Pretty scary. The point is that the issue at hand is not about same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land now, and is accepted by the majority of Americans. All but a few counties throughout the nation are issuing same-sex marriage licenses, quietly, respectfully and without fanfare. So why is Ms. Davis getting attention? She’s the renegade. She’s the one out-of-step and in defiance of court orders. She even appealed to the Supreme Court (the very court she refuses to follow) and her appeal was rejected. So why the attention to this silly woman who has violated the law and refuses to do her job as a county clerk?

Because she represents something dangerous. She represents a small but vocal group of Americans who think the United States is a theocracy and think that their personal religious beliefs allow them to act in ways that are against the law. Ms. Davis does not understand that in a constitutional democracy, her personal religious beliefs are of no interest to anyone other than herself. Within her home and church she is free to believe and practice whatever religion she prefers. But in a secular and free society, she is not free to impose those on others, and she has to follow the laws of the land. Make no mistake, she is not the victim. She is the bully, insisting that everyone in her county adhere to her personal religious beliefs. Such hubris! Indeed, Ms. Davis and others like her could very well take the next steps and start introducing policies the likes of which are quoted above as potential headlines. That’s why she is a danger to freedom and democracy. Religious freedom is not about forcing others to adhere to one’s personal beliefs. Religious freedom is about practicing one’s own religion personally, and keeping it out of government policy, positions and administration. In our homes and churches/synagogues/temples/mosques we are free to voice our beliefs. But in government, industry and commerce, we adhere to the laws of our nation. Period.

Fundamentally, I believe religious freedom is a good thing. And for that reason, I believe that everyone has to the right to their own religious beliefs as long as they keep it to themselves.

So what happens to Ms. Davis? Well, like most people who engage in illegal activities, she sat in jail for disobeying the laws and the courts of this wonderful nation. She’s not a good American. She’s actually quite anti-American as she scoffs at the very judicial system on which this nation is founded and on which our freedom and rights are upheld. In the end, she’s just a criminal. But her cause is one that is dangerous, because it isn’t really about gays and lesbians getting married. It’s about people who think they are above the law and who use their religion to justify breaking the law. It’s about people who think that their personal religious beliefs are more “special” than everyone else’s and supersede the laws of the land. And that’s not what America is about.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.



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Republican who made up fake story about having sex with gay rentboy resigns

Republican who made up fake story about having sex with gay rentboy resigns

Todd Courser, the Republican lawmaker who falsely claimed he was caught having sex with a gay rentboy in order to hide an alleged affair with a female politician, resigned from office on Friday (11 September).

He had allegedly been involved with Cindy Gamrat who was also a member of the Michigan House of Representatives and a fellow social conservative. Gambit was expelled on a 91-12 vote by her colleagues.

Courser resigned following two unsuccessful votes to expel him as well.

‘I felt is was the appropriate thing to do. I put everybody through a whole bunch, my family, constituents and the people in this room,’ Courser told the Detroit Free Press. ‘You go 14-15 hours later, they would have been doing a third vote. I felt they were just going to go until they got their answer.

‘It’s an unfortunate chapter where we’re at, but it’s time to turn a page and go in a different direction and obviously heal, in my own house and in this body as well,’ he also said. ‘It’s been hell.’

The two first-term legislators, both married to other people and raising several children, had invoked their Christian faith on such issues as same-sex marriage and abortion.

Courser thought spreading a fabricated story via email about him having sex with a male prostitute would pale in comparison to the real scandal.

He allegedly fired an aide who refused to go along with his cover-up plan. The aide had recorded a meeting during which Causer detailed his plan to send an email to supporters with the rentboy story.

Despite many people calling for him to resign, he had refused.

Courser and Gamrat had an unusual arrangement in that they have joint House office operations and share some staff members. They had run together unsuccessfully in 2013 as chairman and vice chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party.

The post Republican who made up fake story about having sex with gay rentboy resigns appeared first on Gay Star News.

Greg Hernandez

www.gaystarnews.com/article/republican-who-made-up-fake-story-about-having-sex-with-gay-rentboy-resigns/