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Antigay Indiana 'Religious Freedom' Sponsor Resigns Amidst Sex Scandal
Indiana House Majority Leader Jud McMillan, a cosponsor of the state’s controversial “religious freedom” law resigned his seat abruptly Tuesday, after a sexually explicit video starring the representative was sent via text message from McMillin’s cell phone. The Indianapolis Star reported it is unclear who sent the text or how broadly it was distributed.
This is the second time McMillan has resigned from a job over sexual misconduct allegations.
McMillan was a rising star in Indiana Republican politics, a conservative who also spoke out against marriage equality, opposes nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people, and coauthored legislation to prevent an LGBT youth group from obtaining a specialty license plate. In a prepared statement released yesterday, McMillan said the “time is right for me to pass the torch and spend more time with my family.”
McMillan sent a strange text to everyone in his phone contact list last week that read, “My phone was stolen in Canada and out of my control for about 24 hours. I have just been able to reactivate it under my control. Please disregard any messages you received recently. I am truly sorry for anything offensive you may have received.” Then, on Tuesday, he resigned without mentioning the alleged video showing McMillan having sex with a woman who is not his wife, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
In 2011, a Bilerico Project expose on the lawmaker highlighted McMillan’s past brushes with the law and allegations of sexual impropriety. The site reported that McMillan had faced petty theft allegations, vehicular homicide charges, and was forced to resign a job as a deputy prosecutor after a domestic violence victim claimed he forced her to press charges against her will and coerced her into a sexual relationship. Court filings in the victim’s subsequent lawsuit against for the former prosecutor show McMillan sent her incredibly graphic sexually explicit photographs from his phone and was caught having sex with her in a state park.
McMillan has styled himself as a champion of the religious right’s crusade against marriage equality. His campaign website listed marriage discrimination as his top issue. “I will protect the integrity of the institution of marriage,” the site read. “In southeastern Indiana the family has always been the foundation of our strength of community. Our relationships with our wives, husbands, parents, children, siblings and other loved ones provides the glue that binds our common purpose. In these times of turmoil the rest of the country could learn something from our example.”
McMillan did not return an email asking whether Hoosiers should continue to look to him as an example of marriage integrity and the moral superiority of conservative heterosexual marriages. His photograph, biography and contact information have been erased from the legislature’s website, leaving nothing but a mostly blank page.
Bil Browning
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