Note to North Dakota state Rep. Randy Boehning: sending unsolicited explicit photos to other men via a gay dating app is a bad way to hide your sexuality.The anti-gay Republican learned that the hard way this week after he was outed by the man who received those photos, according to multiple reports.The Forum, a Fargo paper that first reported the story, reports that 21-year-old Dustin Smith of Bismarck contacted the paper earlier this month when he recognized Boehning from photos he had sent to him via the gay dating app Grindr under the name “Top Man!”.Per The Forum:Boehning, who is not married, said there are people who know he is gay, but many of his family members and friends do not. He said Saturday he is also attracted to women and was relieved to come out because he no longer has to worry about being outed.“The 1,000-pound gorilla has been lifted,” he said. “I have to confront it at some point.”Why would Smith release the photos? According to The Forum, the move was retaliation for Boehning’s repeated “nay” votes on anti-discrimination bills.The Forum continues:Boehning said before he voted against the anti-discrimination bill on April 2 a Capitol employee told him a fellow House lawmaker who supported the bill said Boehning would be targeted for retaliation if he didn’t vote for it. The 12-year veteran of the House still voted against 2279. He also voted against a similar bill in 2009 and would have in 2013, had the proposal not died in the Senate before a House vote [...]As of Monday, Boehning said he hadn’t talked to legislative leaders about the alleged threat and wouldn’t identify who he thinks is involved without doing that first. Though there is no binding ethics code for North Dakota legislators, he said there could be ramifications and “this isn’t something I take lightly.”For his part, Boehning said his anti-gay vote reflected his constituents’ wishes, and that he had problems with the bills’ language, especially a provision that protected people who were “perceived as gay.”“Politics makes strange bedfellows,” he told The Forum.
North Dakota state Rep. Randy Boehning: sending unsolicited explicit photos to other men
Quote North Dakota state Rep. Randy Boehning: sending unsolicited explicit photos to other menSo what part of sending explicit photos of yourself to people who never wanted or asked for them is ok? This was bound to happen eventually.
Quote from: LC on May 01, 2015, 01:11:52 PMQuote North Dakota state Rep. Randy Boehning: sending unsolicited explicit photos to other menSo what part of sending explicit photos of yourself to people who never wanted or asked for them is ok? This was bound to happen eventually.Looking at the image in the news story, it looks as if the person he sent the picture to reciprocated nonetheless. Not, of course, that sending unsolicited pictures justifies outing somebody in the first place--regardless of how stupid a thing it is to do.
you'd be perfectly fine with that and wouldn't tell anybody?
Quote from: LC on May 01, 2015, 01:41:35 PMyou'd be perfectly fine with that and wouldn't tell anybody?I'd block them and forget about the issue. I wouldn't go "Oh look, a closeted congressman" and then run to the press with it.
If it was a liberal Meta would be laughing
Quote from: Magos Domina on May 01, 2015, 02:49:06 PMIf it was a liberal Meta would be laughingBecause some gay dude is going to try and get revenge on a liberal for voting against anti-discrimination laws, right?
I don't know. I guess I can see where it was wrong of him to be outed, but I just see this as a non-issue. Maybe he should've kept those nudey photos to himself if he didn't want to be revealed to be a hypocritical douchebag.
Quote from: Meta Cognition on May 01, 2015, 01:58:56 PMQuote from: LC on May 01, 2015, 01:41:35 PMyou'd be perfectly fine with that and wouldn't tell anybody?I'd block them and forget about the issue. I wouldn't go "Oh look, a closeted congressman" and then run to the press with it.Is it bad that I'd probably sell them to some tabloid?