North Dakota lawmaker votes against gay rights and is subsequently outed on Grindr
File this one under "Hypocrisy in Action."
“Seems I haven’t found mister right yet, so need to keep looking for and having fun on the way! Hit me up boys.”
— Grindr profile of Top Man, a.k.a. Randy Boehning, Republican state representative from Fargo, N.D.
The 52-year-old was outed by Dustin Smith, a 21-year-old Bismarck resident who had chatted with Boehning on the popular gay hookup app. Smith chose to out the staunchly conservative representative after learning the man he’d chatted with was the same who had voted against an anti-discrimination bill. Twice.
In an interview with Fargo’s Forum, Boehning, who is single, defended sending shots of his penis to Smith. “That’s what gay guys do on gay sites, don’t they? That’s how things happen on Grindr…. That’s what we do, exchange pics on the site.”
Boehning confided to the Forum he was relieved the news of his sexuality was now public (“The 1,000 pound gorilla has been lifted”), and that he felt the outing was political payback for his votes against gay rights. Boehning insists one of the reasons he voted against the bill, which could potentially allow for gays to be denied housing or service at restaurants, is that he feels his south Fargo consitutents don’t support it.
Smith told the Washington Post he only disclosed Boehning’s sexuality because of the vote.
“I just felt like this story had to get out,” he said. “A [representative] had voted against a bill for the LGBT community and here he was talking to me on Grindr.” Still, Smith noted that he understood the reason for Boehning’s previously closeted position.
“We live in a state that discriminates against gay people. North Dakota is kind of being left in the dust as far as civil rights are concerned,” he said. “I’ve witnessed it going to high school. I’ve witnessed it in my own life, where you don’t have a chance to come out on your own terms and come out in your own way…. I’m not trying discredit him in anyway. I’m just trying to point out the hypocrisy of it. He lives in a state where he represents constituents who don’t agree with his lifestyle. But he has to lie to them about his lifestyle and his personal beliefs to get elected.”
Watch the Forum’s excellent video report on this story here.
Sources: The Forum, The Washington Post
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