A Republican running to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor has filed a lawsuit to find out who sent a homophobic robotext referring to him as “a gay Democrat” to delegates ahead of the Virginia GOP’s nominating convention on Saturday, May 8.
The lawsuit, filed by Del. Glenn Davis (R-Virginia Beach) in Norfolk Circuit court, seeks $100,000 in nominal and compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages against an unknown defendant, labeled “Jane Doe,” for defamation.
The lawsuit also identifies the registered user of the phone number from which the text was sent, a Minnesota-based telecommunications company called Onvoy, and asks the court to force Onvoy to reveal who paid for the robotexts.
The text sent out last week showed a photo of Davis, clad in a rainbow-colored shirt, at a PrideFest event in Hampton Roads, with text attacking Davis for supporting protections for transgender children in schools.
The text also touted one of Davis’s opponents, former Del. Tim Hugo (R-Clifton) as “the only conservative running for Lt. Governor,” and asked delegates to this year’s GOP convention to help Davis “come out of the closet” by refusing to rank him on Saturday.
Davis and Hugo are currently running in a six-person field that features Fairfax businessman Puneet Ahluwalia, Air Force veteran and defense contractor Lance Allen, businesswoman Maeve Rigler and Winsome Sears, a former state delegate.
Davis, who has been married to his wife, Chelle, a GOP activist, for 16 years, said he “unapologetically supports equal treatment for the LGBTQ community” in the lawsuit. However, the complaint argues, “his support of the community does not give an anonymous Defendant authority to send text messages to voters labeling him as ‘GAY.'”
The lawsuit says it’s unclear who sent out the text messages, although the image used in the text was previously used on a mailer from the Hugo campaign disparaging Davis as “no Republican.” The Hugo campaign has denied it is in any way associated with the robotext, condemning the messages as “ridiculous and offensive.”
“We hope the Davis campaign is able to find out who was behind it,” the Hugo campaign said in a statement to The Washington Post referencing the text.
Davis had previously criticized Hugo for employing a homophobic attack by using the photo of him in the rainbow shirt in the original mailer — which did not go as far as the subsequent robotext — saying that “coincidence only goes so far.”
Dustin Rhodes, Hugo’s campaign manager, defended its past criticism of Davis for supporting Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and for voting to allow DREAMers, or undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, to be eligible for in-state tuition at Virginia colleges and universities. Rhodes told Richmond-based ABC affiliate WRIC that the image was pulled from Davis’s public Facebook page.
“Accusations that it was anything else are nothing more than an attempt to distract voters from the fact that Glenn supported Obamacare expansion and voted this year to give taxpayer funded tuition to illegal immigrants,” Rhodes said regarding the original mailer from the Hugo campaign.
In the lawsuit, Davis notes that the robotexts have defamed him, writing: “Since the text message was sent, the Plaintiff has received several calls and communications from third parties, including the media that has reported on it, that the subject text message caused harm to the reputation of the Plaintiff to potential voters in various parts of Virginia so as to lower his electability and standing in the estimation of the community and to attempt to deter third person voters from associating or dealing with him.”
“If bad actions are allowed to go without repercussions, we will never see honesty, integrity, & civil discourse return to GOP politics,” Davis said in a tweet announcing the lawsuit.
A New Jersey school district has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of a transgender student who died by suicide after allegedly enduring years of bullying and harassment.
Danielle Warshefski will receive $603,664.78, while the law firm that represented her will receive the remainder to cover legal costs and attorneys' fees.
According to the lawsuit, Warshefski's son, Myles Fitzpatrick, came out as transgender in December 2020, while Manville High School was holding classes virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signed a bill requiring teachers and other school employees to answer parents' questions about their children's health, well-being, behavior, and identity "completely and honestly."
Under the new law, educators must respond to a parent's written questions about their child within 10 business days without omitting any pertinent information. The State Board of Education must also update its educator code of ethics and code of conduct to reflect the disclosure requirements.
Teachers and staff who fail to respond to parental requests within the required time frame may face disciplinary action. The law provides two exceptions: when disclosure is prohibited by state or federal law, or when an educator has made a "good faith determination" that disclosure would put the student "at imminent risk" of abuse or neglect by a parent, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin. In the latter case, the educator must report the suspected risk to the local superintendent and deny the parent's request in writing.
E. Jean Carroll considers herself an eccentric personality, she says in Ask E. Jean, Ivy Meeropol’s brisk, engaging documentary about the larger-than-life former columnist and TV host, and, lately, persistent nemesis of Donald Trump.
Judging by her public persona, and this film, Carroll’s self-assessment feels correct. Some might even call her a kook, viewing her present-day hermit’s life deep in the woods somewhere, or watching her appearances on ’90s talk shows assembled here into a succinct introductory montage.
There she is on Oprah, counseling a couple on how to really enjoy sex, on The Charles Grodin Show, flirting with the host while seated between Montel Williams and Dick Clark, on her own live TV talk show Ask E. Jean, doling out frank love life advice to grateful callers.
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