John Reid, the gay Republican nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, has defended the right of his running mate, current Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, to oppose same-sex marriage — even though he personally disagrees with her on the issue.
Speaking on the conservative talk radio program The Wilkow Majority on SiriusXM, Reid said he and Earle-Sears are “willing to put aside our differences” to support policies they believe are best for Virginia. Host Andrew Wilkow then asked Reid to name an issue on which the two disagree.
“She’s not for gay marriage. She’s 100 percent against it,” Reid said. “You know, she’s from Jamaica, and her religious background tells her a very different narrative than my Episcopalian white-guy Virginia background. I understand!”
He added, “You know, at some point we’ll have to talk about this.”
Although Reid says he personally supports same-sex marriage, he told the Richmond-based Virginia Mercury in June that if elected and called upon to break a tie in the Virginia Senate, he would vote against a bill to approve a referendum allowing same-sex couples to marry.
He argued the proposed amendment “doesn’t provide protection for people who sincerely don’t agree with gay marriage.”
Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban — known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment — was rendered moot in 2014, when a federal judge struck it down as discriminatory and unconstitutional, a ruling later upheld by both an appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. Still, as long as the amendment remains on the books, if the Supreme Court were ever to reverse its marriage equality ruling, the ban could once again take effect.
Earle-Sears has been vocal about her opposition to LGBTQ rights. Her campaign has focused much of its fire on Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, zeroing in on issues like transgender athletes and restroom access in schools. She has also long opposed same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ workers, including state employees.
As the Richmond Free Press reported last month, a 2004 candidate questionnaire from Earle-Sears’s unsuccessful run for Congress showed she answered “yes” when asked if she would vote to block same-sex couples from adopting children and oppose workplace protections for gay people. She also agreed with a statement asserting that homosexuality is an “immoral lifestyle choice.”
Reid, previously accused of reposting sexually explicit images on a Tumblr account matching his private Instagram handle, has remained a staunch defender of Earle-Sears — even after she briefly distanced herself when Gov. Glenn Youngkin urged him to drop out of the race over the controversy.
Reid denies any connection to the Tumblr account, which Democrats claim contained Nazi-themed pornography and violent sexual content, according to an investigation by American Journal News.
The candidate supports banning transgender athletes from female sports teams and restricting people to restrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas that match their sex assigned at birth. He also opposes allowing minors to access gender-affirming care, though he says transgender adults should “live their lives as they see fit — but not if they impose restrictions or obligations on others, or if any of their behavior sexualizes or grooms children,” according to his campaign website.
Elon Musk has waded into the Virginia governor's race to attack Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, accusing her of "trying to weasel out" of a question about transgender students accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Musk shared a post on X highlighting Spanberger's response to WJLA reporter Nick Minock, who asked whether she supports "biological males who say they're women using women's locker rooms and bathrooms and competing in women's sports."
Spanberger stumbled in her response, noting that any attempt by a future Virginia governor or the Trump administration to impose a bathroom ban could run afoul of a 2020 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing transgender students in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
A politician from Poland’s far-right Konfederacja (Confederation) party has quit after revealing his relationship with model Michalina Manios, an intersex woman.
In a joint interview with the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Dawid Szóstak and Manios confirmed they were dating and said they want to "focus on what's important," according to Euronews.
The couple stressed their shared values, noting that both are Catholic and deeply respectful of tradition.
Gay adult film star Justin Heath Smith, better known by his alias Austin Wolf, has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The sentencing follows what prosecutors described as a "pattern of activity involving prohibited sexual conduct" that included seeking out sexual liaisons with minors and exchanging hundreds of child sexual abuse videos.
Wolf was arrested in 2024 on suspicion of using an anonymous Telegram account to exchange hundreds of videos containing child pornography with another individual whose phone was later seized and searched by the FBI.
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