Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch's resignation amidst allegations she engaged in an "inappropriate relationship" with an unnamed male Senate staffer has prompted an apology from her state's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
"On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community's successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage," John Medeiros, a gay Minneapolis resident who is reportedly involved in the city's Intermedia Arts’ Queer Voices reading series, wrote in an open letter to Koch, a staunch same-sex marriage opponent. "We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry."
The apology was intended as a jibe to Koch, a Republican who authored an unsuccessful bill to amend the Minnesota Constitution declaring "a marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in Minnesota," according to Pink News. Medeiros goes on to reference that bill in his letter, noting: "It is now clear to us that if we were not so self-focused and myopic, we would have been able to see that the time you wasted diligently writing legislation that would forever seal the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, could have been more usefully spent reshaping the legal definition of 'adultery.'"
Though the Senate staffer with whom Koch had a relationship with has not been revealed amidst the scandal, it is widely rumored to have been former communications chief Michael Brodkorb.
Two days earlier, Koch issued her own apology to constituents and her family, declaring in an official statement that she's "made some mistakes and errors in judgment" and has "deep regret."
"The events of recent days have been very difficult for me and those close to me," Koch is quoted as saying by The Star-Tribune. "It is important that I spend time now focusing on the challenging days ahead as I work through some very personal issues."