PoliticsPoliticsalabama same-sex marriagepatricia todd

Gay Alabama Lawmaker Threatens To Expose Colleagues' Marital Infidelities

Gay Alabama Lawmaker Threatens To Expose Colleagues' Marital Infidelities
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Washington Bureau Chief, HuffPost

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Patricia Todd listens to discussion during a Democratic Party committee hearing, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006, in Montgomery, Ala. Todd, an openly gay candidate, defeated Gaynell Hendricks by 59 votes in the July 18 runoff election in House District 54 in Birmingham. Hendricks' mother-in-law has appealed the results, saying that Todd was late filing a campaign finance report that showed she had received a $25,000 campaign donation from a national gay rights group. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

WASHINGTON -- Alabama's only openly gay legislator is putting her anti-gay colleagues on notice: If they keep espousing family values rhetoric as a reason to oppose marriage equality, she'll start making their marital infidelities public.

"I will not stand by and allow legislators to talk about 'family values' when they have affairs, and I know of many who are and have," wrote state Rep. Patricia Todd (D) on Facebook over the weekend, as reported by the TimesDaily in Alabama. "I will call our elected officials who want to hide in the closet out."

Todd's post came after a federal judge ruled Friday that Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. She told The Huffington Post that she decided to issue her threat after reading some of the anti-gay rhetoric coming from certain elected officials in the state.

"If certain people come out and start espousing this rhetoric about family values, then I will say, 'Let's talk about family values, because here's what I heard.' I don't have direct knowledge, because obviously I'm not the other person involved in the affair. But one thing you would never hear about me is that I ever cheated on a partner or had an affair," said Todd.

"One thing I'm pretty consistent on is I do not like hypocrites," she added. "If you can explain your position and you hold yourself to the same standard you want to hold me to, then fine. But you cannot go out there and smear my community by condemning us and somehow making us feel less than, and expect me to be quiet."

On Sunday night, U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade issued a two-week stay on her ruling, meaning that same-sex couples will have to wait a bit longer to wed. Her order gives the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until Feb. 9 to decide whether to continue the delay. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R) said he would have preferred a stay until the spring or summer, when the Supreme Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of marriage equality nationwide.

If Granade's ruling is upheld, Alabama will be the 37th state to legalize marriage equality.

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Before You Go

10 Incredible Improvements For LGBT People Since The First State Legalized Gay Marriage
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