Actively Anti-Gay Legislator Also an Active Grindr User

Dustin Smith, the man who outed Boehning, says that his reasons for doing so aren’t malicious, but that he needed to get the word out that a gay state representative (and Boehning has now admitted that he’s gay) was voting against protection of the LGBT+ community in North Dakota, making it even harder for those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender to find and keep jobs and be protected in cases of discrimination.

“We live in a state that discriminates against gay people,” he told The Post, adding that gays could be denied housing or restaurant service because Boehning and other politicians voted down the anti-discrimination bill. “North Dakota is kind of being left in the dust as far as civil rights are concerned.”

He added: “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.”

Boehning’s arguments for voting against gay rights are both weak and nauseating. First, he claims that he didn’t like the language of the bill (lolwut) because it covered not just those who identified as LGBT+ but also those who were perceived as such (which doesn’t sound wrong?). He also claims that he voted against his own self-interest because that’s what his constituents would have wanted him to do, and it’s all about the people. Except, you know, I thought politicians got into this whole thing in order to change lives and laws? How difficult is it for someone to see how bad conditions are for his minority constituents and still vote against them, especially if he falls into that minority group?

Boehning says that Smith’s public outing is a retaliatory campaign against him for not voting in the LGBT+ interest. That’s a good way for him to defend against the fact that he completely ignored the needs of disenfranchised citizens that he was elected to protect. He also says that he feels better about not keeping secrets anymore. But, according to him, you just don’t flip-flop on important issues.

“This has been a challenge for me,” he said. “You don’t tell everyone you’re going to vote one way and then switch your vote another way — you don’t have any credibility that way.”

First, Mr. Boehning, yes, lots of people do that all the time. Second, you don’t have any credibility now anyway. You should have at least used the last shred of it not to contribute to the stripping of civil rights for the people of North Dakota. Hope the coming out experience is as much of a learning one for you as it was for so many others of us out there.

Image via N.D. Legislator Branch/YouTube