Gay Ala. Lawmaker Threatens To Out Colleagues’ Affairs

FILE -- In this photo taken June 29, 2013, State Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, speaks at the Madison County Democratic Headquarters in Huntsville, Ala. Todd wasn't even in the room when she cast the vote that lan... FILE -- In this photo taken June 29, 2013, State Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, speaks at the Madison County Democratic Headquarters in Huntsville, Ala. Todd wasn't even in the room when she cast the vote that landed her, temporarily, on the wrong side of history. It was 2007, and the Alabama House of Representatives was about to vote on a resolution apologizing for slavery. Few doubted where Todd, a white Democrat representing majority-black Birmingham, stood on the matter. But as a key vote approached, she was called away to handle a matter in the Senate, two floors up from the House chamber. Leaving her desk, she asked a fellow lawmaker to enter "yes" on her voting machine when the resolution came up. That colleague pressed the wrong button. "No" to apologizing for hundreds of years of involuntary servitude. "It was just an accident," Todd said last week. "He just reached back to my desk and pressed the wrong button."(AP Photo/Bob Gathany, AL.com, file) MORE LESS
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Openly gay Alabama state Rep. Patricia Todd (D) this weekend warned her fellow lawmakers that she would expose their marital infidelities if they continued to oppose same sex marriage by emphasizing “family values.”

“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,” she wrote on Facebook, according to the TimesDaily. “I will call our elected officials who want to hide in the closet out.”

Todd told the Huffington Post that she threatened her colleagues after many lawmakers condemned a federal judge’s Friday ruling that struck down the Alabama ban on same sex marriage.

“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,” she said.

Todd said that she will not tolerate “hypocrites.”

“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,” she told the Huffington Post.

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  1. I’m sure Patricia Todd’s election and reelection is surprising to some TPM readers, but Birmingham is a large enough city that its most liberal legislative district is actually fairly liberal.

  2. Thanks!

    My comment was going to read, “A gay woman was elected in Alabama!?” I’m not sure why people in big cities are mostly sane?

  3. OOOOOooooo…DO IT! DO IT! Don’t just threaten that shit…DO IT.

    Second OOOoooo today for me at TPM. First Morning Joke says something that almost makes sense in the reality-based world and now this. A two-fer Day!

    Continue…TPM. Its that or reduce your headlines to SNOWPOCALYPSE DOOMSDAY ABOUT TO HIT EAST COAST.

    Don’t get me wrong…I feel for you eastcoasters. Been there…But let’s not get fucking carried away or ahead of ourselves.

    Politicians are already taking bows a bit prematurely I might add, preening for the cameras. Wait till the shit hits the fan before we decide how well you handled your fucking jobs.

    And where’s Chubby Checkers from NJ. Haven’t heard from him yet. Did he phone it in from Iowa???

  4. Good to know there’s at least some voters choosing sanity in Alabama over teh crazy.

    And Caitlin McNeil uses the old abbreviation for Alabama. The post office doesn’t even go that route anymore. Almost thought she was a generation older. Had to check her picture…Nope. She looks young.

    I remember when we all had to know Fla., Mich., Ark., Minn., Mass. etc. Now its a two letter thing.

  5. As a 30-something I was taught and have memorized all the current two letter abbreviations, however I like to use the longer abbreviations where I can. I think it’s classy :slight_smile:

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