Anti-Gay Lawmaker Creates Fake Gay Sex Scandal About Himself To Hide His Real Straight Sex Scandal

In a stunning act of hypocrisy and deviousness, a Tea Party Republican state lawmaker has concocted one of the strangest scenarios in modern politics.

A Michigan Tea Party Republican state lawmaker concocted a gay sex scandal to draw attention away from his affair with a married fellow state lawmaker. Both conservative lawmakers actively cite their religious faith, and worked to oppose same-sex marriage, abortion, and gun control.

Rep. Todd Courser was secretly recorded in audio obtained by the Detroit News asking an aide to send out an email blast to GOP activists from a fake Gmail account. That email was designed to create “a complete smear campaign” and described in great detail a fake story about him being caught having sex with a male prostitute behind a local Lansing nightclub.

The goal of the fake gay sex scandal was to make Courser’s real affair with Rep. Cindy Gamrat, his married colleague who has three children, seem to be “tame by comparison.” It’s unknown who wrote the email, but Courser was recorded saying that Gamrat had approved it.

“It will make anything else that comes out after that — that isn’t a video — mundane, tame by comparison,” Rep. Courser, whom the Detroit News describes as “a married father of four,” told his Michigan State House aide, Ben Graham. “I need a controlled burn,” Courser repeatedly told Graham. “In a controlled burn, you do a little bit of truth mixed in with a lot of lies.”

Graham refused to send out the fake story, which Courser asked him to do presumably outside of the House offices, by taking a sick day. Graham soon after had his duties reduced, and eventually was fired. Rep. Gamrat also subsequently fired her aide, with no explanation. 

During the May 19 meeting, Courser instructed Graham to send rank-and-file Republicans across Michigan what he called “an over-the-top story that’s obscene about me.” It was designed, Courser said on the recording, to “inoculate the herd” — an apparent reference to Courser and Gamrat’s followers in the tea party movement.

In another odd twist, Rep. Courser and Rep. Gamrat shared offices and office staff, something not ever done before. 

Interviews with former House employees and the recordings show freshman lawmakers Courser and Gamrat, R-Plainwell, used their taxpayer-funded offices to maintain and cover up their relationship. Courser, 43, and Gamrat, 42, rose from the ranks of tea party activism, battled establishment Republicans to win seats in the House last year and formed their own legislative coalition.

Gamrat in 2012 worked for Michigan state lawmaker Gary Glenn, who is the president of American Family Association of Michigan, which is tied to the anti-gay hate group American Family Association.  

A conservative Detroit News columnist last year described Courser, Gamrat, and Glenn as a “trio” that “seeks tea party tyranny.“ 

The Detroit News story today is an extensive exposé, which includes audio clips, copies of emails and screenshots of texts. 

 

Image of Todd Courser via Facebook