Anti-Gay Senator Who Had Cybersex Again Refuses to Resign: ‘I Have Apologized to God’

Nebraska Republican Bill Kintner Ignores Ultimatum to Step Down From Legislature’s Executive Board

Saying he’s admitted his sin and apologized to both God and his wife for illegally having cybersex on a state computer, a rabidly anti-gay Republican state senator from Nebraska has rejected an ultimatum to resign from the Legislature’s Executive Board. 

Sen. Bill Kintner could now face expulsion from the Legislature after sending a letter to the 10-member Executive Board on Friday refusing its request from Monday that he step down by the end of the week. 

Kintner has already paid a $1,000 fine for misuse of a state computer after he admitted to having cybersex on Skype with a woman he met on Facebook last summer.  

“As I have openly admitted, I committed a sin,” Kintner wrote in his letter Friday. “I have not tried to hide from my sin. … I have taken personal responsibility for my action. I have apologized to God, to my wife, to you, and to my constituents.” 

Republican Speaker Galen Hadley said he was “very disappointed” in Kintner’s decision, and GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts reiterated his call for the senator’s resignation: 

Republican Sen. Bob Krist, chairman of the Executive Board, says he will now take the matter to the Legislative Council, made up of all 49 senators, which could expel or censure Kintner. In the meantime, Krist plans to look into monitoring Kintner’s computer and out-of-state travel, The Lincoln Journal Star reports. 

Kintner has a long history of making offensive remarks about women, minorities, and the poor, and even compared his fellow senators to monkeys. 

Last year Kintner, who opposes same-sex marriage and allowing gay people to adopt or even be foster parents, made very offensive remarks about LGBT people.

“If you’re a Christian, they’re coming after you,” Sen. Kintner told his colleagues. “So I think it’s very important to remember that whenever they talk about protecting a class, it’s not just a shield, it’s a sword. And they are going to come after you if you’re a Christian. It something that this body, we need to guard the rights of everyone. That includes Christians.”

Earlier this year, Kintner invited LGBT people who wanted equality to exit the state, in comments surrounding an LGBT nondiscrimination bill.

“When I go to San Francisco, sometimes I’ve seen some pretty weird things there,” Kintner told his colleagues. “And I’m not that comfortable in San Francisco. But you know the difference between conservatives and my friends on the left? When I’m not comfortable someplace I leave. I go somewhere I am comfortable, I move to the state I am comfortable, I like it.”