Tennessee Lt. governor who "liked" gay man's nude pics has new statement
Tennessee Lt. governor who "liked" gay man's nude pics has new statement
It's ridiculous and unacceptable, exposing why Randy McNally needs to resign.
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The story out of Tennessee about Lt. Governor Randy McNally “liking” the thirst traps of 20-year-old Franklin McClure on Instagram has thankfully gone national, with even Saturday Night Live weighing in.
It doesn’t get more hypocritical — and more disqualifying — than this: A 79-year-old Republican who voted to ban drag queens in any place they may be exposed to children — Tennessee’s infamous first-in-the-nation anti-drag law passed two weeks ago — found to be leaving heart emojis on a young gay man’s photos in which he’s exposing his butt, gushing to the young man that he brings “rainbows and sunshine.”
After McNally did an interview with a local Nashville TV news channel on Friday, mouths were agape at his pathetic excuses, including that he was just trying to be “encouraging” of constituents:
When the story didn’t die down over the weekend he came up with a new statement yesterday. And it is a doozy. Let’s break it down:
I have long been active on social media. I have made a point to engage with people not only in posts, but in comments and messages as well. My comments to Franklin McClure and others, which have recently drawn so much attention, are no different. While I see now that I should have been more careful about how my comments and activity would be perceived, my intent was always engagement and encouragement.
This is completely bogus. Not only are there other young gay men he was “encouraging” on social media, but there aren’t any young cisgender women he was “encouraging,” as The Daily Beast pointed out, however there were transgender women he was “encouraging.”
McNally’s interest in pictures of barely clothed members of the LGBTQ community doesn’t stop with that Knoxville man, Franklyn McClur. The lieutenant governor has “liked” shirtless and swimsuit pictures of gay men and transgender women for years, according to the Instagram activity of McNally’s official verified account reviewed by The Daily Beast…
…Yet McNally’s Instagram favorites extend far beyond members of his own state’s LGBTQ community, touching on both influencer-level users and far smaller ones. He also favorited several revealing pictures of a transgender woman with tens of thousands of followers in Florida, and a shirtless gay man with only a couple of hundred followers in California.
Furthermore, according to McClure, McNally offered the young man a job in his administration, though he had no government experience and was just out of high school.
In his new statement McNally tries to claim he’s not anti-gay while still saying he is a traditional Republican. In other words, it’s fine for him to be a hypocrite:
While I have made some mistakes in my use of social media, the characterization of me and my record as somehow “anti-gay” is inaccurate. On a personal level, nothing could be further from the truth. I believe every person has value and deserves respect regardless of their orientation. I am 79 years old, and was raised in a time when homosexuality was deeply shameful. And I absolutely still hold traditional Tennessee values dear. But I now have friends and even a relative who is gay. I have worked hard to try and understand this community better, and at the same time not compromise trying to protect children and my own values.
McNally says in the statement that he spoke out against a bill banning adoption by gay couples — yet the record shows he didn’t vote against it, just voted “present” — even though he’s voted for every other kind of anti-gay legislation, including the anti-drag bill, which he couched as anti-obscenity. This is idiotic since the vast majority of drag queens are clothed and working in nightclubs which bar minors while he “liked” the racy nearly nude photos of a gay man, putting heart emojis on a photo of his butt on a public website.
I have supported legislation that would protect children and keep obscenity out of the public sphere. And I support traditional marriage. There is no contradiction here.
This is perhaps the most shameful, pathetic, hideous and outrageous excuse by a clearly hypocritical, self-loathing closeted politician. The fact that he was communicating with McClure when he was 17 is an opportunity for Democrats to paint him the way Republicans are (wrongly and outrageously) painting all Democrats: as a “groomer.” He must be made to resign.
I looked up his vote on the anti-adoption issue. While he says he "spoke out against" the bill, when it came time to vote, he did NOT vote against the legislation but rather "Present not voting." Wow, what a profile in courage.
Instead of focusing on laws to ban drag queens performing when children are present these hate mongers should pass legislation that really protects children by making it it illegal for kids to be in the company of pastors, priests and Republican legislators without the presence of the child's parent or guardian!