Many Ohio voters are a little miffed that they weren't informed sooner of the repeated sexual transgressions of Bible-thumping Republican Wesley Goodman, an Ohio State representative who resigned abruptly last week over allegations of "inappropriate behavior." Turns out, that behavior involved a consensual relationship with a man, but it wasn't Goodman's first"inappropriate" moment.
In Ohio, supporters of Goodman’s campaign wondered why they were not alerted to his past behavior.
“We are so sick of people knowing and doing nothing. If someone knew, they had an obligation to say something. That’s what you do. That’s how you hold society together,” said Thomas R. Zawistowski, president of Ohio Citizens PAC, a conservative group that endorsed Goodman.
One of the people who “knew” about Goodman, a married father who promoted "natural marriage" as a politician, was none other than self-described evangelical Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, who has made a career out of demonizing LGBTQ Americans and railing against the "homosexual lifestyle." Except, of course, when that lifestyle involves a rising star of the Republican party who's so deep in the closet, he's buried under a pile of cardigans.
Perkins had been present at a GOP donor gathering in 2015, where an 18-year-old college student reported being disrobed and sexually touched by Goodman, 33. The Washington Post writes:
...the candidate unzipped his pants and fondled him in the middle of the night. The frightened teenager fled the room and told his mother and stepfather, who demanded action from the head of the organization hosting the conference.
“If we endorse these types of individuals, then it would seem our whole weekend together was nothing more than a charade,” the stepfather wrote to Tony Perkins, president of the Council for National Policy.
“Trust me . . . this will not be ignored nor swept aside,” replied Perkins, who also heads the Family Research Council, a prominent evangelical activist group. “It will be dealt with swiftly, but with prudence.”