Steve Wiles: Out Of The Closet, Into The Fire

I have often said that the biggest homophobes in the world turn out to be the biggest homos; l think toe-tapping, bathroom stall loitering Larry Craig, who, okay, ALLEGEDLY, trolled airport bathroom looking for a hand job is a prime example, though now we have North Carolina Republican running for office, who is also a big time backer of that state’s constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, Steve Wiles.

See, it’s turned out that Steve once went by the name Mona Sinclair, during his days working as a drag queen at a gay club in Winston-Salem.

Uh huh.

Now, of course I know that just because someone does drag does not mean they are gay, but it does seem a bit suspect especially when the story began to break — and how in the hell you gonna keep that sequined secret in the closet — Steve began denying his previous career.

It didn’t take a great leap for Randy Duggins, the owner of Club Odyssey, who once employed Mona/Steve, to put two-and-two together. But as soon as Duggins started talking, Wiles started denying. He has spent the last few weeks saying everything and nothing about the story; first, he denied it, and called it a lie, but then kind of admitted it. He did the Texas Side-Step in six-inch heels, y’all when he said this three weeks ago:

“That’s not me.” 

He then denied he was gay, and then said, more recently:

“I have already apologized to the people who matter most to me for the things I did when I was young.”

Wiles did not say why, or for what, he was apologizing, but this week his campaign website, Facebook page, and Twitter account were closed.

Randy Duggins, who closed Club Odyssey in 2010, says Wiles was a frequent patron in the late 1990s, and in the early 2000s, before he began working as the show director, booking performers and also running the show as emcee Mona Sinclair. Duggins recognized Wiles when his picture appeared in a local paper, and that’s when he stepped forward, saying he has no ax to grind against Wiles, he merely wanted to point out that Steve Wiles is a liar.

And a party switcher whenever the mood strikes. Until 2008, Wiles was a registered Democrat, who voted for Obama or Clinton in 2008, but then switched to ‘Unaffiliated’ before changing parties again to call himself a Republican. In 2012, Wiles campaigned for that constitutional amendment — which passed, by the way — to ban same-sex marriage, and now that he’s running as a Republican against two other GOP candidates — incumbent Joyce Krawiec and East Bend resident Dempsey Brewer — the drag queen story is becoming news.

“Why is it even an issue?” Wiles wants to know.

Well, let’s see, because you lied about it, for one, which makes you a liar. You seem to switch political affiliations willy-nilly to suit whatever mood you seem to be in. I’d say people want to know who they’d be getting if they voted for Steve Wiles. The ALLEGEDLY closeted gay former drag queen Democrat or the GOP goose-stepping anti-LGBT asshat. That’s why it’s an issue.

But funnier still, is that Wiles cannot fathom how this story broke when, apparently, all it took was for a reporter to do a simple Google search, using the words “Steven Wiles” and “Belews Creek,” the place he lists as his town of residence.

That search lead to a link for the Miss Gay America website which listed a Steve Wiles as Mona Sinclair, and said he lived in Belews Creek and that he was a promoter of Miss Gay Eastern States America and a promoter for Miss Gay North Carolina America. The webpage also says that Wiles was suspended for “conduct unbecoming to a promoter of the Miss Gay America pageant system” though it offers no other information.

Look, is he gay? I don’t care. He isn’t gay, for certain, just because he’s done drag; he may not be gay even if he worked for Miss Gay pageants. But, again, he’s a liar, and a panderer and a goosestepper and an asshat; he’s a hypocrite who worked in gay clubs, worked for gay events, and then worked to deny gays and lesbians in North Carolina the right to marry by having discrimination written into the Constitution of the state.

But Steven Wiles hasn’t learned a thing from having his past come out, so to speak, because, in his most recent statement he calls himself a victim in all of this:

“I made mistakes. My job was embarrassing — I had to have a job! Nobody died, leaving me a millionaire capable of living in North Carolina's most expensive neighborhood. One thing I will say, I learned from my mistakes — the Republican party, under the leadership of Scott Cumbie who threatened me with my past if I ran against an incumbent Republican, seem intent to fight within the party and join in the fight with every bigot and racist they can find. I understand the gay community does not share my support for the Marriage Amendment — I RESPECT THAT and am very happy to discuss my views with any of my friends in the Democrat party and gay community. Meanwhile, I regret the fact that something so trivial would cloud an otherwise decent campaign....What more could be expected though? When policy fails, attacks begin.”

Poor Steve! No one left him millions in a will so he had to get an embarrassing job as a drag queen? And, again, it isn’t a trivial issue when it points to the flaws in your character. Save the pity party, Steve, because we’ve all RSVP’d that we aren’t attending. But then, because he apparently never met a hole he didn’t want to dig deeper, he added:

"I think that everyone has their own choices to make and I'm fine with everyone making their own. For me, from a religious standpoint, just for my life, for me, it just was not something that I wanted to continue. Of course it was an embarrassment, but you know, you move on. You live life, and you change, and you make yourself what you want yourself to be. And that's where I am now."

First off, Steve, gay is not a choice, even for you; you can deny it, sure, but the sexual orientation issue was decided before you were born. And you can use religion as a reason to not call yourself gay, but, if you are gay, you’re still gay; you might be a celibate gay; you could be a self-loathing, denying, closeted gay; you could call yourself “ex-gay,” but you’re still gay.

And he says the reason he worked so hard to deny gay folks the constitutional right to marry is because he considers marriage a "religious institution" and adds that opposing same-sex marriage does not make one anti-gay.

Well, it kinda does when you work against equality in a country where we have something called Separation of Church and State and that means keeping your religious faith outta our laws.

And he also wants y’all to know that “stopped promoting” the Miss Gay America pageant — when he was actually expelled from the group — because he objected to the gay "lifestyle."

Oh, Steve, if you take nothing away from this sad situation take away this: it isn’t a lifestyle; your lifestyle, as you might call it, was choosing to take a job as a drag queen because you lived in a very expensive area and no one left you a bundle of money in their will to maintain your lifestyle.

Being gay is a life; it is not a choice; it’s a sexual orientation, but you’ll never get that because you’re too far gone to understand that you’ll never be happy or successful until you are your true self; gay, straight, drag queen, politician, whatever.

But one thing that is both a choice and a lifestyle is being a liar. You chose to lie about your past; you chose to live a life of lying and changing partied and switching sides and denying and pretending.

Shortly before deleting his Facebook, one of his last posts was the lie that he became a drag queen because he "needed a job." And he still needs a job because I don’t know if the people of his district in North Carolina will vote for him; not because of his past as a drag queen; not because he might very well be gay; but because he’s a liar.

And that makes him an asshat of epic proportions.

Now .... sashay, away.

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