The Problem I Have With Rightwingnut GOP Christian Conservatives, Part Two

Yesterday we talked about Wes Goodman, the rightwingnut, family values, “Christian” conservative, GOP Ohio state congressman who resigned recently after being caught doing something “inappropriate” in his congressional office with another man.

This is still about Wes, but also about how the right will scream and shout about The Gays, and how we don’t deserve marriage or equal rights, or sometimes even the right to breathe, but when it’s one of their own who’s queer, they do whatever they can to protect them.

Two years ago, there was a Council for National Policy [CNP] conference at a Ritz-Carlton hotel near Washington DC to raise money for Wes Goodman, because he was a rising star in “evangelical” politics; talk about your oxymoron.

Anyway, after that conference, upstairs, in one of the hotel rooms, an 18-year-old college student who had come to the event with his parents said Goodman unzipped his pants and fondled the boy; the frightened teenager fled the room and immediately told his mother and stepfather, who demanded action from the head of the organization hosting the conference.

That organization was the rabidly homophobic, gay hating, Family Research Council, and the head of the group is the rabidly homophobic and gay-hating Tony Perkins.

The stepfather told Perkins:

“If we endorse these types of individuals, then it would seem our whole weekend together was nothing more than a charade.”

Perkins instantly assured the man that the matter would not go ignored, and said it would be dealt with “swiftly, but with prudence.”

Except it wasn’t; in emails and documents obtained by The Washington Post—the source for this post—never became public, nor did the other “similar incidents” Perkins referred to in a letter to candidate Wes Goodman. Perkins did, however, ask Goodman to drop out of the race and he suspended him from the council, but Goodman continued his campaign and went on to defeat two fellow Republicans in the primary before winning his seat last November.

And again, after being caught trying to molest an 18-year-old student, why didn’t Tony Perkins notify anyone in Goodman’s Ohio campaign office, or anyone in the state party, or anyone anywhere anytime ever?

GOP. Tribe of Hypocrisy.

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.”—Thomas Zawistowski, president of Ohio Citizens PAC, a conservative group that endorsed Goodman.

Perkins, of course, isn’t talking, and Goodman has clammed up since he resigned his position last week.

In emails, it appears that Perkins directly handled the situation, even telling Goodman, he says, that the man should not run for office until he addressed his behavior:

“Going forward so soon, without some distance from your past behavior and a track record of recovery, carries great risk for you and for those who are supporting you.”

So, basically, he wanted Goodman to “fix” himself, to get rid of the gay, before continuing on in politics. Perkins also stated in that email that he was “obligated” to disclose the situation to group members who had supported Goodman’s campaign, but there is no record that he ever did so.

As president of the Family Research Council, which opposes same-sex marriage and calls homosexuality “unnatural,” Perkins wields considerable clout, so it was clearly in his best interests, in the interests of the FRC, in the interests of the GOP, to sweep this under the rug and hope it would go away, hope that Goodman, after winning election, would somehow stop being gay and stop being a sexual predator, neither of which happened.

The young man—who name is being withheld by the Post—involved in the 2015 incident says Goodman approached him outside a Ritz-Carlton ballroom while urging young people to come to a party on Capitol Hill:

“One of the young guys didn’t want to go, and Wes really made fun of him and told him he ‘had a vagina’ and made sarcastic remarks about him being like a woman.”

The young man, and others, went out as a group with Goodman that night, and when they returned to the Ritz Carlton, “Wes pushed me to come to his room,” and offered to let him share his bed. The young man agreed, and says when he awoke in the middle of the night, Goodman was “pulling down my zipper.”

Goodman only says he woke up at 8 a.m. and found the young man gone.

This account was rejected by some members of CNP’s inner circle, including J. Keet Lewis, a CNP executive committee, who says he was frustrated with Goodman and wanted his campaign donation returned; but he said nothing publicly. And CNP Executive Director Bob McEwen, a former Ohio congressman, promised the stepfather that “strong action is about to take place” and then did nothing.

McEwen, today, is not speaking.

Two months after the incident, Tony Perkins officially suspended Goodman from the CNP, expressing “disappointment” that Goodman had declared his candidacy for the statehouse. In that letter, Perkins suggests Goodman had admitted to inappropriate behavior and was receiving counseling.

We know that never happened; we only know that Wes Goodman fondled an 18-year-old male asleep in a bed, and that tony Perkins, and executives in the CNP, knew about it, promised action, and then did nothing, except stand by and watch Wes Goodman run for office, win his race,. And then resign for the same kind of behavior.

It’s that hypocrisy that irks me. So many people knew about Goodman, and let’s be queer, being gay is not the issue, it’s his deeply closeted mentality that made him hide his actions and interactions with other men; but so many people knew he was having so-called “inappropriate” relations with men, and younger men, but said nothing lest it damage the GOP, the Ohio GOP, the FRC or the CNP.

Circle the wagons and say nothing. The candidate can be gay as long as it’s a secret; he can molest young men while they sleep but let’s not talk about it; he can run for office with all of these incidents in his past but, hey, we need another GOP voice so we’ll look the other way.

Washington Post