Married Republican paid $84k sexual harassment settlement, while claiming marriage ‘too sacred’ for gays
A Republican lawmaker who said marriage is “too sacred” for gay people sexually harassed an employee while married to his wife.
Blake Farenthold is the U.S. Representative for Texas’s 27th congressional district, and has been an unfaltering opponent of marriage rights for gay pepole.
In a clip from 2013, he said he was opposed to same-sex marriage because marriage is a “sacred” Christian tradition.
But the Republican lawmaker, who has two daughters with his wife Debbie, might not be such a great practitioner of those sacred ideals himself.
Politico reports that the House official used $84,000 of taxpayer money to secretly settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former communications director.
The website reports that the Republican’s former comms chief Lauren Greene, sued her boss in December 2014, alleging that he had sexually harassed her.
When she complained about his actions, she was fired.
Politico reports that she filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, but the case was dropped after a private settlement was reached.
Farenthold said: “I can neither confirm nor deny that settlement involved my office as the Congressional Accountability Act prohibits me from answering that question.”
In the House Farenthold has followed the Republican line and opposed LGBT rights, including federal discrimination protections for employees.
An anti-LGBT Republican lawmaker in Ohio resigned last month after it was alleged he had sexually harassed young men.
Wesley Goodman, a married Republican lawmaker in Ohio with a long history of campaigning against LGBT rights, has been accused of sexual harassment by 30 people.
The 33-year-old previously trumpeted his support for “a committed natural marriage,” which he defined as a heterosexual union.
He also said on Instagram that he was having “great times” at an event for Focus on the Family, a listed anti-LGBT hate group.
