Friday on Birmingham’s Talk 99.5 “Matt & Aunie” radio show, outgoing State Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham) gave her first remarks since posting a tweet that publicly acknowledged the existence of rumors that Gov. Kay Ivey was gay.
Ivey promptly dismissed Todd’s claim by calling it a disgusting lie. And also, as a result of that tweet, One Orlando Alliance, an LGBTQ advocacy group in Central Florida, rescinded a job offer to Todd.
After a brief dialogue about her beginnings in politics, Todd explained her reasoning for the tweet and what she suggested was a hypocritical culture in politics that inspired it.
Remarks as follows:
I take personal responsibility for the tweet. And I will take all of the heat that comes with it. I will stand up and do that as an adult and try to move forward. It’s been a valuable lesson for me. I wish there was a pause button on Facebook — you know, let’s take 30 minutes to think about this before you push that button. I did it in haste.
I was frustrated by the Governor’s comments about Free2Be funding, and I reacted. That is one of the negative sides of social media is those words are there forever. And I made a decision that I needed to come and talk to you all and talk to the people — take the heat. I mean, it has been brutal what some people have said about me. And honestly, I don’t care about people who don’t know me. I have gotten that for 12 years. I get emails and phone calls that call me everything but a child of God, and they always attack the way I look — that I’m fat and ugly, and you know, I don’t care.
That doesn’t hurt my feelings. But it was brutal with people in my own community came out and attacked. That’s been an interesting lesson for me to learn, and obviously, I have touched a nerve about outing. And I want to make it clear to everybody that you don’t ever out an individual. You know, I’m 63. I’ve witnessed some conservative Christians who talk about their faith all the time, and have voted against my interests. At the same time, they have skeletons in their own closet. That’s frustrating. This isn’t the first time this has happened.
There’s been many, many Republicans or conservatives that have been outed, and they vote consistently against us. And so, I want to make that distinction clear. This was not — it wasn’t like, ‘OK, I want to out Joe Smith.’ That was not the case. It was my frustration in hearing people, you know, saying negative and disparaging things about my community. At the same time, the rumors abound about themselves. That’s what spurred it.
Murphy asked Todd if she owed Ivey an apology, to which Todd said she was uncertain.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “You know, as public officials pretty much our life is scrutinized in various ways. I might apologize for the inappropriate way I said what I said, but I think she can take the heat.”
“I know this sounds like I’m wishy-washy on this,” she said. “Apologies sound like, ‘Oh, I did bad. Please forgive me.’ I got to stand up and take responsibility for what I did and what I said, and suffer the consequences that I already have. I would apologize that I frame my message wrong, and I wish I had addressed the issue of her disparaging remarks versus trying to out her. If I could go back and have a rewind button, of course, I would do things a lot different, but I don’t. And I’ve got to suffer the consequences of my actions.”
When asked if she believed that Ivey was “gay,” Todd declined to answer but added she didn’t think Ivey would identify as gay.
“I refuse to answer that question,” she said.
“Let me clarify that — I don’t think she would ever identify as gay,” Todd added. “An identity — there’s a lot of men who have sex with men that don’t identify as gay. But they still have relationships with men. It’s not the identity as gay. It’s, ‘Have you ever had a romantic relationship with a woman?’”
Co-host Andrea Lindenberg pushed back on Todd’s reply by saying that Todd was still basing her comments on rumors that she didn’t know were true, and they could have easily been said about anyone. Todd claimed there was a distinction between the governor of Alabama and others.
“Well, we don’t, but you haven’t said disparaging remarks about my community and signed into law legislation that hurts us,” Todd replied. “That’s what I responded to.”
The Birmingham Democrat also took exception to Ivey’s terminology regarding Todd’s tweet.
“I guess I would pause here and say, the comment here about this being a ‘despicable lie’ — it almost felt like she thought that accused of being gay was despicable … disgusting, and there’s nothing wrong with being gay,” Todd said.
She dismissed any ties to Republican gubernatorial hopeful Scott Dawson and said it wasn’t her intention to promote his campaign.
“It was not my intent to elevate him in any way, or be a part of that discussion,” Todd said.
Todd listed Ivey’s signing a bill into law that restricted adoptions for same-sex couples and her remarks she made after the Supreme Court’s decision that legalized same-sex marriage as instances when Ivey had taken “hurtful” stances against the LGBTQ community.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
