Anti-gay US lawmaker outed over explicit pictures on Grindr
By Josh Haggis
An anti-gay North Dakota lawmaker has been outed after it was discovered that he was sending explicit pictures of himself over gay dating app Grindr.
Randy Boehning, who has twice voted expanding legal protections for LGBT people, has been forcibly outed as gay after 21-year-old Dustin Smith realised that he recognised the politician from Grindr after seeing him on television.
“Suddenly it dawned on me: I think I’ve seen this guy on Grindr,” he told The Washington Post.
“I just felt like this story had to get out,” Smith said. “A [representative] had voted against a bill for the LGBT community and here he was talking to me on Grindr.”
After denying the allegations at first, Boehning has now admitted that the explicit photos were of him, telling The Forum in his defence that sending explicit images is “what gay guys do on gay sites”.
“That’s what gay guys do on gay sites, don’t they? That’s how things happen on Grindr. It’s a gay chat site. It’s not the first thing you do on that site. That’s what we do, exchange pics on the site.”
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