Lindsey Graham Gay? Conservative Group ALIPAC Demands Senator 'Admit Homosexuality'

William Gheen, head of the conservative, anti-"amnesty," anti-illegal immigration group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), spoke at a Greenville, S.C. Tea Party rally this weekend and called for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to "come out of that log cabin closet."

According to Gheen, being gay is "a secret that Lindsey Graham has."

Gheen told the crowd: "I hope this secret isn't being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality."

"Barney Frank is more honest and brave than you," Gheen continued, referring to the openly-gay Massachusetts congressman.

ALIPAC has posted the video titled "US Senator Graham is Gay" on YouTube, where various news outlets have covered it.

At one point, the video contained the tags "queer" and "fag," which Gheen told HuffPost were the result of a hacked YouTube account. When Gheen was informed of the keywords, he replaced them with less incendiary language.

The group defended itself Monday, and in fact doubled down on calls for Lindsay Graham to admit his homosexuality.

In a statement, ALIPAC alleged that a "brief clip of Gheen's speech, which is out of proper context, has already gone viral on YouTube and been reported by Keith Olberman on MSNBC without proper permissions or attributions."

"US Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and while many people in South Carolina and Washington DC know that, the general public and Graham's constituents do not," Gheen said in the statement. Though Gheen claimed, both in the statement and at the Tea Party rally, that he does "not care about Graham's private life," he again said that Graham must declare his supposed homsexuality "so the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret."

"I need to figure out why you're trying to sell out your own countrymen and I need to make sure you being gay isn't it," Gheen said over the weekend.

Anonymous rumors of Sen. Graham's supposed homosexuality have swirled around Washington before. In the run-up to Justice Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, Graham asked Sotomayor to explain uncredited comments about her past behavior. A blogger reactd by asking Graham to respond to anonymous speculation that he was gay.

UPDATE:

Former CNN anchor and former ALIPAC partner Lou Dobbs is "calling for William Gheen to resign after his comments/actions on Sen. Lindsey Graham's sexuality" via Twitter.

Watch the video, started at the "gay" comments, or start from the beginning for full context:

Comments

[calindi]

04:56 PM on 05/23/2010

Graham's not my type, so whatevs.
Lock me in a room with Jonanthan Capehart.

[sprtakis69]

07:11 AM on 05/22/2010

Let me get this right.

Gheen is trying to make sure "...the public can rest assured he is not being manipulated with his secret."

And to do that Gheen is manipulating the Senator over rumors?????

[shadow man]

05:20 PM on 04/25/2010

The National Library of Medicine pubs confirm that sexual orientation is natural, biologically induced in the first trimester of pregnancy, morally neutral, immutable, neither contagious nor learned, bearing no relation to an individuals ability to form deep and lasting relationships, to parent children, to work or to contribute to society.

From the American Psychological Association: homosexuality is normal; homosexual relationships are normal.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Asociation and American Psychiatric Asociation have endorsed civil marriage for same-sex couples because marriage strengthens mental and physical health and longevity of couples, and provides greater legal and financial security for children, parents and seniors.

America's premier child/mental health associations endorse marriage equality.

[shadow man]

05:20 PM on 04/25/2010

For those of you claiming homosexuality is a "lifestyle", that is a false and ignorant statement. Homosexuality is not a choice. Just like you don't choose the color of your skin, you cannot choose whom you are sexually attracted to. If you can, sorry, but you are not heterosexual, you are bi-sexual. Virtually all major psychological and medical experts agree that sexual orientation is NOT a choice. Most gay people will tell you its not a choice. Common sense will tell you its not a choice. While science is relatively new to studying homosexuality, studies tend to indicate that its biological.

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/03/differential-brain-activation.pdf
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/dn14146-gay-brains-structured-like-those-of-the-opposite-sex.html
Gay, Straight Men's Brain Responses Differ
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155990,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/health/060224_gay_genes.html
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w27453600k586276/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/06/16/172/

[smartalek]

04:37 PM on 06/10/2010

"Just like you don't choose the color of your skin"

John Boehner and the late Michael Jackson, to name two, might disagree with this.

Otherwise, you're 100% right, of course.

[shadow man]

05:20 PM on 04/25/2010

To those of you using the Bible as a weapon against homosexuality, you are wrong. Homosexuality is not a sin. The Bible is constantly being taken out of context to support anti-gay views. Scholars who have studied the Bible in context of the times and in relation to other passages have shown those passages (Leviticus, Corinthians, Romans, etc) have nothing to do with homosexuality. These passages often cherry-picked while ignoring the rest of the Bible. The sins theses passages are referring to are idolatry, Greek temple sex worship, prostitution, pederasty with teen boys, and rape, not homosexuality or two loving consenting adults.

http://www.soulfoodministry.org/docs/English/NotASin.htm
http://www.jesus21.com/content/sex/bible_homosexuality_print.html
http://www.christchapel.com/reclaiming.html
http://www.stjohnsmcc.org/new/BibleAbuse/BiblicalReferences.php
http://www.gaychristian101.com/

Thats why Jesus never mentions it as well. There is nothing immoral, wrong, or sinful about being gay. Jesus, however, clearly states he HATES hypocrites. If you preach goodness, then promote hate and twist the words of the Bible, you are a hypocrite, and will be judged and sent to hell.

This is very similar to the religious bigots of the past, where they took Bible passages to condone slavery, keep women down, and used Bible passages to claim blacks as curses who should be enslaved by the white man. People used God to claim that blacks marrying whites was unnatural, and not of God's will.

[SoCalGuy 93065]

06:39 PM on 04/24/2010

They're eating each other, and all of their vapid "family values" nonsense rhetoric is proving to be just that. So what's the downside? :-)

[Reentje Kay]

06:26 PM on 04/24/2010

Why do people appear to be thinking of SEX FIRST only when talking about homosexuals and hardly ever when discussing heterosexuals? I do not care what people do in the privacy of their own home alone or with consenting adults, sexually or otherwise.

I do, however, intensely dislike hypocrisy. Which is the reason I never have been and never will be fond of Mr. Graham.

[Huizennh]

05:49 PM on 04/24/2010

Leave the poor guy alone. Who cares. Enough already with the pathetic torture trip.

[Steelsil]

10:14 PM on 04/27/2010

If it's true, I'll be sayin' "Thank you, Baby Jesus!"

[Tanksleyd]

05:17 PM on 04/24/2010

Charlie Crist of Florida and now Graham of South Carolina....The dreams of 1994 evaporated with Term Limits...Now the GOP's "Contract With America" has become the GOP Contract on...The GOP. As Obama is about to restrain Wall Street and open up the possibilities of public transportation the Republicans are still dealing with their teen-age fantasies. Too funny.

[nleath]

10:30 AM on 04/24/2010

Lindsay Graham is a nice guy and a good Senator. It is nobody's damn business what his or anyone else's sexual orientation is. Multitudes of people remain single their entire lives. What's wrong with that? Whoever said that we had to march through life male & female holding hands two-by-two?

[Steelsil]

10:14 PM on 04/27/2010

Uh, he did.

[flabingo]

02:30 AM on 04/24/2010

If Graham admitted to being gay, would his military pension be affected?
Has he ever taken a position on "DON"T ASK,DON"T TELL?

[denise rae]

09:37 PM on 04/23/2010

I find this childish and intrusive. It is nobodys business what his preference is, Honestly the way the Repub's are acting they will not get this independent vote which is to bad cause I wanted to be rid of Boxer.

[opinioned1]

09:01 PM on 04/23/2010

In this day and age who gives a damnnn? So big deal if he`s gay or not, only some right wing bible thumpers want to make a big deal out of it!!

[El2010]

08:51 PM on 04/23/2010

I have a rule on sexual preference: other people's sexual preferences are irrelevant to me, unless I am planning on dating them. So I must ask you, Mr. Gheen -- are you planning on dating Mr. Graham? Because I don't think you are really his type.

[Wake-up]

09:57 PM on 04/23/2010

Excellent...!

[El2010]

08:48 PM on 04/23/2010

Lindsey Graham had better be gay; otherwise he has a slam-dunk case of slander against William Gheen. "You won't do what I want... you must be gay!"... I think I've heard that argument before. On a playground when I was 8.

[Wake-up]

09:58 PM on 04/23/2010

So being Gay is an insult? On par with other forms of slander?

[ReedYoung]

05:47 PM on 04/25/2010

No. If you had read the article OR viewed the video, you would know that the rest of Gheen's accusation (after the headline, where you obviously stopped) is that because Lindsey Graham has a different opinion about immigration policy, therefore somebody must be blackmailing Graham, and homosexuality must be what they're blackmailing him about.

[ReedYoung]

09:33 AM on 04/26/2010

Read the article, loudmouth.