Gay Lawmaker to Critics: I'll Tell About Your Affair

If criticism of gay marriage in Alabama quiets down a bit, this might be why: A gay state lawmaker says she will expose "hypocrites" who talk about family values but don't live up to them, reports the TimesDaily. With the state poised to become the latest to allow same-sex marriage, Democrat Patricia Todd says she is fed up with hearing fellow lawmakers who hate the idea talk about the sanctimony of marriage. Hence, her remarkable threat: "I will not stand by and allow legislators to talk about 'family values' when they have affairs, and I know of many who are and have,” Todd wrote on Facebook. "I will call our elected officials who want to hide in the closet out.”

Todd, the state's only openly gay lawmaker, elaborates to the Huffington Post that she dislikes "hypocrites" and knows of plenty walking around the state capitol. "If you can explain your position and you hold yourself to the same standard you want to hold me to, then fine. But you cannot go out there and smear my community by condemning us and somehow making us feel less than, and expect me to be quiet." The rhetoric has been heating up since a federal judge overturned Alabama's ban on gay marriage last week. The decision is on hold to give the state time to appeal, and the attorney general began that process yesterday, reports the AP. (More Alabama stories.)