Virginia’s Republican governor and other state GOP members are trying to get John Reid, the first out gay Republican ever to run for a statewide office in Virginia, to drop out of his race to become his state’s next lieutenant governor. In response, Reid has pledged not to drop out and has accused the governor and Republicans of “extortion.”

Gov. Glenn Younkin (R) asked Reid to drop out after “salacious pictures” of two other men were posted on Tumblr sometime between 2018 and 2020 by someone using Reid’s Instagram screenname, The Richmonder reported on April 25.

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Reid denied any connection to the Tumblr account and said it had been “faked” as a way to smear his reputation. The account disappeared shortly after The Richmonder published its report.

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That same day, Reid posted a five-minute video in which he said that a “local religious activist” had contacted him at night two weeks prior and told him to drop out of the election, threatening him with the existence of photos “that would destroy my life and ensure that he would “never work in all of America again.”

The next day, Reid was shown pictures of himself in a drag show in downtown Richmond, Virginia. Republicans have tried to vilify drag performers as a sexual threat to children.

“As I’ve said over and over on the radio and in my speeches, drag is not for kids,” Reid said, “but really, who cares what adults watch or what they do in an of-age restaurant or bar or club?”

Reid didn’t share the “extortion and smear attempt” with the press or public. He said that Republicans have called him, telling him that he would “destroy the ticket” for state Republicans because Christian conservatives will never vote for a gay man.

“It’s been nonstop harassment and vulgar threats calling my life an abomination, saying I’m a vile degenerate and attacking and insulting my partner of 8 years and attacking my family. I’ve been attacked online and harassed in-person on-and-off for 30 years by the radicals in my own party simply for being gay and by angry leftists who call me a traitor.”

“What’s happened today was my worst fear. A total fabricated internet lie so basic that a middle-schooler could have constructed it,” he continued. “It’s predictable. But what I didn’t expect was the governor I have always supported to call and demand my resignation without even showing me the supposed evidence or offering me a chance to respond. I did not accept that, and I deeply resent it.”

“What happened today is another coordinated assassination attempt against me to force the first openly gay candidate off of a Virginia statewide ticket,” he said. “It’s shameful and I won’t back down even though I know the plan is probably for the attacks to continue and there’s every effort to make me toxic.”

Then, in an April 27 video posted to X, Reid accused a representative of Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia political action committee (PAC) of calling him, assuring him that the attacks on him will continue unless he drops out of the race. The PAC official showed the explicit photographs from the aforementioned Tumblr, offered to “purchase the opposition research” if he agreed to drop out, and said the attacks would stop if he dropped out.

The Virginia Christian Alliance has called Reid’s homosexuality “disqualifying,” and the conservative Family Foundation has called for Reid to “step aside.” A Wednesday event featuring all statewide Republican nominees was canceled, The Virginia Scope reported.

Reid will appear on the ballot for Virginia’s June 17 Republican primary. He said he is now speaking with his lawyers about what he can do to respond to the alleged extortion and threats. If he wins office, he has pledged to sue his alleged accusers and extortionists.

“This is extortion, and it is illegal in Virginia, and I’m more outraged now,” Reid said. “The insiders in Virginia politics made a big miscalculation if they thought that I would bow down to anyone or run away scared.”

Neither Youngkin nor the Spirit of Virginia PAC have responded to media requests for comment.

Phil Kazmierczak, a member of Youngkin’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board, resigned from his position over the weekend. In his resignation letter, he said he was “deeply shocked” that Youngkin “would involve himself in a diabolical attack of this nature.”

Commenting on the scandal, Virginia Wesleyan University professor Leslie Caughell told The Virginia Mercury, “I think (we’re) seeing some of the Republican Party’s discomfort with many of these transgender and gay issues. Having gay candidates as a voice for their party, at least to some segments, can pose a problem. You have to wonder, would Governor Youngkin have been so quick to ask him to step aside if he had been a heterosexual man?”

Reid is an anti-abortion MAGA conservative radio host on NewsRadio WRVA in Richmond and a self-described “solid Reagan conservative,” even though former President Ronald Reagan largely ignored the AIDS epidemic which killed hundreds of thousands of gay men and others.

Reid’s platform opposes “leftist indoctrination” in education and the “divisive wokeness” of “identity politics.” He also supports “parental rights” (a phrase that often implies oppositon to LGBTQ+-inclusive school policies), and supports preserving Confederate monuments.

“From DEI to CRT to the radical trans movement, Democrats know no boundaries with their leftist social agendas,” his website states. “Today radical leftists have hijacked the movement and are not asking for acceptance but instead are demanding submission.”

“We must be blatant in saying that it is factually impossible for biological men or women to personally decide to change their gender,” his website continues. “John believes in the right for grown adults to live their lives as they see fit but not if they impose restrictions and obligations on others and not if any of their behavior sexualizes or grooms children.”

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