The only reason I’m familiar with State Rep. Todd Courser is because, two months ago, he introduced legislation that would (among other things) require marriage licenses to be signed by a religious leader — atheists be damned. He did all he could to get in the way of gay marriages.

Now, I have a much more interesting reason for knowing who he is…

According to a stunning exposé by Chad Livengood of the Detroit News, the married Courser was having an affair with the also-married Rep. Cindy Gamrat — both of whom are Christian conservatives fighting for “traditional” marriage — and Courser’s plan for keeping their hookup hidden was to throw people off his scent by distributing a fake email alleging that he fucked a male prostitute.

Courser, a Lapeer Republican, said on one recording the email was designed to create “a complete smear campaign” of exaggerated, false claims about him and Gamrat so a public revelation about the legislators’ relationship would seem “mild by comparison.”

House aide Ben Graham leaked the story to the newspaper after he was brought in to take part in the charade, said he didn’t want to participate, and was subsequently fired.

“It will make anything else that comes out after that — that isn’t a video — mundane, tame by comparison,” Courser, a married father of four, told Graham.

This is yet another example of Christian hypocrisy on the marriage issue. Courser has invoked his faith multiple times when making life more difficult for LGBT people. But I guess he thought Jesus would let it slide if he had sex with a married colleague.

There’s been a lot of talk online over the past month about whether it’s appropriate to “out” someone’s extramarital affair when the person isn’t a celebrity and hasn’t said one thing while doing another. In this case, the outing is well-deserved. These Republicans invoked their faith to legislate against “sinners” they didn’t like — all while conveniently ignoring their faith when committing their own sins. (Though I’m sure God’s name came up a few times.)

So far, neither Courser nor Gamrat have resigned.



