State Rep. Patricia Todd says Gov. Kay Ivey is gay; Ivey campaign calls rumor “disgusting”

Patricia Todd. Photo courtesy of Todd’s website.

Alabama State Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham), accused Gov. Kay Ivey of being a hypocrite in a tweet Monday night. The reason for Ivey’s alleged hypocrisy? She’s gay, Todd says.

“Will someone out her for God’s sake….I have heard for years that she is gay and moved her girlfriend out of her house when she became Gov.,” Todd tweeted. “I am sick of closeted elected officials.”

Todd’s comments were in response to a press conference given by Scott Dawson, who is challenging Ivey for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in this year’s election, accusing Ivey of providing grants to Free2Be, a pro-LGBTQ organization. Ivey responded that she “certainly [doesn’t] agree with the agenda or the values of that organization,” and that the funding was federal funding.

In her tweet, Todd linked to a report of Ivey making those statements. “I hate hypocrites,” she later told AL.com.

Representatives for Ivey’s gubernatorial campaign dismissed Todd’s tweet as “a disgusting lie being pushed by a paid liberal political hack.”

“There is absolutely no truth to it,” Ivey said in a statement. “It’s false. It’s wrong. It’s a bald faced lie. And I’m not gonna let them get away with it. Whether these attacks are malicious or ignorant or both — they represent everything that’s wrong with politics today.”

Todd, 62, is Alabama’s first openly gay lawmaker. She was first elected to the office in 2006; she announced in January that she would not seek re-election this year, citing the “financial burden” of holding public office.

Ivey, 73, has been married and divorced twice. She served as state treasurer from 2003 to 2011, as lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2017, and as governor since last year, when she succeeded Gov. Robert Bentley after he resigned amid a sex scandal.

The primary for Alabama’s governor’s race is scheduled for June 5, 2018.