A former GOP spokesman on Thursday
announced he's gay.
James Richardson wrote in a Washington
Post op-ed that he feels “forced to out” himself.
In the piece, titled I'm
a Senior GOP Spokesman, and I'm Gay. Let me get Married,
Richardson acknowledged the role he played in helping “perpetuate
marriage bias in America.”
“As a former spokesman for the
Republican National Committee and adviser to prominent party figures,
I'm also a professional political operative who's helped install in
government those who perpetuate marriage bias in America,” he
wrote.
Though he said that he's “preached
the small-government virtues of equal marriage” to his party, he
never once wrote that he's gay.
“For my admission here, I will
alienate friends whose faiths regard my sexuality as culturally
corrosive. I'll suffer the snickering of those across the aisle
whose politics regard my own as personally injurious. And
conservative clients may regard me as a liability,” he
wrote.
Richardson has worked as an adviser for
Republican Governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Jon Huntsman of
Utah. Huntsman last year endorsed marriage equality.
(Related: Fmr.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman: Gay marriage is “inevitable.”)