Conservative outlets and right-wing
pundits have jumped on the news that the engineer of the Amtrak crash
in Philadelphia is a gay rights supporter and is possibly gay.
Brandon Bostian, 32, has worked for
Amtrak for almost nine years. He said through his attorney, Robert
Goggin, on Thursday that he has no memory of what happened.
“The [only] thing he recalls is being
thrown around, coming to, finding his bag, getting his phone and
dialing 911,” Goggin said on Nightline.
Investigators have said that the train
was speeding through a curve when it derailed, resulting in the
deaths of eight people.
GotNews.com's Charles C. Johnson
suggested in a tweet that Bostian's unconfirmed sexual orientation
“is worth noting” and then made the following unsubstantiated
claim in a separate message: “It is reasonable to ask if this night
shift #amtrak188 train driver was on meth or had history with it,
given gay proclivities to it.”
On Thursday, Sandy Rios joined the
chorus, telling her radio listeners that homosexuality was “a
factor” in the crash.
“Now I am not saying, I am not
inferring to those of you that are gay rights activists and like to
monitor this show, I'm not inferring that this accident happened
because he was gay,” Rios said. “But I do think it's an
interesting part of the story and you can bet it would be edited
out.”
She then suggested that Bostian could
have possibly been “going through some confusion that has to do
with the very core of who they are.”
Rios
added: “I don't know, but I think it is something to be
discussed and I think it's a factor and I doubt you will hear it
anywhere else.”
Investigators said that they plan to
interview Bostian in the next several days.