Portland's gay mayor, Sam Adams, was in seclusion Wednesday after holding a Tuesday press conference during which he admitted that he covered up a sexual affair with a teenage boy during his mayoral campaign. But cries for him to step down have increased in his absence.

In the latest development, the city council is asking the state Attorney General to investigate if Adams abused his office.

Several prominent Portland newspapers – the Oregonian, the Portland Tribune and the Portland Business Journal – along with the Portland Police Association have asked Adams to resign.

While several outlets in the gay media expressed support for Adams – Queerty.com and Atlanta-based Sovo.com included – Portland's own Just Out joined in the chorus of voices asking for resignation.

“People are devastated,” Marty Davis, editor of Just Out, told the Oregonian. “It's not a question of innocent until proven guilty. He's already admitted he lied. He lied to our community, he lied to me, he lied to my publication.”

Davis said Adams has “lost all credibility.”

At Tuesday's press conference, Adams apologized directly to members of the gay and lesbian community: “As one of the leaders of the gay community, I want to apologize to the gay community for embarrassing them. I should have been truthful from the very beginning.”

Adams, 45, quickly returned from Washington, where he was participating in President Obama's inauguration festivities, to hold Tuesday's press conference. He humbled himself and asked for forgiveness at the admission that his long-standing denial of having a sexual relationship with 18-year-old Beau Breedlove was not true.

“I want to apologize to the people of Portland for my dishonesty,” Adams said. “I made a mistake.”

The rumor that he and Breedlove had an intimate relationship first surfaced during the 2007 mayoral campaign. Adams' long-standing response has been to dismiss those reports as a “nasty smear.”

In a Thursday interview with a reporter from the Willamette Week, the mayor was confronted with evidence the newspaper had gathered over several months concerning the affair, including statements from several of Breedlove's friends who said the young man had confided in them that the two shared an intimate relationship. Adams remained steadfast in his denial.

But Monday, during a telephone conversation with the newspaper, he acknowledged the affair saying: “I want to publicly acknowledge I made a mistake and apologize for it. In the past, I've characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely non-sexual and that is not true.”

During the press conference, Adams admitted to sleeping with Breedlove as soon as three weeks after he turned 18 and the two dated for “maybe two months.”

Adams made contradictory statements, saying he would not resign over the affair, then 20 minutes later saying he would if it “was in the city's best interest.” And Wednesday, his response grew even grimmer: “I need to take some time to figure out what's best for Portlanders,” he told the Oregonian, “but I'm not going to drag it out. There's too much work to do.”

The mayor met Breedlove in 2005 when the former legislative intern was 17.

Adams became the first openly gay mayor to run one of the 30 largest cities in the United States when he took office on January 1.