New York State Senator Carl Kruger
returned to work Monday after being outed as gay amid charges of
corruption.
Kruger, who helped sink a 2009 gay
marriage bill, was outed last week by the New York Post. The
paper also named his live-in boyfriend, gynecologist Michael Turano.
The two men were among the eight
arrested in a sweeping government “pay-to-play” corruption
scandal. Turano is accused of using bribe money to pay for a Bentley
luxury sedan and the mortgage on the multimillion-dollar home the men
share with Turano's mother and brother.
“I am here to do my job,” he told
reporters, “and that's what I'm doing today.”
But it was a frosty reception for the
Democrat, the
New
York Times
reported.
“No one spoke to him,” the paper
reported. “People stared, the way people stare when trying to seem
as if they are not staring.”
State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., a
Democrat from the Bronx and a leading opponent of gay marriage, gave
Kruger a “huge, gripping” hug.
Kruger slouched in a seat in the back
of the Senate, next to Thomas Duane, an openly gay Democrat and the
face of the gay marriage debate in the chamber.