Democrat Susanna Gibson is running for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in a district just outside Richmond. But she isn't stepping away after it was learned – and reported – that she had sexual relations with her husband in live videos while asking viewers to pay them with "tokens" or "tips" for individual requests. Gibson is denouncing exposure of the videos as "an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family" – and her attorney says it violates Virginia's "revenge porn" law.
The Gibson campaign has not returned AFN's email seeking comment, and the Democratic Party of Virginia told AFN it is "not issuing comment on this story." But Virginia-based author and columnist Robert Knight is willing to comment.
"It's really kind of amazing how brazen she is," Knight tells AFN. "She's online doing this stuff – and she's claiming privacy rights. Also, she's claiming the feminist line. She's saying Republicans are 'willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there's no line they won't cross to silence women' – which is nonsense.
"It's the old leftist line that somehow Republicans don't like women because they don't want abortion right up until the moment of birth," Knight concludes.
Jeff Katz, afternoon radio personality on WRVA in Richmond, says when people first heard this story, they thought her actions were from high school or college.
"Well, now we've learned it was only about a year ago. It's after she announced she was running for the House of Delegates," Katz adds. "And there's a buzz that she was actually using this money from this porno site and these porno shows that she did to fund her campaign. Now she's attacking everyone who has dared to say 'I don't think that's appropriate.'"
Meanwhile, Todd Gathje of The Family Foundation of Virginia says legislators ought to be good examples for children. "It's not just one party, we know that it happens in both parties," says the family advocate. "But when legislators engage in illicit behavior like this, it doesn't set a good example for our young kids."
Gibson, 40, is a nurse practitioner and the mother of two young children. She is running in a high-profile race to represent District 57 in Virginia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that several prominent Virginia Democrats who have campaigned with her have chosen not to rally to her defense.
