Indiana State Rep. Phillip Hinkle has
denied he's gay and won't resign amid allegation he proposed sex to
an 18-year-old male.
Hinkle's accuser Kameryn Gibson told
The Indianapolis Star two weeks ago that the 64-year-old
lawmaker exposed himself in a downtown Indianapolis hotel room where
the pair had agreed to meet.
Hinkle is the co-author of a bill that
created the state's “In God We Trust” license plate and earlier
this year he voted in favor of an amendment that would
constitutionally ban the state from recognizing with either marriage
or civil unions the relationships of gay and lesbian couples.
Gibson told the paper that Hinkle
responded to his Craigslist.com ad looking for a “sugga daddy”
and offered him $80 plus a “healthy” tip for “a really good
time.” He added that he met the lawmaker, but decided against
going further after he learned Hinkle was a state representative.
In an interview with Indianapolis NBC
affiliate WTHR, Gibson said Hinkle grabbed his ass.
“When I wanted to leave, he was like
… 'cause I said my sister is coming to get me. He was like you're
not leaving until we do what we planned to do. And I didn't want to
have sex with him,” Gibson said.
“He was just like well you're not
going anywhere,” he added. “He grabbed my arm and he grabbed my
shirt and then he went sexual with it by touching my butt.”
“And he exposed himself?” the
interviewer asked.
“Yes, he did,” Gibson replied.
(The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Hinkle doesn't deny that he offered
Gibson $80 to meet him, but insists he's not gay, did not expose
himself, and neither he nor his wife offered money to keep Gibson and
his sister quiet.
But when the Star
asked if he had previously arranged similar meetings, he answered:
“We're not going there.”
“I want to know what upstairs in my
brain went off that sent me down a road of self-destruction,” he
said. “Somewhere upstairs a button got pushed, and I want to know
why. People keep asking: 'What were you thinking?' I honestly don't
know. It's as simple as that.”
On Tuesday, House Speaker Brian Bosma,
a fellow Republican, called on Hinkle to resign, saying his personal
life “is a distraction” from legislative priorities.
The beleaguered lawmaker responded in a
statement that he's staying put, at least until next year: “As for
2012, we, as a family, decided back in December, after the 2010
election, that I would not be seeking another term.”