State Rep. Phillip Hinkle, the anti-gay marriage Indiana Republican accused of offering to pay a young man he met over Craigslist for “a good time,” admits that he paid the man but contends that they didn’t do anything illicit — they just talked about “baseball and the view.”
Earlier this week, Hinkle said that despite calls from the Republican Speaker of the House for him to do so, he won’t resign. “Those people didn’t elect me,” he said. “The constituents did.” He says he already planned on not seeking another term in 2012.
He admitted to the Indianapolis Star on Tuesday that he did exchange e-mails with 18-year old Kameryn Gibson through Craigslist, on the section of the site meant for “casual encounters” between two men. Hinkle also admitted that he paid Gibson $80 “for a good time,” but denied Gibson’s allegations that he tried to prevent him from leaving the hotel room, exposed himself, and tried to pay him off with $100 cash, an iPad and Blackberry to keep quiet.
“These people,” Hinkle said, “are lying through their teeth.”
Hinkle said that when Gibson got there they just talked about “baseball and the view,” and that when Hinkle came out of the bathroom Gibson had left, and stole the money, the iPad and the Blackberry. “I went to the edge,” Hinkle said, “but I didn’t fall over the edge.”
“I got everything back but the iPad,” Hinkle told the Star, “and quite frankly, if that makes them feel good, so be it.” He noted that he won’t be filing a police report.
When asked why he arranged the encounter to begin with — and why he used his public e-mail address — Hinkle said. “I don’t know. I’m telling you, I don’t know.”
Hinkle told Matthew Tully of the Star: “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.”
“I say that emphatically,” Hinkle also said. “I’m not gay.”
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.