BAD NEWS

Virginia Mayor Richard Silverthorne Arrested For Exchanging Meth For Sex With Men

richard-scott-silverthorne

Things are really not going well for Fairfax City Mayor Richard “Scott” Silverthorne, who was just arrested for offering meth to cops in exchange for sex. This is not your standard “homophobe caught being gay” scandal — Silverthorne actually seems like a good guy. He’s done a lot of nice things for the city, from improving green space to facilitating homeless services, and he was in favor of marriage equality.

He’s also been struggling with a cancer diagnosis, and filed for bankruptcy last year. He was also recently laid off from a job recruiting for the National Association of Manufacturers.

So, yeah, tough times all around. That’s not to say that turning to meth is a great way to deal with those problems, but all of that plus the pressure of being the major of a city certainly could take a toll on a man — especially if he felt he couldn’t turn to anyone for help.

And now this: ops got a tip that he was on a gay hookup site, and set up a sting. Why did they set up a sting? Let’s hope that the drug allegations were part of the tip, and not that the police were simply trying to gay-bash the mayor. At any rate, they arranged a hookup in a parking lot, and shortly after the mayor arrived, two meth supplies came by and he facilitated a transaction.

The whole story, from the cancer to the bankruptcy to the layoff to the arrest, is just so sad — hopefully, the mayor has friends and family in his life who can support him and guide him to the help that he needs to deal with all of his concurrent challenges and poor choices. And if not, well, that’s when the gay community is at its best: recognizing when one of our own has fallen on hard times and make mistakes, and encouraging them to turn the corner to recovery.

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