Nathan Ivie, the Utah county commissioner who came out as gay last year, will need to find a gig. Ivie suffered a sound defeat in a primary election last week.
Ivie came out in 2019 as a way of showing the world that a gay man could be accepted within ultra-conservative Utah. Apparently, he misread the state’s attitudes toward LGBTQ people.
“Absolutely, my sexuality was part of the issue. There’s no doubt,” Ivie told reporters last week. “I can’t tell you the number of hate emails I received. I didn’t make an issue out of it in the campaign because that’s not the kind of person I am. But there is no doubt that the Eagle Forum [a conservative group] and its lies were absolutely in play here. The hit pieces it ran on my stance on abortion were completely false and it’s disappointing, but it’s politics.”
Related: This Mormon, Republican politician who’s married to a woman just came out on Facebook
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Ivie lost to a conservative challenger, former Marine Lt. Col. Tom Sakievich, by a 60.4% to 39.6% margin according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Prior to his coming out, Ivie separated from his wife. The two have two children together.
Though Ivie claims he lost as a result of homophobia, others, including Sakievich, cite a tax increase as the real reason for his loss. Late last year, he voted for a 67% property tax increase which remains deeply unpopular with voters. Ivie has defended the vote, claiming the real-world cost of the increase would be less than a monthly subscription to Netflix.
Though he has accepted defeat, Ivie has expressed worry that the Republican party doesn’t do enough to welcome queer people. “I want to be someplace where the things I believe in are celebrated. It’s certainly not the Democratic party. I’m becoming more and concerned it’s not the Republican party,” he told WTOP News.
Apparently Ivie has little knowledge of history when it comes to the Republican Party which has made oppression of queer people a major platform issue for the past 40 years.
Donston
His “sexuality” is now an issue after he lost. And the Republican Party showing hostility to unabashed “queers”? Who woulda thought?
James
LOG CABIN REPUBLICAN MORON. HA HA HA HA HA.
jonasalden
We live, we learn.
Cam
Republicans and the LDS church are bigots. No surprise here.
fur_hunter
WHEN will these MORONS realize republiKKKans DO NOT like Gays and the Mormons HATE Gays. Oh Duh!!!!! Maybe he will rethink his party affiliation down the road. Ya think?????
sunbeam5959
Exactly.
sunbeam5959
You reap what you sow. He made a career out of working and tacitly supporting homophobes.
Smith David
As an African American,( and yes, I need y’all to know) I strongly believe regardless of one’s political affiliation, a person’s sexuality should have no bearing on how they perform a job. This is BS and it needs to stop. I may not agree with Mr. lvie’s political choice but, he’s a community member and what happened to him is not right.
RFD
Totally agree David.
ThinkPlease
As a human (which should be obvious), if he’s going to be making the laws that put down his own people, it has a bearing.
Cam
Everybody’s personal experience impacts their views and opinions. i.e. a person who grew up poor will bring a different perspective to a budgetary perspective in government, a person with long term illness in the family will have a different perspective on healthcare than somebody who has never been sick nor had to deal with family illness.
So you are basically saying that a person should learn nothing from their experience nor bring any perspective to their job in government.
trsxyz
The Republican Party (which once espoused limited government interference in the lives of individual citizens…) has morphed into something unrecognizable. I don’t understand how a gay individual can align themselves with the current Republican Party. So not too much sympathy from me.
nm4047
Isn’t there a Chick-fil-A franchise recruiting
jayceecook
We’re supposed to care because?
Cam
I care mostly because doing what he did disproved what he was trying to claim. He tried to say conservatives in Utah would accept a gay man, and instead proved their bigotry.
Kangol2
This is telling: “I can’t tell you the number of hate emails I received. I didn’t make an issue out of it in the campaign because that’s not the kind of person I am. But there is no doubt that the Eagle Forum [a conservative group] and its lies were absolutely in play here.”
Hate emails. The Eagle Forum attacking him. Lies against him. A landslide loss. This is from the GOP, his own party. And it’s not just in Utah. How many times do conservatives and right-wingers have to show you that they hate LGBTQ people–even if they have a few tokens they treat OK–for you to believe them?
Say what you will about the Democrats and other parties on the left, but they are not sending hate emails to LGBTQ candidates, left-wing organizations are not attacking LGBTQ Democrats (even when they strongly disagree on ideology, as in the case in one of the NYC Congressional races), and they are celebrating the victories of gay, bi and trans Democrats, at every level.
FreeHorse
I think he needs to join the pity party!!!
Jon in Canada
Well, you’re first mistake was/is being a conservative repugnikunt. Secondly, being gay and a repugnikunt is anathema to the very concept of LGBTQ existence. Best you return to your closet, since you clearly aren’t willing to come out all the way and break the bonds of the right wing-o-sphere.
HenryCameron
The truly amazing thing is that he left his wife, came out as gay, voted for a 67% tax hike and still got 40% of the vote in the Republican Primary.
MusicBoi74
I was thinking the same thing. No doubt his sexuality played a part in it…and combined with a 67% tax hike…the people told him to take a hike. Who could afford that?
Invader7
Bitch please. Your whole political career voted AGAINST the GLBTQ
community, you were a CLOSET case , a republiCON , in Utah !! What did he think would happen. And you think the Neo Nazi FASCIST gop is going to change. NO ..