“I’m going confess/admit to y’all something that I did a couple of years ago that not very many people know was me,” Sherri Townsend wrote on her Facebook page earlier this week.
I told a reporter from InTouch magazine about Josh Duggar’s molestation/pedophilia of his sisters and others, which broke the story and ultimately caused his resignation as the head of the Family Research Council and got his family’s hypocrisy-filled show cancelled.
Until now, the source who toppled the Duggar family’s evangelical empire was unknown.
In case you need a refresher: In 2015, the Duggars and their 19+ children were at the height of their reality TV fame.
Their TLC show was a monster hit, they were on the cover of every supermarket tabloid, and they had begun using their influence to get involved with antigay political causes.
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Josh Duggar, the oldest of the Duggars 20-some offspring, landed a job at the FRC and was on track to becoming a leader in the modern anti-LGBTQ movement.
And then it all came crashing down.
In May 2015, InTouch published an explosive story alleging that, years earlier, Josh had molested several young girls, including two of his sisters, in their sleep. Not only that, but his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, knew all about it and tried to cover it up. After the story broke, Josh admitted to the molestations and said he had learned from his mistakes.
But all that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Shortly thereafter, Josh was outed for having not one but two Ashley Madison profiles, which he paid for with his grandmother’s credit card and maintained while his unsuspecting wife carried his two children.
Then he said he was checking into sex rehab to learn how to control his urges, but then it was reported he never actually showed up to the clinic. After that, an adult film star filed a lawsuit against him alleging he paid her for sex, then beat her up. (The lawsuit was later dropped.)
As a result of Josh’s string of sex scandals, TLC still canceled the Duggars’ show and Josh lost his job at the FRC. The family has not been able to recover since.
And it all started, we now know, because of Miss Sherri Townsend.
“Yep, that was me,” Sherri wrote on Facebook, “and I’m not at all sorry that I did it.”
Townsend says she decided to break her silence after watching last week’s truly terrifying 20/20 special on ex-gay conversion clinics.
Townsend wrote:
Sitting here sick to my stomach from watching last night’s 20/20 expose on conversion therapy camps, I can see that hateful religious bigotry is still alive and well and that the dangerous hate group, the Family Research Council, has doubled down on promoting their brand of bigotry causing terrible harm to countless people. THEY NEED TO BE BROUGHT DOWN. That group is true evil!!! Bringing them down will now be added to my list of causes!!!
Check out Sherri’s full statement…
Shannon1981
This woman is a true hero. I hope she has more dirt on powerful homophobes.
DCguy
Good for her, people like her and the sex worker that outted George Reckers and caused all of his “Research” to be tossed out by the court in the Prop 8 case are heros.
As for the headline, Queerty why are you buying into the Right wing and Mormon church’s game? Multiple Psychological groups have said that there is no such thing as “Sex addiction”. Just a B.S. term used to try to excuse somebody who cheated, or as an explanation to hand to an anti-porn wife/church if he’s caught with some old DVDs
Duggar molested his sisters, and was a hypocritical bigot cheating on his wife while he preached that LGBTs weren’t family oriented. That’s enough right there.
GayEGO
Although their brains could be defective! :>)
He BGB
I like this woman. Good for her.
Ken A.
What she saw on 20/20 is only the tip of the ice burg. If anyone has come from evangelical/baptist/Nazarene/etc homes. will know the full extent of their manipulation in order to get these camps and other facilities funded. It is all money making con job and unfortunately because the law doesn’t recognize them as culpable of making decisions, target teens. They can do nothing to adults. Fear mongering is a great tool to empty parental purses who only want to fix their kids.
GayEGO
Excellent news! Groups like FRC should be brought down as they are such a waste!