- Oct 17, 2011
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A New Hampshire state representative will pay two drag queens $100,000 each in a settlement after they sued him for falsely calling one a sex offender and accusing another of acting inappropriately with children.
Rep. David Love (R) made the comments in 2022 while introducing a bill to require library employees and volunteers to obtain background checks. He was driven to do so, he told his peers in the New Hampshire legislature, because of drag queens.
Now the allegations — which Love reiterated despite the drag queens, local officials and community members contesting them — will cost him $200,000.
[And the apology]
“After being provided with inaccurate information, information that I failed to verify, I publicly accused Robert Champion aka Monique Toosoon of being a registered sex offender and Michael McMahon aka Clara Divine of ‘rubbing butts’ with children,” Love said in his retraction. “... I have since learned that those assertions were completely false. I wish to publicly retract those statements and apologize to Robert and Michael.”
With their settlement, they join a slew of drag performers who have successfully sued over false accusations of sexual misconduct. In May, a jury awarded Idaho drag performer Eric Posey more than $1 million after a conservative blogger falsely accused him of exposing himself to children. A U.K. judge in January ordered a conservative commentator to pay a British-Canadian drag queen Colin Seymour around $200,000 in a libel case after falsely calling him a pedophile, Deadline reported.
Rep. David Love (R) made the comments in 2022 while introducing a bill to require library employees and volunteers to obtain background checks. He was driven to do so, he told his peers in the New Hampshire legislature, because of drag queens.
Now the allegations — which Love reiterated despite the drag queens, local officials and community members contesting them — will cost him $200,000.
[And the apology]
“After being provided with inaccurate information, information that I failed to verify, I publicly accused Robert Champion aka Monique Toosoon of being a registered sex offender and Michael McMahon aka Clara Divine of ‘rubbing butts’ with children,” Love said in his retraction. “... I have since learned that those assertions were completely false. I wish to publicly retract those statements and apologize to Robert and Michael.”
With their settlement, they join a slew of drag performers who have successfully sued over false accusations of sexual misconduct. In May, a jury awarded Idaho drag performer Eric Posey more than $1 million after a conservative blogger falsely accused him of exposing himself to children. A U.K. judge in January ordered a conservative commentator to pay a British-Canadian drag queen Colin Seymour around $200,000 in a libel case after falsely calling him a pedophile, Deadline reported.
