"They could literally put out a lie about anybody here, and I know you’ve been the victim of that. I know you’ve been the victim," said Lake, who is now a senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media under Donald Trump. "I remember the stories about you where they said you had a gay lover.”
If such a rumor did exist before Lake, no news reporting ever substantiated it. Additionally, two respected, longtime Arizona journalists — Brahm Resnik of 12 News and Garrett Archer of ABC 15 — said they'd never heard of any such rumors about Stanton. On its face, Lake was making a ludicrous argument: We don’t want news organizations passing along damaging information to the public, just like I’m doing at this very moment.
At the time, Stanton did not address Lake’s comments. He did not reference them in the hearing, instead using his time to attack Lake’s credibility as an election denier. After the episode, he merely quote-tweeted Phoenix New Times’ story about it with a rainbow flag emoji and “Happy Pride Month!”
At a Thursday event in Tempe, however, Stanton more fully addressed the confrontation with Lake in a conversation with New Times. He viewed Lake’s clumsy attempt to tag him as being gay as having obvious anti-LGBTQ undertones. After all, Stanton suggested, what’s wrong with being gay?
“How pathetic is it that someone thinks that alleging that someone is gay is somehow an insult in the year 2025?” Stanton told New Times. “I’m a proud ally of the gay community, because those are some of the toughest fighters I know. I love working with the LGBTQ+ community, and I’ve proudly been a strong supporter for as long as I’ve been in public life.”
Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton responded to Kari Lake's anti-gay smears after an event in Tempe on Thursday.
TJ L'Heureux
Lake doubles down
Indeed, Lake and her “war room” account have gleefully reshared the clip, seeming to revel in the perceived damage to Stanton’s image. A day after the hearing, Lake shared a photo of Stanton in an athletic training room holding a towel to his nose while a bald person with painted fingernails lies facedown on a training table behind him. The photo is from 2012, when Stanton broke his nose while participating in a practice with the Phoenix Mercury.“I wish Congressman @gregstantonaz took Election Integrity as seriously as he does his extracurricular activities,” she tweeted, adding: “Photo allegedly taken after he got hit in the nose while playing women’s basketball.”
It read as a poorly concealed attempt to suggest a sexual relationship between Stanton and the person on the training table and further smear Stanton as gay. Ironically, the bald person appears to be not a man but former Mercury player Charde Houston, who shaved her head to support her mother during a battle with breast cancer. Stanton, who did not address the trolling photo specifically, blasted Lake for suggesting there’s anything wrong with being gay in the first place.
“What are you,” Stanton said, “a neanderthal?”
Lake did not respond to a request for comment sent to USAGM.
Lake’s anti-gay smear seems to have been an attempt to deflect from Stanton’s pointed criticism during the hearing. To her face, Stanton blasted the two-time failed political candidate for persistently denying election results about her back-to-back losses for governor and the U.S. Senate, as well as for spreading conspiracy theories.
"You’re an adjudicated liar and a two-time loser," Stanton said. "Arizona has another election for governor next year… can you do us all a favor and run again?"
Unlike Lake’s gay-lover response, Stanton’s broadside had two things going for it. Being gay isn't bad, but spreading election conspiracies is. And, after court after court has tossed out Lake’s election lawsuits, what Stanton said is unambiguously true.
