A Virginia Democrat running in a closely contested legislative election has denounced reports that she and her husband engaged in sex acts livestreamed on an online platform in exchange for “tips”.
Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner and a first-time candidate seeking a seat in Virginia’s house of delegates, shared the videos on a platform called Chaturbate.
The videos, which were first reported by the Washington Post and then confirmed by the Associated Press, show Gibson urging viewers to provide tips in the form of Chaturbate tokens in exchange for her performance of specific sex acts with her husband.
The videos were archived in 2022, though it is unclear when the live streams occurred.
According to the Post’s report, a Republican operative first alerted the newspaper to the existence of the videos, which had been archived on another site. In a statement, Gibson denounced the report as a form of “gutter politics” and “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family”.
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” Gibson said. “My political opponents and their Republican allies have proven they’re willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there’s no line they won’t cross to silence women when they speak up.”
A lawyer representing Gibson, Daniel P Watkins, told the Post that the videos may have violated Virginia’s revenge porn law, adding: “We are working closely with state and federal law enforcement.”
Gibson’s district, located just north-west of Richmond, is considered one of just a handful of competitive seats in the race to control Virginia’s house of delegates. In the last legislative session, Republicans narrowly controlled the chamber, while Democrats maintained a slim majority in the state senate.
The Virginia governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, has invested heavily in his party’s efforts to take full control of the state legislature in November. If Republicans are successful, Youngkin would face few hurdles in enacting his legislative agenda, including a proposed 15-week abortion ban.
Following the overturning of Roe v Wade last year, many Republican-controlled states enacted new restrictions and, in some cases, bans on abortion access. Virginia is now the last remaining state in the US south without severe abortion restrictions, and Democrats fear that a Republican trifecta in Richmond would quickly move to curtail access to the procedure.
The Democratic party of Virginia declined to comment.
