Maine Governor Paul LePage has distanced himself from two anti-gay activists attempting to defend his earlier Vaseline remark.
LePage, a Republican, has apologized for using a sexually vulgar phrase to describe how state Senator Troy Jackson, a Democrat, has, in his opinion, politicized the budget process.
“Sen. Jackson claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline,” LePage told two reporters. “He is bad. He has no brains, and he has a black heart.”
In a press conference billed as a defense of LePage, anti-gay activists Michael Heath and Paul Madore commended LePage's remark.
“It's addressing the issue of sexual orientation, directly related to the comment that the governor made, and nobody is defending the governor. We are defending the governor,” Heath told reporters.
A photo of a marine kissing his boyfriend during a homecoming with the caption “America's Future?” adorned the podium the men stood behind.
After the men equated homosexuality to pedophilia, a reporter asked Heath and Madore if they were concerned about being labeled as bigots.
“The reality is, don't you think we stopped to think about that? Do you think that would trouble us that people would be that shallow, that people would accuse us of being bigots?” Madore said. “The bulk of homosexuals practice pedophilia. There's a higher percentage of homosexuals that practice pedophilia.”
Governor LePage's office released a statement stating that the “group has no affiliation with the Office of the Governor or the Governor, nor do they speak for the Office of the Governor.”