An openly gay Republican candidate for Bethlehem City Council is facing condemnation from fellow politicos for posting nude photos of himself on the Internet several years ago — criticism the candidate asserts stems from antigay animus.
The Express-Times ran a story on candidate Tony Simao last week after being contacted by Northampton County Democratic Chair Walt Garvin in regard to the photos.
Simao said he posted the photos between three and five years ago on two unnamed sites and has not recently accessed the sites on which they were posted.
“I posted them when I was a private citizen and not running for City Council and I’d completely forgotten about it,” the 35-year-old said, noting that one of the photos was from a vacation and is not objectionable.
The photos were posted under a screenname — not Simao’s real name — and one that included full frontal nudity did not show his face.
Simao said he removed the photos after the issue was brought to his attention.
While Garvin brought the issue to the press, Simao said he believes the issue was also privately raised by one of his opponents in next week’s election, Democratic candidate Mike Recchiuti.
Simao contends Recchiuti did an Internet search for the screenname Simao used, along with the words “gay,” “homosexual” and “PA.”
Recchiuti said several people notified him that the photos existed and gave him the username to search.
Recchiuti emailed the sites to a campaign advisor and to fellow Democratic candidate City Councilmember J. William Reynolds in September.
Simao said he has a copy of an email in which Simao suggested Recchiuti considered whether or not the photos should be used as a campaign issue.
“He said, ‘I don’t know how to use this but I’ll figure it out,’” Simao said.
Recchiuti said he decided not to go public with the photos and his comment in the email was meant to reflect that notion.
“I said something like, ‘I don’t know how we can use this information’ in the sense that I don’t think we can,” Recchiuti said. “I wasn’t looking to use this in the campaign because I didn’t think this was something that would help anyone.”
Recchiuti said he forgot about the photos after sending the email out, and both Recchiuti and Reynolds said they do not know how the email made its way to Garvin.
Garvin did not return a call for comment.
Reynolds said he received “dozens” of emails from individuals notifying him of the photos, but added he did not intend to draw attention to them.
“This was something that lots and lots of people had emailed me about, but I was determined not to make a campaign issue of it,” Reynolds said. “I had nothing to do with the Northampton Democratic County chair bringing this to light or with this becoming public so I can only speak for myself, and sexual orientation should have nothing to do with a campaign. This was never a campaign issue for me. I have a very strong history in terms of equal rights for the gay community that I’m proud of.”
Reynolds was influential in securing the passage of an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance earlier this year and is the only Bethlehem City Council candidate endorsed by Equality Pennsylvania.
Now that the issue has been made public, Recchiuti said he doesn’t see Simao’s sexuality as playing a role in the situation.
“The criticism is not of Mr. Simao’s sexual orientation. To put photos of yourself on the Internet like that just shows poor judgment,” Recchiuti said. “He wants to be a councilman and his first introduction to the public showed bad judgment.”
Simao contended the criticism is meant to be a distraction from some of the serious fiscal issues facing Bethlehem.
“I’m not talking about my personal life when I go out campaigning or bringing up salacious materials like this,” he said. “I’m running on issues.”
In addition to Reynolds and Recchiuti, Simao is also facing off against incumbent Democratic Council president Robert Donchez and Republicans Al Bernotas and Tom Carroll for three open Council seats in the Nov. 8 election.
Simao is a former Marine and health-insurance client advocate.