Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey Vigorously Denies She Is Gay

The governor of Alabama wants you to know she is absolutely, totally, 100 percent not gay.

"It's a disgusting lie," said Gov. Kay Ivey in an official statement posted today to Twitter and Facebook, and sent to local media.

But the statement didn't stop there. It went on. And on.

"This most recent personal attack against me is beyond disgraceful," said Ivey. "It's a disgusting lie being pushed by a paid left-wing liberal political operative. There is absolutely no truth to it. It's false. It's wrong. It's a bald faced lie. And I'm not gonna let them get away with it."

Ivey said any suggestion that she is gay -- which again, we repeat, she says she is not -- is indicative of today's broken political climate.

"Whether these attacks are malicious or ignorant or both," she ended her official statement, "they represent everything that's wrong with politics today."

Ivey was responding this morning to a comment made by a state legislator, Patricia Todd, who is the only out lawmaker in Alabama. The outspoken Todd might be remembered by LGBT Alabamans for her attempt to revise the state's archaic sex ed guidelines that include lessons on homosexuality being socially unacceptable. But she also made headlines after marriage equality was sent nationwide.

When some conservative Alabama lawmakers were outraged by the marriage ruling, claiming family values, it was Todd who hinted she might divulge the names of those anti-marriage conservatives who were secretly having extramarital affairs.

"Don't start throwing bricks at my window when yours is already cracked," Todd said at one point in the marriage fight as it wound through the courts.

Todd never did name anyone. And perhaps totally unconnected, the state's then-governor, Robert Bentley, went on to resign after an affair with a political adviser was uncovered.

In this case, Todd made her comment on Twitter and Facebook but has since either removed or protected those posts. She spoke afterward with famed AL.com political columnist John Archibald, saying, "I hate hypocrites."

Archibald points out that Todd was responding to the governor's condemnation of an LGBT nonprofit called Free2Be that acted as a community center for LGBT people, combating violence and offering someone to talk with. Ivey, who is up for reelection, was under attack by a fellow conservative for allowing grant money to go to the group. It appears to have since closed. She responded by distancing herself from Free2Be.

"I certainly don't agree with the agenda or the values of that organization," said Ivey, according to AL.com.

That didn't sit well with Todd. She reportedly posted this message today to Twitter and Facebook:

"Will someone out her for God's sake....I have heard for years that she is gay and moved her girlfriend out of her house when she became Gov. I am sick of closeted elected officials."