“Openly gay” Republican hid divorce from woman days before launching campaign: report – Salon

A newly elected Republican congressman’s biography continues to fall apart under scrutiny.

The New York Times revealed earlier this week that George Santos had apparently invented his academic and professional backstory, while subsequent reports called into question whether he was actually Jewish, and now The Daily Beast found new discrepancies in his biography.

The 34-year-old Santos, who became the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to Congress, was married to a woman he divorced in September 2019, which he has not discussed publicly.

Less than two weeks after that divorce was finalized, Santos filed the official paperwork launching his first campaign, an unsuccessful run in 2020, and his next campaign biography, in 2022, mentions his husband, but he hasn’t publicly acknowledged the previous marriage, although he claims to have been openly gay for the past decade.

“I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks,” Santos told USA Today in October, after announcing his support for Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”

This week’s reporting found the colleges Santos claimed to have attended have no record of him, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs could not confirm he ever worked there, as he claimed, the IRS has no record of his nonprofit animal rescue, he faces possible legal trouble in Brazil, his business ventures appear to be shady, and even his address has been questioned.