Someone has acquired several domain names related to Collin County Judge Keith Self (shown above) and linked them to Gay.com, Shelly Slater of WFAA-TV reports. Self, who chairs the Collin County Commissioners Court, is a Republican who’s up for re-election next year.
The unidentified pranksters reportedly told WFAA-TV in an e-mail, “we can tell you that we are much closer to Keith than you might think.” The domain names that were linked to Gay.com included keithself.org, keithself.net and collincountyjudge.com, .net, .org and .info. Needless to say, Self isn’t too happy — he called the prank “serious business” and “the politics of personal destruction” — but he still seems fairly confident about his sexual orientation.
“I have enough trust and faith in my good name that people will not think that this is anything that I am associated with,” Self said.
In case you’re wondering, Self is a member of Stonebriar Community Church, an evangelical Christian congregation in Frisco, according to his real Web site, www.keithself.com. He also serves on the board of the Prestonwood Pregnancy Center, which is affiliated with Prestonwood Baptist Church. And his wife, Tracy, serves as the Children’s Director for McKinney/Allen Community Bible Study.
WFAA reports that some of the Web site links were later changed from Gay.com to Google, and I have confirmed this. According to The Dallas Morning News, Self has filed reports with the District Attorney’s Office and the FBI. You can read WFAA’s full report and watch the video by going here.
UPDATE: A representative from the Collin County Gay and Lesbian Alliance has posted a statement about this incident in the comments below.
Statement of Morris Garcia, President, Collin County Gay & Lesbian Alliance (CCGLA)
It has been reported that “cybersquatters” have registered web domains using the name of Keith Self, Collin County Judge, for the purpose of extortion. CCGLA condemns this criminal action and hopes the FBI will learn the identity of those responsible and that they will be brought to justice.
The mission of CCGLA is to advocate equal civil rights, achieve full participation in society and promote dignity and respect for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender individuals by providing education, political awareness and social interaction. An example of this work is our municipal candidates survey, which will soon be published on ccgla.org.
CCGLA has also organized two “meet and greet” events to facilitate dialog between candidates and voters in Plano and Frisco. Morris Garcia, President of CCGLA, said, “We are expecting big crowds in both cities, and we invite everyone to join us to engage positively in this most basic civic responsibility.”
Plano: Friday, April 3, 6:30 pm
Frisco: Friday, April 17, 7:00 pm
See ccgla.org for more information and to rsvp.
Well in my opinion that dude has a major case of the gay face. Call me daddy!
What’s the insinuation here? The author uses a full paragraph to describe what Judge Self called his “good name” — his membership in a local evangelical church, his involvment on the board of a pregnancy center, and the fact that he’s married to a woman who is a church leader. How are any of these things proof of the judge’s good name? Are these intended to evidence his sexual orientation?
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Many gay and lesbian people (all with “good names”) are also evangelical Christians, and many are also supportive of women and unborn children. Of course many are also married to a different-sex partner. Whatever the judge’s orientation or personal views, church membership is hardly an indicator of heterosexuality.
For Morris Garcia, CCGLA president,
Where’s the crime? It sounds like some gorilla political action that probably was misguided, but if the action was taken to embarrass or insinuate something about Mr. Self, instead of trying to profit by offering Self the domains at an inflated price, then I don’t see a crime.
No matter why this happened, it was misguided and wrong. But this is too close to a free expression issue to be considered a crime.
And I do think this places the LGBT community in a bad light.
I’m sorry, but I think it’s just a really funny prank. Shoot me for not getting all up in arms about it.