‘I Do Love Gays’ — Democrat Senate Candidate Butchers Left’s Favorite Acronym In Bid To Seem Inclusive

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner told reporters he “love gays” while not appearing to know what the full acronym, LGBTQIA, stands for.

Platner told The Atlantic that another reporter had asked about his stance on “LGBTQIA+” issues — but when the outlet asked him a follow-up question about the meaning of the final two letters in the acronym, he simply replied, “That’s actually a good question.” The candidate later said he guessed the “I” stood for intersex and the “A” stood for androgynous, which his aide had to correct to “asexual.”

“It’s asexual, sorry. It’s asexual,” Platner, an oyster farmer and Marine veteran, then told the outlet.

When pressed by The Atlantic on what the “plus” at the end of the acronym stood for, the left-wing candidate replied, “Everything else.”

The outlet also noted that Platner at one unspecified point in the exchange said, “I do love gays.”

Platner, backed by Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has been dogged by controversy over the past several months, but remains ahead in a range of Democratic primary polls over his intraparty opponent, Gov. Janet Mills. The Sanders-endorsed candidate has come under fire for a tattoo