USA: The openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon has publicly apologised for lying about his sexual relationship with a teenager – and for encouraging the 18-year-old to lie about it. Regrets: Portland mayor Sam Adams The affair started when Mayor Sam Adams was mentoring the male student three years ago. "I screwed up. I blew it. There's no way to sugarcoat it," Adams told a press conference this week, reports CNN. Rumours of the affair surfaced during Adams' election campaign, but both he and the teenager denied it. In his confession, Adams stressed that the teenager was 18 – the age of consent in Oregon – when their sexual relationship began. But he acknowledged the wide age gap – Adams was 42 at the time. Asked if he had thought he could get away with lying, Adams replied: "I think that's going to be up to my colleagues and the people of Portland."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Thursday, 22nd January 2009 - 8:58am