AUSTRALIA: Speaker Of Parliament Resigns In Gay Harassment Scandal

Australian Parliament Speaker Peter Slipper, who is married to a woman, has resigned after being sued for sexual harassment by a gay male former staffer to whom Slipper sent obscene text messages. 

The offending text messages, revealed as part of court proceedings against Slipper, described female genitalia as looking like "a mussel removed from its shell". "Look at a bottle of mussel meat! Salty Cunts in brine!" he continued in his text message to former staffer James Ashby. "Been to thw (sic) fish shop yet to buy the bottle of shell less mussells (sic)?" At question time Abbott, leader of the Liberal party, called for Slipper to be sacked. The Speaker stood aside earlier this year, pending the outcome of the legal proceedings, but retained many of the perks of the office.

Pink News adds that other text messages reportedly requested massages from the employee and asked for "graphic details" about his sex life.