Amtrak Crash Engineer Is Openly Gay

Teabagistan is ablaze tonight after the engineer of the Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia was identified as Brandon Bostian, an openly gay man who campaigned against Prop 8 while living in San Francisco and for gay marriage after moving to New York. Via Heavy:

Brandon Bostian, 32, has been an engineer for Amtrak since December 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked for four years with the company as a conductor. Bostian, originally from Memphis, graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2006 with a degree in business management and administration. He also worked as a cashier at Target while in college and previously lived in San Francisco. Bostian is gay and was quoted in a 2012 story by The Midtown Gazette about the fight for gay marriage in New York. He said he moved to New York from San Francisco and had been active in the Proposition 8 fight. “It’s kind of insulting to have to beg people for my right to marry,” he told the newspaper. “I feel like we shouldn’t even have to have this fight.” GotNews, which first reported his name, called him a “gay activist,” and many Twitter users have reacted negatively to his sexuality, claiming he may have been a “diversity” hire by the government-funded Amtrak.

GotNews is a far-right site run by the despicable Chuck C. Johnson, who is loathed even by some of his fellow wingnuts for his habit of trolling the victims of rape.