by Susanna Gibson would seem, on the surface, to be the ideal candidate for Virginia Democrats in their attempts to regain control of the House of Delegates. Running in a suburban Richmond district, she is a nurse practitioner with degrees from U.Va. and Columbia University, an attractive mom with two young kids, a Virginia native married to a local attorney, and on the right side of all the issues that matter to young suburban professional liberals.
She has all the right endorsements. Politicians ranging from former Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) to US Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney have endorsed her. Gun control groups such as Giffords and Moms Demand Action support her as do organizations that are pro-abortion. She got the endorsement of the Sierra Club, the Climate Cabinet, and the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. In other words, her positions on the issues check all the correct boxes for Democrats.
As often with things that seem too good to be true, there is more to her story. Thanks to an article that first appeared in that cesspool of right-wing extremism, the Washington Post, we now know she had an “innovative” way of raising money for her campaign. You might even say she and her husband put themselves out there to raise money “for a good cause”.
From the Post:
Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner and mother of two young children running in a highly competitive suburban Richmond district, streamed sex acts on Chaturbate, a platform that says it takes its name from “the act of masturbating while chatting online.”
Chaturbate videos are streamed live on that site and are often archived on other publicly available sites. More than a dozen videos of the couple captured from the Chaturbate streamwere archived on one of those sites — Recurbate — in September 2022, after she entered the race. The most recent were two videos archived on Sept. 30, 2022. It is unclear when the live stream occurred….
In multiple videos, Gibson interrupts sex acts to type into a bedside computer. Speaking directly into the screen, she urges viewers to provide tips, which are paid through “tokens” purchased through the site. In at least two videos, she agrees to perform certain acts only in a “private room,” an arrangement that requires the viewer to pay more.
“I need, like, more tokens before I let him do that,” she responds to a request that they perform a certain act. “One token, no. More. Raising money for a good cause.”
Gibson is now characterizing the release of the videos of she and her husband having sex on a live webcam as “revenge porn”. Her attorney goes further saying it was a criminal act. He cited a 2021 Virginia Court of Appeals ruling which said it was unlawful to secretly record someone in a consensual sexual encounter. That is all good and dandy but there was nothing secret about this as it was streamed live for an audience with the intent to raise money. With a quick search, you can find some of the videos. What she did is no different than any other porn actress who engages in sex in front of a webcam for money. Gibson aka “HotWifeExperience” is reputed to have upwards of 6,000 followers on Chaturbate.
Gibson has gone on the attack accusing the Republicans of trying to silence her because she is a woman. In other words, even though she recorded one or more of these videos after she declared for the House of Delegates, she is trying to play the victim card. While Politico is trying to play it off as “so what”, Democrats seem to be taking a wait and see approach. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) offered “no comment” after appearing with her at a campaign rally
What Susanna Gibson suffers from is a lack of good judgement. I would say this about her even if I agreed 100% with her on her political priorities. Everyone knows by now that the Internet is forever. If you and your husband are performing sex acts on a live feed and are asking for “tokens”, you should have no expectation that it will remain private.
Good judgement is the one thing we can hope for in a candidate. We don’t have to agree with them but we expect them to make decisions impacting our future with a sober, reasoned, and judicious approach to the issue at hand. I do not think the voters in Virginia’s 57th House District can have any expectation of that from Susanna Gibson.
