Copyright dailymail
A married Michigan lawmaker who promotes himself as a Christian 'family values' crusader furiously denied reports that he was found on dating websites for cheaters. State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, 41, was allegedly logged his email address, name and home address on the dating site Ashley Madison, which brands itself as a platform for people seeking affairs. According to a bombshell report from the Detroit Metro Times, father-of-three Posthumus first used the account in 2012 when he was married to his first wife Stacy. The Republican, who has served as Majority Leader in the Michigan legislature since January, also allegedly had his personal information found on two other adult hookup sites - AdultFriendFinder and Fling.com - that promise users anonymous sex, the outlet said. Posthumus reportedly used his same email for Fling.com that he used on his candidate campaign filings, and both sites used the same password. The Fling.com account listed top interests as 'group sex', 'online flirting' and 'fetish', according to the report, and indicated an interest in men, women or couples. After allegations of Posthumus's use of dating sites emerged, the lawmaker issued a furious statement branding the claims 'categorically false' and describing the story as a 'hit piece'. '(The story) is nothing more than a thinly veiled political attack masquerading as journalism,' he said. Posthumus's information was reportedly first spotted in an infamous leak of Ashley Madison data in 2015, which exposed the accounts of over 30 million users. The site, which uses the tagline 'Life is short - Have an affair', allegedly stored data including Posthumus's email address, credit card information, and a home address in Lowell that belonged to him and his ex-wife in 2011. The account was accessed a number of times from March to September 2012, and his ex-wife Stacy Posthumus went on to file for divorce in early 2014, the report said. According to the Metro Times, the profile with Posthumus's information detailed explicit sexual preferences, including: 'I love when a woman takes charge and seduces me.' The account also listed the user's relationship status as 'attached male seeking female', and included fantasies such as a 'threesome', 'being dominant/ master', 'being submissive/ slave', and 'one-night stands'. Posthumus married his current wife Elizabeth in 2022, and he has often portrayed himself in political life as a devout Christian with 'traditional family values'. The state representative was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2021 and has served as the Majority Leader in the legislature since January 2025. The Republican has supported a raft of hardline conservative policies in office, including voting against removing criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions, against expanding protections for LGBTQ+ residents, and against banning conversion therapy for minors. Posthumus's lawyer John C Burns said in a statement responding to the allegations that the accounts could have been made by a 'disgruntled former employee'. The statement accused the outlet of trying to 'weaponize unverified, anonymous data dumps', and said the report was a political hit job. The Times noted that the Ashley Madison account with Posthumus's data was created almost a decade before he was ever elected to office. The lawmaker has twice been convicted of drunk driving, the first in 2013 and the latter in 2021, for which he served 15 days in jail. He is managing partner of West Michigan Hopyards, a hop farm he co-founded in 2013, which was sued in federal court in November 2024 by a migrant worker who claimed the company violated labor laws. Posthumus and his business partner have called the lawsuit 'frivolous' and 'politically motivated'. The Daily Mail has contacted Rep. Posthumus's office for comment.
