More On Sam Brinton

I did a quick web search on Sam Brinton in preparing yesterday's post, especially in the context of his felony charges for stealing designer luggage and the doubts the gay community has aired about him since that scandal broke. Wikipedia provides a somewhat more complete account of his career, but as far as I can tell, it still omits critical issues. Using his preferred they/them pronouns, it says

Brinton graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in nuclear engineering and vocal music. While attending the university, they organized its first Pride march in 2010. They have a dual Master of Science degree in nuclear science and engineering (technology and policy program) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

. . ., In 2016, Brinton was a senior policy analyst for the Bipartisan Policy Center, lobbying for updated regulations so nuclear waste can be used to power advanced nuclear reactors. In February 2020, the website of Deep Isolation, a Berkeley, California, nuclear waste storage and disposal company, listed them as its Director of Legislative Affairs and in May 2022 they were its Director of Global Strategy. In 2022, Brinton's profile at the Department of Energy indicated their previous work with the Breakthrough Institute, the Clean Air Task Force, and Third Way.

Yahoo! Lifestyle noted that Brinton "may be the first openly gender-fluid person in federal government leadership" after they were selected by the Biden administration to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy for the Department of Energy in January 2022. In July 2022, South Florida Gay News reported that, according to Brinton, while they were "welcomed with open arms" at all levels of the organization, others reacted to their appointment with hatred and disgust, some making death threats against the self-described "Nuclear Nerd".

In February 2022, an unidentified Department of Energy employee filed allegations of hiring malpractice with the Office of the Inspector General due to concern regarding Brinton's qualifications for a Senior Executive Service (SES) level position, i.e. "the class of federal career officials who rank just below top presidential appointees in seniority".

In any case, the hiring malpractice case is currently moot, since they (the Brintons?) have been placed on leave by DOE due to their felony charges. However, the Wikipedia entry also goes into more detail on questions from the gay community itself on the Sam Brintons' record of prior mendacity:

Brinton was raised in Perry, Iowa and is the child of two Southern Baptist missionaries. Brinton came out as bisexual to their parents in the early 2000s. According to Brinton, Brinton's parents disapproved of Brinton's attraction to a male friend from school, and put the then-middle school student in conversion therapy, an experience Brinton later described as "barbaric" and "painful" in a New York Times op-ed. In the most extreme session, Brinton has stated that a conversion therapist bound them to a table while ice, heat, and electricity was applied to their body, all while being forced to watch clips of gay intimacy.

Journalist Wayne Besen, writing in LGBTQ Nation in December 2022, cast doubt on Brinton's description of their childhood, noting inconsistencies in Brinton's retelling of events, such as the occupation and location of the conversion therapist; as well as Brinton's claim that they could not remember the therapist's name (which would be necessary to corroborate the story), despite having had two years of sessions with him. Besen also stated that the type of severe conversion therapy Brinton stated they underwent had become "exceedingly rare" by the late 1990s. Online magazine Queerty wrote about Brinton in 2011, including Brinton's description of how their own parents "punched, burned, electrocuted and stabbed him to make him straight." Queerty reported that LGBT publication Towleroad had contacted Wayne Besen and that Besen hadn't been able to verify Brinton's story. Queerty described separate allegations, via Towleroad, that "Brinton's Facebook page “has a picture of the entire happy family at his college graduation ceremony, May 31, 2011,” even though Brinton's father reportedly threatened to shoot his son in the head if [they] ever came around again.

What's somewhat puzzling is that Brinton has had a high-profile career as a gay activist that parllels his positions as a nuclear waste lobbyist and government official. Again per Wikipedia:

Calling themself a "survivor" of conversion therapy, Brinton was the first such individual to testify before the United Nations Convention against Torture regarding their experience in November 2014, as the advisory committee cochair of the National Center for Lesbian Rights' #BornPerfect campaign. Brinton held the position until at least September 2015.

Brinton, in December 2016, founded the #50Bills50States campaign with the goal of prohibiting the pseudoscientific practice of conversion therapy throughout the U.S.

In 2016 and 2018, Brinton was the principal officer for the Washington DC chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an LGBTQ charity and human rights group. At events, such as the organization's 40th anniversary, they performed in drag under the name "Sister Ray Dee O'Active".

From 2017 to 2019, Brinton was the head of advocacy and government affairs at the non-profit LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project. In 2020, Brinton coordinated with three of Anchorage's openly gay city council members to draft the city's conversion therapy ban on minors, which became law in August. Anchorage joined twenty states and dozens of cities that had enacted laws banning the practice.

What appears to be a reprint of the Wayne Besen LGBTQ Nation piece mentioned above appears in the Los Angeles Blade for December 9, where Besen dates the start of Brinton's personal legend:

Sam Brinton burst on the scene on October 1, 2010. In a riveting two-part interview with I’m from Driftwood, they revealed the most shocking conversion story activists had heard since the 1960’s. It involved Brinton coming out to their parents at age 11, and their father reacting with a swift punch to their face.

So far, I haven't been able to find dates for either Brinton's graduation from Kansas State or his Master's from MIT, but if he was at Kansas State when he started the Pride march there, his high-profile gay activism even predates his work in the nuclear waste field. Not mentioned at all in the Wikipedia profile, though, is their equally visible and active career as a presenter at kink conferences:

Sam Brinton, who was placed on leave at the Department of Energy after stealing a suitcase full of women’s clothes, last weekend delivered a seminar on the science of spanking and "turning butts red" at a Los Angeles kink conference. Speaking under the pseudonym "NuclearNerd," Brinton delivered the hands-on "Spanking: From Calculus To Chemistry" seminar at the Leather Getaway conference, the Daily Mail reported.

The Daily Mail story links to his conference thumbnail:

Nerdy at heart, NuclearNerd finds that the best kinks are the one centered in the brain. As a graduate of MIT, NuclearNerd has been teaching their "Physics of Kink" class in universities and community events across the country for years. They have been active in the kink world since 2013, host monthly kink parties in their dungeon in Washington, DC, and estimate they have spanked over 2,000 cute butts.

Soon after his appointment to his DOE post, the Washington Examiner reported,

Brinton has a history of promoting sexual fetishes and kinks related to animal role-playing. A post in the student newspaper at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 2017 says the nuclear waste expert held a discussion on kinks and sex education at the campus.

“Throughout the entire talk, Brinton was open about his experiences, the kinks he partakes in, and the nature of his relationships,” the article reads. “He left us with countless anecdotes, like how he enjoys tying up his significant other like a table, and eating his dinner on him while he watches Star Trek.”

Whew. At 35, he's had a triple-whammy career as a nuclear waste lobbyist and policymaker, an outspoken gay activist, and a noted authority on the theory and practice of kink.

Just for starters, I have two questions. Anything related to nuclear at the Department of Energy requires major, major background checks. I've been there. Even to go to the lunchroom, even to go to the men's room, at a DOE nuclear facility requires weeks of background checks. In fact, even if you've had a Defense Department secret clearance, you have to get a whole separate DOE clearance, just to set foot in the cafeteria. At least back in the day, a record like the Brintons would be a deal killer. How on earth did he get hired for that position?

Second, just out of curiosity, on whose dime was he flying when he stole the designer bags? Was he traveling on DOE business? Was he traveling to a conference? Was it on gay advocacy business?

Just wondering. Maybe somebody needs to do an investigation.