Yesha Callahan on Rep Chris Lee-Craigslist Scandal: Owning My Shit

[Editor's Note: The following is an official response from my longtime friend, Yesha Callahan to the media and public at large on the subsequent backlash from the Rep. Chris Lee Craigslist shirtless photo scandal.]

Since all anonymity is lost, and I’m the “bad” guy, might as well say my piece on my own site.  Sure, I received photos, yes I sent them to Gawker. It’s nothing that I haven’t said to Gawker, The Loop 21 or The Washington Post, whom apparently received an anonymous tip from someone that gave them my name. So no, I didn’t reach out to The Washington Post to “give” them my story. They were the first to find my name and the reporter actually was pretty easy going about it. Thank you Lonnae.

Sure, I’m the bad woman.

Some even say I enticed former Congressman Chris Lee into sending me the shirtless photo. Excuse me for not realizing asking “Do you have something that doesn’t look like a JCPenney Ad” is considered enticing nowadays. Maybe I’ll use it more often. Maybe it’ll keep me off of Craigslist. Maybe it’ll yield me a financially & emotionally stable man. I mean anything is possible right?

Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) Gets Busted Trolling Craigslist - But Did You Know The Woman Was Black? Oh How The World Swirls

Chris Lee is Down with OPP

So I'm sitting at home talking to my wife about this crazy snow storm rolling through the city of Memphis, and I get a call from one of my very good friends. I answer the phone and she nervously says, "Hey, what are you doing?" I tell her that we're watching this snow and hoping it doesn't get to 9 inches as it did in Little Rock, Ark. Knowing that she's been sick for a while, I asked if she was at home instead of at the office. To which she replied,"Yes."

Still somewhat nervous, she asked if I was near my PC, and suggested if I wasn't I should go to it. Still nervous, she said that she had something to show me, and that she wanted me to be the first person to see this. I get to my PC, go to Gawker.com as instructed, and this is the lead story I see:

Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York. But when he trolls Craigslist's "Women Seeking Men" forum, he's Christopher Lee, "divorced" "lobbyist" and "fit fun classy guy." One object of his flirtation told us her story.

On the morning of Friday, January 14, a single 34-year-old woman put an ad in the "Women for Men" section of Craigslist personals. "Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?" she asked, inviting "financially & emotionally secure" men to reply.

That afternoon, a man named Christopher Lee replied. He used a Gmail account that Rep. Christopher Lee has since confirmed to be his own. (It's the same Gmail account that was associated with Lee's personal Facebook account, which the Congressman deleted when we started asking questions.)

By email, Lee identified himself as a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and sent a PG picture to the woman from the ad. (In fact, Lee is married and has one son with his wife. He's also 46.)
(Read More)

OK, so now at this point I'm literally in tears with fits of uncontrollable laughter as I sat at my PC. Not because of the fact that yet another Republican champion of family and moral values gets caught out there, and exposed as a hypocrite. But because the woman in the story is actually on the other end of my phone-call. You see, I've known this woman for a number of years, and one thing we've always laughed about, is the way she would enact her "justice" on lying, cheating, and downright trifling men.

Let's just say that this was the ultimate payback.