Department of Energy: “Sam Brinton is No Longer a DOE Employee”
Biden administration official was placed on leave after being accused of stealing suitcases at two separate U.S. airports.
Sam Brinton, who became the nation’s top-ranking nonbinary government employee earlier this year, is no longer employed at the U.S. Department of Energy, according to a department spokesperson.
Brinton, who was appointed deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy in January, was recently placed on administrative leave after they were accused of stealing luggage from two separate airports in Las Vegas and Minneapolis this year.
In the first incident, which took place in July, Brinton allegedly stole a gray Away-brand suitcase from the luggage carousel at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. The bag and its contents were valued at $3,670, containing more than $1,700 worth of jewelry, $850 worth of clothing, and $500 worth of makeup, according to a felony arrest warrant issued for Brinton.
A person matching Brinton’s description, wearing a “white T-shirt with a “large rainbow-colored atomic nuclear symbol design on the front” — which matches the design of a similar shirt seen on Brinton’s Instagram account — was seen on surveillance footage removing the suitcase from the luggage carousel. According to the arrest warrant, Brinton was seen on video allegedly examining the tag, placing it back on the carousel, looking around furtively, and removing it from the carousel once again before leaving the airport with the suitcase.
In the second case, Brinton has been charged with movable theft of property without consent after allegedly taking a Vera Bradley roller bag valued at $2,325 from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport, according to a criminal complaint filed two months ago in Minnesota district court.
Since the accusations against Brinton became public, some people have begun questioning Brinton’s background and their veracity. Brinton, who previously worked for The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ anti-bullying and suicide prevention organization, had been an outspoken opponent of conversion therapy, claiming to have been subjected to it at a young age.
But the details of Brinton’s story — including the age at which they were allegedly subjected to the therapy, which seeks to alter a person’s sexual orientation by curbing their desire to engage in same-sex behavior or express themselves in a gender-nonconforming way — appeared to change when Brinton retold their story.
Both Joseph Nicolosi, a licensed therapist and conversion therapy advocate who is the founder of the Reintegrative Therapy Association, and Wayne Besen, an LGBTQ activist and opponent of conversion therapy who is the founder of Truth Wins Out, an organization dedicated to fighting “anti-gay religious extremism,” pointed out the inconsistencies in Brinton’s story of having been a “survivor” of conversion therapy, and slammed the larger LGBTQ movement for not being more skeptical of Brinton’s claims.
As reported by the right-wing outlet The Daily Signal, Nicolosi lamented the success Brinton’s advocacy against conversion therapy, even prior to working for The Trevor Project, claiming that Brinton’s credibility should have been called into question. However, he claims, left-wing politicians and activists were more concerned about advancing a “narrative” that conversion therapy is harmful to those subjected to it, and embracing the idea that homosexuality is not a mental disorder — contrary to what many social conservatives believe.
Because of the success of the campaign against conversion therapy, 20 states and the District of Columbia have banned the practice on minors, which prevents religious therapists from being able to treat people suffering from childhood trauma, such as abuse, or struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction.
Besen penned an op-ed for the queer news website LGBTQ Nation declaring that Brinton’s personal story was “too good to be true,” and that LGBTQ organizations and journalists failed to verify it before elevating Brinton to positions of prominence or power.
“It remains an open question whether Brinton’s story was contrived or embellished to manipulate high-profile leaders to elevate themself into the upper echelons of LGBTQ+ activism and achieve a level of celebrity,” Besen wrote. “But ex-gay conversion therapy needs no sensationalism, and Sam’s story, if truly fabricated or exaggerated, adds to that destruction by undermining credible survivor stories.”
Due to those questions, both the liberal-leaning The Daily Beast and The Daily Signal sent requests for comment on Brinton’s background to the Department of Energy, only to be told by an agency spokesperson: “Sam Brinton is no longer a DOE employee. By law, the Department of Energy cannot comment further on personnel matters.”
It remains unclear whether Brinton was fired or resigned of their own accord.
Recently, more than a dozen GOP members of Congress penned a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm expressing concerns about the accusations against Brinton and demanding their resignation. The lawmakers also accused the department of prioritizing “wokeness” and of seeking to pander to the LGBTQ community, rather than selecting qualified employees who can be trusted to hold high-level security clearances.
“It is imperative that we do not allow a person charged with a felony to influence America’s policies,” the lawmakers asserted in their letter.
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