Puerto Rico senator quits after nude photo scandal

SAN JUAN—A Puerto Rican senator who had strongly opposed gay marriage was forced to resign Monday after several naked photos of him surfaced on a gay sex app.

The senator, Roberto Arango, decided “the right thing for him and his family was to resign,” Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz said Monday in a statement announcing the decision.

“This will end the controversy, which has become a target of ridicule and sarcasm to the point of humiliation,” he said.

In recent days local media had reported that Arango had published several nude photos on Grindr, a gay and bisexual hook-up application for mobile phones.

Arango initially dismissed the allegations as “nonsense,” but later told WAPA television: “I don’t remember taking these photos, but that does not mean I did not take them.”

He added that he had taken several pictures of himself recently to see the effects of a diet.

Arango was known for his strong backing of “Resolution 99,” which seeks to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The scandal recalled that of US Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner, who was pushed to resign in June after posting pictures of his underwear-clad crotch on Twitter and engaging in lewd online exchanges with women.