STATE REPRESENTATIVE DEFENDS NUDE PHOTOS; CALLS THEM ART, NOT PORNOGRAPHY
By Gregory J. Lamoureux
County Courier
Editor’s Note: This article may not be appropriate for all audiences. Discretion is advised.
FAIRFIELD: A Vermont State Representative is defending himself on social media after photographs from a nude photoshoot surfaced and began circulating throughout the community this week.
James Gregoire (R-Fairfield) has served as the State Representative for Fairfield, Fletcher, and Bakersfield since his election in November of 2018. Recently, he decided to pose nude for a Boston-based photographer who specializes in male boudoir and erotic photography.
That photographer, Mark Matthews, posted the photos publicly on his web page, with no requirement to acknowledge age in order to access the photographs.
“A man’s body is a work of art,” the photographer’s home page says, “Fully experience your manhood.”
Those who scroll down on the web page, below x-rated photographs, will come across a warning that the site contains content intended for individuals at least 18 years of age. Those who don’t scroll to the bottom of the page, and instead click on “portfolio” are met with numerous galleries of nude and sexually explicit men, including that of Gregoire, where he goes by the name “Jim Steele.”
The 59 photos depict Gregoire and an unidentified female posing with Gregoire, nine of which depict Gregoire and the woman fully or partially clothed. The remaining 50 photographs show Gregoire’s full body, almost all of which leaves nothing left to the imagination.
On Monday morning, Gregoire posted a response to what was quickly becoming the talk of his district (Fairfield, Fletcher, and Bakersfield). According to Gregoire, after the recent photoshoot, he shared some of the non-x-rated photographs on his private Instagram account.
According to Gregoire, he has taken part in several different photoshoots, that for him, help document his weight loss journey.
Gregoire says someone saw the photographs on Instagram, then did a web search for the photographer from the watermark left on the Instagram photos, which led them to the photo gallery of the explicit images posted within the photographer’s portfolio.
“I don’t care that someone sees these photos as they are tasteful and artistic, but I do care that some people are so low that they would send them to others unsolicited and who would not want to see them,” Gregoire wrote. “That is despicable and says a lot about a person’s lack of decency.”
“If somebody thinks it’s a scandal, they can kiss my ass,” Gregoire said, on the record with the County Courier, “Frikin’ Taylor Small (D/P-Winooski) does drag shows, and nobody gives a f**k about that.”
Small is an openly transgender woman who made headlines last year when she won a House seat to represent Winooski.
This is not the first time that Gregoire has posed for photos, he said in an interview Monday evening with the County Courier. The State Representative said he has posed semi-nude or fully nude before, those images just aren’t out in the public realm.
Gregoire wrote in his post on Monday morning that he felt the response in the community would be different if he was a female.
“If people were sending around pictures… of a lady, there would be a major backlash against [the sender], and rightly so,” Gregoire wrote on his Facebook post this morning. “Hundreds of local women have done boudoir shoots. I know several who have done the same style [of] fitness shoots that highlight muscle development and agility too. There is zero wrong with it when they do it and zero wrong when a guy does.”
“This is a duplicitous act, and this is absolute hypocrisy,” Gregoire said emphatically about those who have criticized the images.
Even being a public figure, Gregoire maintained that all else being equal, if he was a female the images would be treated differently.
Some would say that the difference between fitness photography and x-rated photography is the exclusion of underwear and the inclusion of the opposite sex. In Gregoire’s case, there was no underwear in 50 of the photographs, and a nude female was posing with him in 35 of the photographs.
It’s unclear when Gregoire posed for the photographer, however, the photographer’s website indicates a December 9th date of being posted.
“The bottom line is I’ve been fortunate to work with some very talented people on projects that are artistic and tasteful and continue to get asked to collaborate with others,” Gregoire wrote. “If someone wants to look at the photographs that resulted, then cool, but stop being a jackass and sending them to unsuspecting people.”
Despite acknowledging the photos exist on his public Facebook page, Gregoire said he doesn’t own the rights to the images, and would not ask the photographer to remove them from his site.
“I’m not going to ask [the photographer] to take them down,” Gregoire told the County Courier, “Why would I ask him to take them down. It’s frickin art. Why would I kowtow to a bunch of people who want to act like a bunch of uptight f**kers? There’s nothing wrong with them. If someone in this community thinks that there is something wrong with that, it says something about this community.”
“I’ve got more support from people than not, including older people,” Gregoire said of the recent talk throughout the community of the existence of the photographs, “I’ve only had a few little drama queens that want to cause trouble with personal vendettas than anything else. There’s nobody who’s supportive of me that has been anything but positive.”
Gregoire said his record in Montpelier speaks for itself, and for those who want to question his judgment, “My ability to work with others and bring people together speaks for itself. If somebody really thinks that an artistic photo… somehow makes somebody an evil sinner, or has questionable judgment, then that’s their problem.”
Gregoire maintained that the people who are concerned about their representative posing nude are the same people that already don’t like him.
“If there is a liberal who is saying it, then they are a hypocrite,” Gregoire said, “And if there is a conservative who is saying it, then they have to come to realize that it’s not 1950.”
“A liberal would have no problem with a Democrat doing this, and if anyone sh*t on a Democrat for doing this, or a gay person for doing this, or a woman for doing this, then they would be frickin’ circling the wagon,” Gregoire continued, “That’s the truth!”
When contacted for a comment, Joe Luneau, the Chair of the Republican Party in Franklin County would only say “There was some conduct that was brought to my attention that warrant further scrutiny and discussion with the County Committee.”
Gregoire maintained that he has done nothing wrong, nothing illegal, and nothing illicit.
In addition to representing the people of Fairfield, Fletcher, and Bakersfield in Montpelier, he formerly served as the Chair of the Republican party for Franklin County. In addition to Gregoire’s political life, he is a lister for the town of Fairfield; he also owns and operates Fairfield Market, the general store and gas station on Route 36 in Fairfield Center. Gregoire taught marketing for one year at Northwest Technical Center about a decade ago.
Gregoire currently serves on the House Committee on Human Services. The Legislature is on recess but is scheduled to return to the State House for the second half of their biennium beginning on January 5th.
