Report: Conservative GOP candidate Steve Wiles worked as a drag queen at a nightclub

WINSTON-SALEM , N.C., May 5 (UPI) -- According to reports, a North Carolina state Senate candidate who has been a supporter of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage used to be openly gay and work as a drag queen at a nightclub.

Steve Wiles, who is running in a May 6 Republican primary against two other candidates, worked at Club Odyssey under the name Miss Mona Sinclair for several years, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

Wiles, 34, also helped to promote the Miss Gay America Pageant.

“He is Mona Sinclair,” co-owner Randy Duggins told the Journal. “I recognized his picture when I was looking in the paper. That’s definitely him. He has aged some, but that’s him. I have no ax to grind against him. I just think he's a liar."

Although Wiles has denied the allegations at times, his campaign website, Facebook page and Twitter account have been taken offline.

“I have already apologized to the people who matter most to me for the things I did when I was young,” Wiles said last week.

Club Odyssey closed in 2010 after 14 years of serving “gay, lesbian and straight clientele.”