My name is Kerry Gauthier and i have the honor of representing the people of district 7B for the last two

years in the MN State House of Representatives. I am here to address recent incidents regarding myself and announce response to these incidents and my future plans. The recent incident at Thompson hill that involved myself and a young man was all over the press and has been an obvious tragic embarrassment to me. I am sorry for the hurt this has caused my family, friends and my constituents. I know I made a mistake and am determined to make amends as best i can. i am a better person than this incident would indicate and will try to demonstrate this with my future behavior. i can change my behavior but i cannot change the fact that i am a gay man and have known so since I was in college. I simply must act as a mature gay man would act and not as this incident portrays me. I also need to recommit myself to my sobriety program. i am a chemically dependent person and have been in recovery for over 30 years with one relapse. However when faced with the trauma and public shame brought about by this incident i reverted to old bad behavior and tried to run away and escape the reality that I was facing I took an overdose of pills to not feel any pain and this resulted in my hospitalization. i am again aware of the foolishness of this effort and must rededicate to my sobriety in order to survive. fortunatley i have many who are willing to help me in this effort. there are those, particularly in st. paul that have publicily stated that i should resign my position and/or withdraw from the reelection effort for house seat 7B In consultation with my friends and family members, I have decided to let the people of central and west Duluth make that decision. I plan to continue in my relection efforts and ask the voters in district 7B to accept my sincere apology and make their judgement of me based on my vigorous advocacy of the interests of the district at the capitol and not based on a mistake in my personal life.

i plan to run a campaign based on that legislative record and ask the voters for their forgiveness and for their vote.

I will not be taking phone calls, questions, or interviews at this time.