Fugitive sex offender posed as LGBTQ+ journalist for years, authorities say

A man who worked as a journalist in LGBTQ+ media has been arrested and identified by California authorities as a fugitive sex offender who police say had been living under an assumed identity since at least 2016.

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Police officials allege that George Paul Bishop, 66, had lived under the name “Brody Levesque” in Santa Cruz County, south of San Francisco, for several years. The alias matches a journalist who has written for LGBTQ+ news site LGBTQ Nation, and a Brody Levesque once even served as a top editor of the Los Angeles Blade.

According to Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., a warrant for Bishop’s arrest has been active since June 14, 2016. Authorities allege that Bishop failed to register as a sex offender, leading to officials designating him as a fugitive.

Bishop was taken into custody on Wednesday by the Capitola Police Department, working alongside the U.S. Marshals Service, a press release announced. According to Capitola Police Captain Leo Moreno, Bishop was arrested on an active warrant issued from the D.C. area.

Moreno, who also serves as the department’s LGBTQ+ liaison, confirmed to The Advocate that Bishop and Levesque are the same person who “identified himself as press” and that the department is conducting a follow-up investigation into his activities.

Bishop has a criminal history dating back at least two decades. According to court records and a 2005 report in The Connection, Bishop was previously convicted in Fairfax County for manufacturing and possessing child pornography.

Authorities at the time alleged that Bishop filmed and photographed a 16-year-old boy in bondage gear at the home of a co-defendant, Richard Wendall Evans, who was also convicted.

Bishop pleaded guilty in June 2005 and was sentenced to three years in prison and 12 years of probation. Court records show that he was required to register as a Tier 3 sex offender for life but failed to do so in 2016, leading to his classification as an absconder, according to the Virginia State Police Sex Offender registry.

According to a LinkedIn page, Brody Levesque listed himself as a producer at Rated LGBT Radio and former editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Blade, where he worked until last June. He is listed as the editor-in-chief of Rated LGBTQ, a news website. The Advocate contacted a representative for the site but did not receive a response.

A Muck Rack profile also attributes work to Levesque at publications, including The New Civil Rights Movement, Georgia Voice, and Pink News UK. The profile describes Levesque as a longtime wire service reporter who has worked for UPI, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse, covering the White House, Capitol Hill, and the European Union. The Advocate contacted the wire agencies for confirmation of his employment but did not immediately receive a response from UPI or AFP. A spokesperson for Reuters indicated to The Advocate that he never worked for the news organization. “We have found no record of this individual having worked for Reuters under his real name or alias,” a spokesperson said.

The Advocate contacted Lynne Brown, co-founder and owner of Brown Naff Pitts OmniMedia, Inc., the parent company of the Los Angeles Blade and Washington Blade, and publisher of the latter, who confirmed Levesque's employment at the publications.

On Monday afternoon, Brown said that he worked as a freelance contributor beginning in 2018 and later became an editor for the Los Angeles Blade in June 2022, following the departure of his predecessor, Karen Ocamb.

Brown said that Levesque was let go in June 2024 due to “overreaching and exaggerating his titles.” While he listed himself as editor-in-chief, Brown clarified that he never held that title officially. When asked about how Bishop was able to assume an identity for so long, she remarked that “America’s full of real crime stories” and likened the situation to something out of a true crime show.

Executive editor of LGBTQ Nation's parent company, Q.Digital, Bil Browning, said that Levesque worked for the previous owners of the news site about ten years ago. Scott Gatz, the founder and CEO of Q.Digital, confirmed that Levesque had written for the publication before the company acquired LGBTQ Nation. “This individual has never worked for Q.Digital, but his byline appears in the archives which we acquired in 2015,” Gatz told The Advocate. Levesque first appeared on LGBTQ Nation’sauthor page in 2010, and his last contribution was in February 2013.

Beyond his past as a writer, Levesque’s name appeared in media industry announcements just months before his arrest. In September 2024, Axios reported that Uncloseted Media, a recently launched LGBTQ-focused news outlet, had named Levesque as a member of its business and media advisory board. The outlet, founded by Spencer Macnaughton, an LGBTQ+ journalist and adjunct professor at New York University, sought to revitalize investigative journalism focused on LGBTQ+ issues.

On Monday afternoon, Macnaughton told The Advocate in a phone call that he was “shocked” to learn about the allegations against Levesque and that, as a result, Levesque has been removed from Uncloseted Media’s advisory board.

"We are shocked to learn about these allegations," Macnaughton said. "Given this news, Brody is no longer on Uncloseted Media’s board."

Macnaughton confirmed that Levesque had been part of the advisory board since the outlet launched on September 3, 2024.

Macnaughton declined to comment further when asked about any due diligence conducted before bringing Levesque onto the board, saying, “For now, I haven’t even talked to the board yet. That’s all I want to say.” He described the situation as “really overwhelming” and said he would provide additional information once the organization had time to assess the situation.

Authorities are now investigating whether Bishop committed additional crimes while living under his assumed identity. In a press release, Capitola police described him as a “registered sexually violent predator.”

The Capitola Police Department urges anyone with information about Bishop, particularly any potential victims, to contact Detective Albert Gonzalez at agonzalez@ci.capitola.ca.us.

According to Santa Cruz Superior Court records, Bishop remains in Santa Cruz County custody after a Friday arraignment and is scheduled to appear for a review hearing on April 1. It’s expected that Bishop will be extradited to Virginia.

Levesque did not respond to messages. The Advocate has reached out to Bishop’s court-appointed attorney, Manuel Nieto, for comment but has not received a response as of publication.

This is a developing story and has been updated with additional reporting and reactions from representatives for LGBTQ Nation as well as Lynne Brown, Spencer Macnaughton, and Reuters.