A club owner in North Carolina has told the Winston-Salem Journal that Steve Wiles, an anti-gay marriage GOP senate candidate, was a drag queen working under the name Miss Mona Sinclair in the early 2000s.

Randy Duggins, the co-owner of Club Odyssey, said he recognized Wiles when a photo of the candidate appeared in the paper.

Wiles, who supports North Carolina's constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, first denied having worked at the club, according to the Journal.

But a few weeks after the image came out, Wiles posted a lengthy apology on Facebook, at which he noted "My job was embarrassing—I had to have a job!" His full comments, via The Daily Mail, are below.

Wiles told Business Insider this weekend,

"I think that everyone has their own choices to make, and I'm fine with everyone making their own. For me, from a religious standpoint, just for my life, for me, it just was not something that I wanted to continue."

But when the interviewer asked if Wiles himself was gay, he vehemently denied the accusation. "No, no, I really won't make any comments on that," he said.

Steve Wiles p.k.a. Miss Mona Sinclair is running for state senate in a primary election on May 6.

[Images via The Daily Mail]