It's strange to hire an 18-year-old to run field operations for a mayoral election, especially for a medium-sized city like Flint. An independent campaign might want to capitalize on Tyler Whitney's fame to get some attention, however fleeting that fame was. Michelangelo Signorile speculates:

The campaign actually sent out a press release touting the hire, seeming to want to capitalize on Whitney's new-found fame as a right-wing closeted gay staffer working on a presidential campaign and as a former head of a dubious organization.

Weighill received the Triangle Pride PAC's strong endorsement just before he hired Whitney. No comment from the PAC as of yet on this hire:

According to Heywood, an official with the Triangle Pride PAC was taken aback by the hire of Whitney, particularly coming right after the group's endorsement, and declined to comment as of yet. The fact that Weighill would hire a former Tancredo campaign staffer who hasn't apologized for involvement in a known hate group is not going to sit well with many in the local community -- whether he (or the candidate himself) is openly gay, closeted, straight, bi, trans or whatever.

That is, of course, assuming that people will follow a local third party candidate's campaign's internal politics as closely as I have for the past fifteen minutes. (Just sayin'!)