Yes, Idaho's Senator Larry Craig apparently solicited sex from another man, who just happened to be a police officer, in a public restroom. And yes, he's apparently a self-hating, deeply closeted gay man who is in extreme denial and has lived a straight man's life in public. He's also the three-term senator who has always said that no one who's not straight should be serving in the military and that same-sex marriages should never be allowed.
So he's a jerk. Does that mean that it should be illegal for him to ask someone in a public place about having sex? I would agree that he should have been arrested if he had been actually having sex in a public place. But just asking for it ... and not even saying that he was willing to pay for it?
Straight people do that all the time, at bars, on dance floors, and just about anyplace else. The law is set up to make gay, lesbian, and bisexual folks have to hide who they are.
And that's plain old discrimination.
Larry Craig solicitation arrest sex gay discrimination EditorMom
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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4 comments:
If he actually solicited, then yeah, it's discrimination.
But after hearing the tape of his interrogation, I'm not convinced he did any kind of soliciting. In fact, I think the cop was a swaggering jerk.
I just wrote about this -- after seeing other examples of the Minneapolis Airport's Finest, I think that Craig is a coward for not fighting back in court. Either way his career was hosed. Either he pleads guilty or he fights. One way or the other he was done with politics, and so he should've fought.
Re: Karoli's comments, I think those fellows are so ashamed of themselves, and their buddies are so ashamed of them, that they all (like Foley and others before him) just sidle off to invisibility.
What I find shameless is the hypocrisy involved. Vittner, who regularly hired prostitutes (female ones), was literally cheered when he walked into a committee meeting after the brouhaha about his behavior which was both illegal, and adulterous.
But the ones who may or may not be engaging or trying to engage in adultery with a man -- hoo-boy, that's when the Republicans go wild. That behavior is a direct undermining of their "right" to oppress the last available minority group, and with impunity as long as they can drum their own out of town.
As long as winning and losing constitute the way the whole shebang is conducted, it's the only way they can still "win" on moral matters.
Ugh.
Their families are divorced and reconstituted every bit as often as their constituents' but the "family values" plank is lost the moment they yield on sexual orientation.
I thought this commentary in Salon was interesting:
http://tinyurl.com/3ajzk8
It makes some excellent points about the people who keep touting "traditional marriage" without actually having one. I especially liked Mike Huckabee's support of the Clintons on that particular issue. I'm looking forward to using that next time some "values voter" (probably my mother) tells me how evil Hillary is.
Excellent Salon piece, Molly. Thanks for that link.
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