LEWD OR A SELF-HATING GAY REPUBLICAN?

Republican Senator Larry Craig says he did nothing wrong in a men's airport toilet. This is probably true. After all if he was seeking sex with another consenting adult, albeit of the same sex, who can say there is anything wrong with that? Ah, there's the rub. That's exactly the sort of thing Republicans and other conservatives complain about! Senator Larry Craig has been one of those outstanding Christian right-wingers who has publicly condemned people just because they are not heterosexual. So, yes, Mr. Craig did not do anything morally wrong in seeking some sort of companionship, however sleazy, but he has committed serious offenses in seeking to deny people who are not heterosexual equality under the law.

Mr. Senator Craig's role in Republican Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign is interesting. After Senator Craig's brush with the law former Governor Romney is lambasting Senator Craig in a way almost all Republican's bash and discriminate against gays.

This isn't pedophilia. We're talking about adult consensual sex, and if a Republican Senator wants to get freaky while taking a leaky then let the poor man get it on. After all, he's a human being too! Surely Presidential candidate Romney doesn't want to be discriminated against because of stuff like the ancestral practice of "celestial marriage" associated with 19th Century Mormons; so why does he go out of his way to bash Senator Craig just because the Senator wants a "cosmic crap", or whatever he was looking for in the men's room.

On the other hand, we do wonder just how much Senator Craig campaigned against his own kind during his political career. It is incredible to see a gay man engage in such open anti-gay activity just because he is afraid of being exposed. Obviously his fears were justified. Once, just to impress his conservative friends and supporters, Senator Craig joined in the lynch mob to prove he is, a Republican. Now, Romney has flushed him. There is a lot of fear and terror in the heart of such men, a fear caused by a completely unjustified form of bigotry, Republican bigotry.

Let's reject the hypocrisy and expose the hypocrite. Let's repudiate the foremost political advocates of anti-gay law and policies in the United States, Republicans. Frightened gay men in organizations like the Republican party may be tempted, like Senator Craig, to take a highly visible role in persecuting others like themselves. Senator Craig did it and for all we know former Governor Mitt Romney may be playing a similar hypocritical role! What are the Republicans so afraid of? Is it themselves or that Senator in the next bathroom stall? Either way it doesn't make much sense to me.

These Repubicans need repudiation and, if possible, rehabilitation.

JANUARY 23, 2008

It has been great to see Senator Craig stick to his guns and his wide
stance story. Too bad the other Republicans remain just as homophobic
and anti-homosexual as ever. I guess it is political death for a Repubican to be tolerant of anything that isn't heterosexual. They certainly support a lot of divorced politicians so I guess endless fidelity is not required. Is
that especially true of them the more right wing and extremist they get?







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BBC NEWS
US senator in lewd conduct furore
US Senator Larry Craig has denied being gay and has said he should not have pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested in a men's toilet.

The Republican senator was held in June by a policeman investigating complaints of lewd behaviour at airport toilets.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Craig said: "I am not gay. I never have been gay." He had done "nothing wrong", he added.

Republican leaders and a watchdog group have asked the Senate ethics committee to investigate Mr Craig's case further.

Mr Craig has already resigned from the 2008 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, former Republican governor of Massachusetts.

Mr Romney said the senator had disappointed the American people, adding that his conduct reminded him of former President Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"Frankly it's disgusting," he told CNBC.

"He is no longer associated with my campaign ... I am sorry to see that he has fallen short."

Mr Craig, a married father-of-three, said he would announce next month as planned whether he will run for re-election in 2008. He is in his third term as senator for the western state of Idaho.

Hindsight

In a statement issued on Monday, Mr Craig confirmed he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct three weeks ago.

But, the 62-year-old said, he should not have done so without taking legal advice.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said.

"In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

A charge of "gross misdemeanour interference to privacy" was dropped.

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee on Tuesday.

Toilet 'signal'

According to a police report seen by the Associated Press news agency, Mr Craig entered a stall next to that occupied by an undercover policeman in the men's toilets at Minneapolis-St Paul airport.

According to the policeman, he tapped one foot several times and then moved it into the neighbouring cubicle to brush against the officer's foot.

The police officer recognised that "as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct", the official complaint said.

Mr Craig then gestured with his hand under the cubicle divider, AP quotes the document as saying, at which point the police officer identified himself.

Court papers show Mr Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year, while a 10-day jail sentence was stayed, AP says.

Mr Craig has a conservative record in the Senate and has voted against gay rights and same-sex marriage legislation.

The furore comes only weeks after fellow Republican David Vitter admitted he had committed a "very serious sin" after his phone number was linked to an alleged Washington prostitution ring.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6967559.stm

Published: 2007/08/28 22:46:38 GMT

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