He Did Nothing Wrong

Larry Craig is out the door, and he doesn't have many fans left. I'm certainly not one of them. As has been widely reported, Craig is the proud recipient of a zero -- ZERO! -- from the Human Rights Campaign for his anti-gay voting record. As HRC concluded, it's pretty hard to find any issue on which Craig has taken a stand for justice, fairness, or decency.

I'm also horrified by the mobius-strip like way in which Craig's legacy turns in on itself: Anti-gay lawmakers like Craig work so hard to inflame homophobia that it becomes all the more difficult for closeted individuals like Craig to live open lives, which in turn enables anti-gay leaders to foment fear. In a sense, Craig has done everything wrong. I'm glad to see him leave.

That said, Craig's story saddens me at so many levels. As I argue in an op-ed in the Washington Post today, Craig's career has been destroyed as a result of the most trivial of infractions. My partner, upon reading Craig's arrest report, shouted, "But he's done nothing wrong!" And indeed he hasn't. This is the extent of his crime:

Craig walked into a public restroom and fidgeted with his fingers for two minutes as he stood outside an occupied stall. Several times, he peered through a crack in the door. Then, he entered an empty stall, sat down, tapped his foot, and touched the shoe of the person in the next stall with his own. Finally, he swiped his hand under the stall divider three times.

That's the totality of his crime.

Craig probably was looking for sex, but there is a big difference between seeking sex and having public sex. What if, for example, Craig planned to ask the occupant of the next stall to follow him to a private hotel room? What if he simply enjoyed the chase and planned to stop short of sexual conduct? It's sickening that lawmakers who support torture eagerly condemn Craig for a toe tap.

Society, of course, has the right to enforce standards of public decorum. But when we punish people for a wink and a nod, we let our anxieties about sex override the best traditions of what it means to live in a free society.

Let's be frank: Craig is being punished because he is gay, not just because he was arrested or because he has a vexed relationship with the truth. A student of one of my colleagues, Professor Tobias Wolff, did a study showing that gay men in a major metropolitan area are arrested on lewd conduct charges for public behaviors which heterosexuals engage in commonly. According to Wolff, "The double-standard -- including the selective treatment of different public places as implicitly acceptable or unacceptable for exploring assignations, corresponding closely to whether the places are coded straight or coded gay -- is stark."

Craig's personal anguish must be nothing short of extreme. If Craig were being punished for his destructive voting record and the numerous ways in which he has used his authority to crush people who needed help, that would be one thing. But to see him destroyed for being gay brings no comfort at all.

Comments

[SouthpawSass]

For me, it's the irony of the psycholgy behind Craig's "not" gayness in relation to his stance on gay issues.

I equate Craig's actions, both in policy and in public toilets to that of a rapist. A rapist, usually a man who forces sex on a woman (again usually), not for the intimacy or love of her, but to gain a power over her, and a satisfaction in her humiliation. Hence, an underlying hatred or mistrust, fear even of women.

Perhaps his self loathing came out in his policies, but deep down, he knows who he is and no amount of prayer is making it go away.
I think to a psychologist, this is a classic textbook case. However, not being one, or knowing any, I can't say for sure.

So, my question is, "Is there a psychologist in the house?"

[Anastasia]

It wasn't as if Craig was in a gay bar or nightclub when he solicited sex. He was in a bathroom stall at an airport, a place that quite rightly, is off limits to any kind of sexual behavior, straight or gay.

While there was a time when gays had few options for meet-ups, that's not the case now. There's no legitimate reason that members of the general public, especially children, should be exposed to lewd acts, just because two people feel like getting it on.

[UNCLEJOE]

Craig was a US Senator solicitation sex in public toilets. And admitted it ! End of story.

[LC]

Finally!

We are currently in a "worldwide war on terror", subject at any moment to being blown up by a dirty bomb or having our water system poisoned according to the Bushies - but we still have the resources for cops to go into public restrooms to look for men seeking sex?

Craig did not solicit a child. He didn't even engage in prostitution. Apparently, all he did was try to discover if another man was interested in sex.

Personally, I can't think of a place less amenable to sex, but since a cop was there, I assume that such behavior in that particular restroom was not unusual.

Had he been arrested for having sex in the visible part of the restroom,or out by the baggage claim area, I could perhaps understand the legal logic. But, as far as I can tell, his mistake was in trying to pick up a man in a restroom rather than in the bar.

Why on earth is his behavior illegal? This is absurd.

[AnotherunhappyDemocrat]

Indeed, as others have noted, why would any cop voluntarily spend his days in a smelly restroom, looking for pervs, unless there was a real problem? There are many better things to do with one's time.

[KosmicKat]

What brought down Craig's career wasn't his being gay but his hypocrisy and adding his own venom to the anti-gay Republican attitude.

[Stevelagain]

Arron, I agree with you. Clearly he is being punished for being gay. Also clearly, he's in a party that does not support the gay agenda. So being a hypocrite about being gay can easily cause him to be run out of the party that opposes the gay life.

However, you danced around the fact that the left took this thing and RAN with it. It was a chance to BRING DOWN a "hypocrite" gay republican. Similar to Kerry and Edwards both trying to use Cheney's gay daughter in national debates to separate voters from the Bush team. It's a party, and people who supposedly are against gay bashing.....using the homophobia tool to achieve their political agenda. Talk about hypocrisy.

It's fascinating to watch. And sort of sad. As far as hypocrisy goes, it's ok for Pelosi to declare Republicans are spending our childrens future and smear them with that declaring they should be run out of office for it...then to turn around and spend more than them herself, and take more pork than the republicans.

Such hypocrisy abounds in Washington...if hypocrisy is the new reason to run people out of power, then it ought to apply to both parties equally.

When will the left deal with the likes of Pelosi and their hypocrisy? It would hypocritical not to. But somehow, I suspect the left will never get around the hypocrisy of their favorite radicals. It's an "evil" only if found in a Republican.

Democratic hypocrites are to be tolerated in a true, end-justifies-the-means radicalized left wing agenda.

[lovethesinner]

I completely agree with your premis, that although satifiying, the end of this man's career seems to have been brought about unjustly.

There's another explanation for Craig's possible motives in making advances to the officer. Perhaps he was trying to bait him into making an advance so he could beat him up, perhaps even kill him.

I know this sounds far fetched, but recently I inquired about a co-worker from my past that I felt sure was destined to a life in jail, or worse. He used to brag about going to gay bars and beating up "queers." He said he'd go in and bait them into going outside.

I was told that this guy had finally come out of the closet and was now happily frequenting the same bars he used to haunt, only more carfully than his past victims had.

In any case, I can only think, in this case and in the demise of Senator Craig, "god works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform."

And anyway, if there is such a thing as real justice, it will have to be divine. Humanity is obviously incapable of anything like fairness, let alone true justice.

Great post BTW.

[want2dunk]

Craig is not being punished for being gay. He is a hypocrite. He stuffs his inner self against a big wall and then simultaneously works feverishly against gay rights politically, speaking out against it frequently. If he were openly gay none of this would have happened. Gay men who are conservative in other ways politically are stuck in a party (republican) of intolerance. So what Craig has done is place a priority on his political life over accepting his true self. His choice.

[ducksawce]

I don't care if he's gay. He supports one of the most evil and destructive administrations in world history,

Just one less asshole destroying our world

Next on the list ???

[Subhunter]

Why is it that so few seem to grasp the concept that nobody, at least on the left is enjoying Craig's destruction because he happens to be gay. He's not the object of derision from the left because he was a naughty boy, dare I say a nasty boy, a naughty, nasty boy in the men's room. It's his career of distain for others and his willingness to hide his misdeeds while castigating others for theirs that makes this so sweet. That's where the beef (so to speak) is. It's the HYPOCRISY stupid! I might add that it's always an added bonus watching someone like this dirtbag being thrown overboard by none other then his hypocritical bosom buddies in the Grand Old Party's Senate chambers . Now that's what I call entertainment!

[Robert59]

Give me a break. Craig is being punished for attempting to have sex in a public place. I don't care if he wants to have sex with other men, but he should do it in a place offering privacy.

And it's hard for me to not laugh when a hypocrite gets his own comeuppance. He could have stayed in the closet and quietly pushed for legislation that doesn't discriminate against gays, but he did just the opposite.

I can't help but wonder if years later he will say he never intended to have sex with that man stealing one of Clinton's more famous lines about his affair with Lewinsky. Only someone who takes the rest of us for idiots would not consider a blow job sex.

[flobflo]

The cops set a trap and Larry was snared. Now then, did the republikks clamor for his resignation because of his crime(?)or because their base hates gays? The added attraction that Idaho always votes r is also in play because of the Louisiana diaper john.

flo

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

I hope Senator Craig (ex-Senator Craig) completely changes his politics and becomes a liberal, moves to California and either runs for Gavin Newsom's position as mayor of San Francisco when Newsom decides to move on-- in a place far more forgiving when it comes to personal mistakes than Idaho-- or maybe runs for Feinstein's seat after she retires. This is America where we give second chances, and if Larry Craig repents-- not for bathroom advances-- but for his conservative voting record, I'm willing to call him a great guy and support him 100%.

[jazzyndn]

If you accept that homosexuals are by definition promiscuous and predatory, then yes, Craig's being punished for being gay. Me, I don't buy that.

[Alessan]

He's being punished for lying about his lifestyle.
Living with a women that's suppose to be his wife
and condemming adultress affairs (ala Bill Clinton). The party is embarrassed after all the
the other scandals this past year. There will
be others eventually I am sure and if they are
not as pure as they say they are, they probably will have to resign.

[mamadude50]

Personally, I prefer a nice, comfy bed to have anonymous sex in. This incident was wrong on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin...

[cinemaven]

It's exactly people like Craig who make these anti-gay stings possible which is the only reason I'm enjoying his plight. I doubt this arrest would stand up if people like Craig didn't want them to happen to show how tough they are on homosexuality. I would hate to see anyone else caught in such a trap.

My bro-in-law (Canadian police officer) was baffled that the actions could lead to charges or that it wasn't entrapment. He has never heard of anyone being charged in his jurisdiction unless they were caught in the act. I know 3 men who have been charged with lewd and lascivious behaviour because they had sexual contact in a highway rest stop but none were approached by police, they were all caught on video. (and all 3 were married with children ...one of them was a pig who was always telling "queer jokes")

I was surprised at a Senator doing anything he wouldn't want the world to know about in a public bathroom in an airport with international flights. Long before 9/11, airport bathrooms have been under close surveillance because anyone carrying contraband will go to the bathroom prior to and following flights to check and make sure everything is ok.

I worked at an international airport in the '80s and my friends on the RCMP would often make arrests based on bathroom tapes but none were because someone had sex although that was a common occurance in airport bathrooms.