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.
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Still, people should have a right to visit a public washroom without being solicited for sex. A young person who was not an adult may have been in the adjacent stall, as well. Craig's real crime is his hypocrisy, but one should not solicit sex in a public washroom.
The police probably wouldn't have been using valuable resources, to catch guys soliciting sex in the airport bathrooms, if there hadn't been a series of complaints from patrons.
Society has made it clear for a long time, that sex in public, is a no-no and illegal.
I disagree! He did everything "WRONG"... But it was arguable whether he did anything illegal... That is until he gave away the opportunity to have his day in court by pleading guilty to disorderly conduct related to sex solicitation in a public restroom..
Craig got booted because he commited a crime, and plead guilty, and told no one.
If it had been a unisex bathroom and a woman cop busted him, the same thing would have happened.
It's just MORE AMUSING that a hateful old closeted perv got busted when he votes like a KAPO against his own tribe.
I'm gay and I totally disagree with your premise, "the most trivial of infractions". Public sex and soliciting public sex is a big no-no in our culture and under our laws, and sometimes these laws are enforced. The police get complaints and they don't like it. In many jurisdictions, a lewd conduct conviction requires registering as a sex offender.
The man pleaded guilty for chrissake. Gay, straight, who tidies up the public bathroom floor in the next stall, as Senator Craig claimed on the tape recording with the arresting officer -- he was reaching down into the officer's stall to pick up a piece of toilet paper. Gee wiz, how thoughtful. Not to mention the concept of having sex in a place where people are pissing and shitting is pretty low down disgusting, or I should say "down low", aren't most of these guys on the DL?
SEN. CRAIG DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG.
There is nothing amusing about this situation, its sad that even gays don't know up from down. "Public sex and soliciting public sex is a big no-no in our culture" OH PLEASE, most gays over 40 have done done this all the time. ASK THEM?
Why are his actions being punished so harshly when HETEROSEXUAL ENGAGE IN PUBLIC SEX ALL THE TIME - PARKS, BEACHES, CARS, CLUB BATHROOMS, BARS, STREETS.? They get a warning from the cops, "oh kids" thats all. Heterosexual engage in public sex all the friggin time. Are they perverts, yes, but they go home and live a "normal" life.
ITS IDIOTIC THE VITROL AND BULLYING I SEE OVER THIS ISSUE, IS PURE HUBRIS AND ARROGANCE.
WHERE IS THE HATE AND ANGER OVER THE TRUE ISSUES RIGHT NOW, LIKE IRAQ, AND THE PATRIOT ACT.
Unfortunately, Sen. Craig got caught. and now he a deviant?
AND HOW EXACTLY HAS HE HURT GAYS? HE HASN'T...
Straights are kidding themselves by showing GAY COMPASSION BY BELITTLING THIS SENATOR. ITS INSANE.
MOST GAYS DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED THEY JUST WANT EQUAL RIGHTS.
This is exactly what Anti-Gayers want.. and all of you idiots are being led because of your own hypocritical morality.
AND BY THE WAY, HE NEEDED TO TELL KNOWONE BUT HIS FAMILY.
He's not being "destroyed for being gay." He's destroyed himself for his hypocrisy and for committing a series of crimes: lewd behaviour, perjury and a cover up. His sexuality has little to do with this. If this is the view of HRC, then we gay men are not being served well by our leaders.
Where is Holy Joe Lieberman in all this? Isn't he the moral watchdog of us all? Why hasn't he weighed in?
Yes, Aaron. Larry Craig did do something wrong. He aligned himself in a homophobic environment, denied his true being, legislated hate and intolerance and was ironically caught in that web of judgment and homophobia by those republicans he always held in good stead.
Yes, we all know this was about him being gay and lying and being gay and lying and being gay. . . . And mostly BEING GAY.
But just ask other oppressed groups-- blacks, hispanics, muslims, etc. whether it's about a perceived law they've broken or the judgment of the status quo who views them differently because of their race, sexuality or religion,-
In Mr Craig's case the chickens have come home to roost.
Former Sen. Larry Craig is not a sexual deviant. In fact cruising has long been a part of the Gay lifestyle in some quarters, because that was the only dam place to meet, in public places -THEN GO HOME. A pervert, NOT, but that is what resigning has subjected him to. And these people calling him a hyporcrite are delusional and don't see the dangers down the road. .
Yes, I agree that this man is confused and troubled and has alot to explain to his family But his predicament, by default, has - yes- left him being punished for being gay. BUT what lays down the road is much much worse. Jim Risch - the guy replacing him - is a whole lot worse, onetime saying that Katrina victims were at fault for waiting there and expecting the government to help them, because IdahoanS what never be so dum AND LAZY - YES he said this- thus showing his cruelty, ignorance and agenda a far more dangerous attribute than Craig in an airport lavatory.
In addition, I would NOT sight the Human Rights Campaign as a significant organization that guages the state of gay life in the US, after all they gave an award to Lance Bass from NSYNC. They should have showed compassion and stood up for former Sen. Craig. Did you know, that Sen. Craig was trying to water down the Patriot act, an ACT that is far more dangerous to gays than the Defense of Marriage Act.
This affair has been handled horribly by all sides and reading the comments troubles me, especially from people claiming to be liberal. You are being led down the wrong road people. Sen. Craig, resigning was a very troubling sign, and people who truly care about human rights, should see this.
He is not a former senator yet. His resignation date is Sept 30. This date probably gives a more favorable retirement calculation.
" Craig is being punished because he is gay, not just because he was arrested or because he has a vexed relationship with the truth."
It's not about being gay. No one can say whether or not this man is gay except him. He may be bisexual- whatever. It appears that he likes anonymous sex.
I think the fact that he was soliciting, and probably could have gone elswhere after the solicitation, is true and it seems kind of strange to me, because he really didn't do anything that was lewd. One wonders if what he did should be considered a crime at all.
But don't say he's being punished only because he's gay. He appeared to be acting very hypocritically- that's what pisses people off.
He's not being punished for being gay. He's being punished for being a "family values," neo-con, gay-bashing hypocrite. And a perv. What self-respecting person, gay or straight, solicits sex in an airport bathroom? Come on...
Aaron you are lying to yourself.
From all accounts Craig was signaling to the cop that he wanted to fondle the cop then and there. He was trying to masturbate the cop ON THE SPOT.
But never mind that.
What brings me endless joy is to see an ASSHOLE that passes discriminatory laws getting arrested by those same laws. I laugh till I cry when those guys are felled by their own axe.
It's as if someone Right Wing nut job who cheers on the devastating War on Drugs, oh let's say Rush Limbaugh, were to get arrested for being a drug addict.
Oh wait! That happened too!!!
What hell these assholes are living through is the peril of being such lying, hypocritical fuckwits.
I see the Aaron Belkin's point. I felt the same to a degree. Still, I am thrilled that this jerk got the Republican boot. Now he knows how it feels to be kicked in the posterior but good for something so trivial. Gay people suffer that all the time and why? Because Republicans and their insipid moronic religious right allies have seen to it that gays are unwelcome. Well, Larry, you reap what you sow. You have sown hatred and divisiveness and condemned a huge group in the process -- a group of which you are probably a member. Enjoy the consequences of your actions. They are well deserved!
Funny how this guy lasted about 10 days exposed as a cruiser, and he's gotten the ax, while Stevens of AK, and other corrupt repigs enjoy their ill gotten gains via kick backs, under that table bribes et all, and get a slap on the wrist and a wink and a nod.
Just goes to show, if you want to get rid of a public figure, get him in compromising sex act, and he/she is ruined. Catch them fucking the American tax payer, and its business as usual.
Stevens and other white-collar criminals should be forced out of public service. Unfortunately, their constituents keep reelecting them. People are remarkably unwilling to get rid of politicians who bring the bacon back to their home districts.
Well that's a very lawyerly argument Aaron. But I've noticed we humble proles often display a far greater appreciation for common decency and logic than the intelligentsia. Yeah, sure, maybe Sen. Craig didn't actually mean to have sex there. In Belkinworld, maybe he was short bus fare and just asking for spare change.
Sen. Craig is NOT being "punished for being gay", he is being punished in the court of public opinion for soliciting public indecency, for being a bald-faced liar and a hypocrite. Maybe you'd feel differently if the Senator was leering at your child through the crack in the stall.
Step back from among the trees and appreciate the forest Mr. Belkin.
- cdw3
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