I am NOT Gay.
Larry Craig isn't gay. Thank god cuz we don't really want him to be. Ick. Now that he has told the country that he isn't gay in a press conference, I am so relieved.
I don't want him to be gay because he is such a pathetic figure. Bearing his outrage but not his shame before the cameras today. Fine Senator. Don't be gay. There are lots of people who don't identify as gay but DO have sex with guys (or women) sometimes. But those people usually don't have the power to pursue discriminatory laws against gays and lesbians or promote hostile viewpoints towards us in the halls of Congress. We all have enough information about how hypocritical it would be if someone like Senator Craig were to actually BE gay and vote in such an anti-gay manner. I won't bother making that point since I frankly don't think voting to hurt people is justified no matter what your sexual orientation.
Ironically on the LGBT blogs and "insider lists" today there was a huge discussion about whether or not Senator Craig should garner some sympathy from the community because of the historic antipathy that exists towards police entrapment methods against, particularly, gay men.
But seeing his performance, I have lost any notion of sympathy. The guy practically SPIT it out that he wasn't gay. Because if he WAS gay, then that would somehow explain his publicly lewd behavior.
Like I said, ick.
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This story about Senator Craig has left me completely disillusioned.
I thought our United States Senators, if they couldn't do anything else, could at least live the sort of lifestyle most average Joes can only dream of: hot tubs full of girls, or boys (or both?), champagne, watching three pay-per-view movies all at once while eating jar after jar of Macadamia nuts.
I also thought gays were always really handsome, slender, muscular types with gorgeous hair, like Rupert Everett for instance. And don't they all live in San Francisco (or Salem, OR)?
But Senator Craig, who can control billions for our military-industrial complex, has to settle for a men's room stall at an airport for his hot shoe-to-shoe action? Why do the terrorists even bother hating our country if our hedonism and selfish pursuit of pleasure have sunk so low?
And "ick" indeed is the word for this guy. Not because of his looks, because I don't want to stoop to that level (rest room floors tend to be very filthy after all). But anybody who either A) hogs a much-needed stall for that long when he doesn't have to go, or B) doesn't flush after he leaves, well-- ick.
Boise has a lot of nice coffeeshops so I'm not knocking it. And a great football team in the BSU Broncos (oops-- I'm not straight, I never have been straight, ballet, they have a ballet). But I'm a little jealous. Because Portland, Oregon is supposed to be a much gayer city than Boise, yet we never get to brag that one of our senators is gay. I mean, not gay, just interested in the feel of smooth leather on another guy's shoe.
Great Point SamJSalem:
In your second last line, re: "...yet we never get to brag..."
you had gov. barbara roberts. gay as a pink treehouse.
He didn't flush because there was nothing in the bowl. Further proof that he was not in that stall to use it for its "intended purpose." :)
Pathetic. We gay men learned a long time ago that the finger pointers have their fingers backward (and elsewhere too). It got so ridiculous in high school that I was seeking out the loudest anti-gay bigots to drink with because inevitably there was that moment of "truth." In the military it is even more pronounced - you cruise by partnering with the guys who constantly talk about "fags" because they are basically narrarating their fantasies. So it is with every last one of these GOP moralist demagogues. If they're not gay, they're doin their kids, or the neighbor kids, or something worse that they somehow think they can cover by drawing attention to themselves with the issue of morality. Hello?
Pathetic especially because he acted out the ancient "Everything You always Wanted to KNow about Sex" 1960's discredited scenario of how homos link up in bathrooms. Most gay men I know are creeped out by this. Even ones who cruise in parks (which some of the hottest guys in the world do).
Greg, maybe you can help me understand something.
Why do some gay men (bloggers, specifically) feel it is their duty to OUT gay celebs?
They seem to feel that will destigmatize homosexuality, when in fact it seems to have quite to opposite effect to me. It's like a witch hunt, and makes everyone live in fear and more secrecy and self-loathing.
Do you have any opinions about this you could share. I just feel so horrified at the gays OUTing other gays. What am I missing here?
p.s. I too feel that any public sex act, hetero or homo, especially where there is a possibility of children being present, is disgusting and immature and rude
it's not about outing another gay man it's about outing a hypocrite. many of us have had to be in the closet at one time or another for one reason or another. to this day i know men who are not out to their family...and these are grown men in their 40's and 50's. do i think it's healthy? not particularly. do i feel compelled to out them. absolutely not.
but when you have a man like craig who has supported the opression of gay people all the while drinking at the trough, well, that's the reason he gets outed.
it's ok to live your lie as long as you don't hurt me with it.
It's like my granny always said: "when you point your finger at someone, you have three fingers pointing back at you... and a thumb pointing up in the air."
Precisely! Those who protest the loudest are ALWAYS broadcasting their internal dialog. In fact, this has been the case for the Republican party during this last 6 years so much that the Party has proven it as a concrete fact now.
No one should give a darn whether the Senator is gay or not. But as a public figure, well George Michael has had to do a lot of apologizing, and Pee Wee Herman ruined his career. See the real problem isn't that he's gay, but that he solicited anonymous sex with a cop in a public bathroom, now that is hinky.
He got better film roles after the scandal
How about guys who solicit anonymous sex from prostitutes, like Hugh Grant?
It is wrong to assume that Craig is gay because of this incident and others nor does it matter, except for his hypocrisy on this issue. The only thing that matter is that he pled guilty to a crime revolving around his behavior in a men's restroom and willingly did so without even an attorney. He committed a crime and does not deserve to be in the Senate anymore. What else happens to his life depends upon what everyone else does or doesn't do to him.
RJ Crane, editor
topplebush.com
Interesting point rj. If all those polititians who have committed crimes we're jailed (not that they shouldn't be) two thirds of the Congress, House and Senate not to mention quite few from this and previous administrations would be behind bars.
"I am not gay. I never have been gay."
What wryly amuses me here is the subtext: that he really seems to believe that it is possible to _have_been_ gay, in the way that only hypocritical Republicans do.
It is almost as if his internal rationalisation continues thus: "and even if I was gay, I could give it up any time. I'm not addicted. I could stop if I wanted to."
There's a lot to feel sad for here. That he is hiding something he shouldn't need to, that he is addicted to activities he clearly thinks are shameful, with all the self-hatred that involves, and that he isn't ashamed of the one thing he should be: his hypocrisy.
I don't feel sorry he's been arrested, and I most certainly don't feel sorry for the news reports that will follow when acquaintances he had already betrayed once with his hypocrisy take exception to his latest lies, and decide they want to publically call him on them.
I do feel a bit sorry for the arrest. If Craig is the product of a small rural state with no open gay community and grew up in the '60s, the tea room activity was an unfortunate byproduct of social repression. Others have suffered public humiliation for this misdemeanor, and I think the public fails to recognize their complicity in creating the environment for the "crime."
On the other hand, I don't mind the public humiliation for the political hypocrisy. That is the just consequence of his bad behavior.
This hypocrite is likely responsible for helping to enact numerous anti-gay laws, maybe even the kind he was arrested for. He has been a Senator for 25 years and a House Member for ten before that I believe and a brash homophobic zealot driven by his twisted religious zealotry all those years.
How could you feel sorry for him?
On top of everything else it seems he had no concern for his wife because he was engaging or trying to engage in very high risk sex. He probably was successful in the past. He could easily have caught and spread aids or other STDs to her. She probably still doesn't realize that! And of course, being raised in the same type of Christian zealotry she probably never had any type of sex education - so she is probably unaware of the risks he now presents to her.
Larry Craig reminds me of the same vile creatures that would have 14-year–olds arrested for downloading music on the internet from their friends.
Don't ask, don't tell?
Oh, go to hell.
He's just another Republican
"family values" blow-job.
Whatever he is he needs to be purged from public life along with the rest of the perverts.
How many more of these creatures have to crawl out from under their psuedo-hetero rocks before America wakes up?
Haggerty, Foley, the anti-gay gay mayor in the northwest (Webb was his name I think?), the chair of Ghouliani's Florida election team who was frightened of the big bad black men?
Making up ridiculous lies about a scenario such as this only serves to make them look worse. I mean, does anyone really believe the wide stance line? What is he? A Pontiac?
Oh, that was 'wide track'.....oh well, same thing!
Is that really how gay people behave, I mean, "nornally". Do they hang around in public bathrooms and touch feet and make hand gestures. I guess they have to. I've never seen anyone walking around with a sign on their chest, I'm gay and I want to have sex with another gay person. I would like to see the other 95% of the undisclosed Republican iceberg be outed. I don't care about gayness and marriage and all that, but it is a double edged sword, outing some of the creepiest perverts like Foley and Craig in order to further the cause of homosexuality.
What might Bush have done in those cocaine induced frat parties. That would be a coup!
there are people, gay & straight, who get off on having sex in risky situations-like public restrooms. i'm guessing that mensroom sex is mainly the domain of gay men for fairly obvious reasons.
Ask any man who's been to the restroom though, even a gay one, and he'll tell you that the REPEATED actions of Senator Craig went beyond gay.
He tapped his feet a whole bunch of times, and then kept touching the other guys shoe when nothing happened? He repeatedly groped his hand under the stall, and even went so far as to pretend he picked up something off the floor, and then sat back down and waved his hand around under the stall?
This guy isn't merely gay, he sounds like a PREDATOR to me. His repeated and aggressive "techniques" to get a complete stranger to have sex with him in a public place make him "a very naughty boy, a naughty boy, not just a naughty boy but a NASTY naughty boy."
PIG! What if the guy was straight in the next stall? This desperate old man was behaving like a chickenhawk circling a cage.
And now he's self-destructing in public, unable to admit to himself that he's most likely been this way for years and years.
Do they have a group called Bathroom Sex Addicts Anonymous? (BSAA)? Perhaps the fine Senator from Idaho can perform a public service (!) and start one in his community to build awareness for this obviously debilitating and humiliating disease.
The bottom line is self-acceptance or denial. First to accept who you are and live life honestly is not only healthy but morally correct. Having come out (and of age) at a time that the NY Times wouldn't even print the word ‘gay’ and if the word ‘homosexual’ was used at all it was used to describe a mental disease, I had no doubt that not only was I gay, but that it seemed to me that since men viewed sex differently in general from women, being gay meant I was going to have sex more often and more easily than my straight friends. So in 1971 when I got my learners permit to drive, I wasted no time going to the mall, and cruising shop clerks who I suspected of like conviction and leading them to the BATHROOM ....where we exchanged phone numbers for a later meeting. I gave my real name and the telephone number my dad had given the kids to use at home and stay off his phone. The idea of ever doing anything sexual in a public bathroom never even occurred to me because I was fortunate to have the mental psyche not to be ashamed of who or what I was. But men who are self-loathing and unable to accept such issues behave like the Senator. And quite frankly I never cared unless they were actively hurting me or members of the gay community through their actions or non-actions. And since the Senator is, he deserves to be made to look like a liar, and outed by one and all.
The reason for the hiding and the risky sex is they are in the closet. Simple as that. When you live your life as a lie, but still have natural desires but can't face them, they eventually are pushed out of the closet in shame. This whole thing is an old story for the gay community, textbook really. It has nothing to do with being gay, but its more about what it does to the brain when you hide it.
Yep.
Craig has had GOP backing for a very long time and his "secret" makes him easier to control. There is no reason that an openly gay individual can't be an outstanding political representative. In fact, the openly gay attitude suggests a mindset of independence without fear. We need more of that in government rather than the sickening whine from a "normal" who patronizes the DC madam and then fears "outing".
As a matter of fact, he burned the pledges with red hot coat hangers and excused it by saying it wasn't any worse than being burned with a cigarette. (Read Bush on the Couch.)
in my lifetime as a gay man i can only answer you this way: there was a time when there were no gay bars, community centers, HRC, gay pride parades, gay/straight alliance in high school and on and on. it was only 1973 that the APA declared homosexuality was NOT a mental illness. if you were gay in this era your best chances for a furtive sexual experience was often in a secluded restroom or as we call them, tea rooms. sen. craig would be known as a tea room queen in the vernacular of the day.
we had no healthy or safe environment to meet our kind in such a repressive society, unless you lived in a large city. even then you had to be extremely careful. remember the stonewall riots?
many repressed or closeted men who have sex with men but don't gay identify still have tea room sex.
Thanks for this informative comment.
I wonder if straight men fantasize about visiting (or visit) tea rooms? There are bisexuals, no?
What were the "stonewall riots?"
You guess they (gay men) have to? I'm gay and don't know a thing about these bathroom signs. I suppose this knowledge would come in handy for furtive closet-cases, though. I met my boyfriend at work.
Anyone that doesn't believe that he is at the very least bi-sexual, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you may be interested in.
Pfft. I like to think BIs at least have open minds. Besides, I'm BI.. and just as I'm sure most gays are OK with him not being gay I'm fine with him not being BI either.
Most bisexual men have a hard time admitting to themseves that they "like" sex with other men. For them it's an "itch" that they need to scratch once in a while, a night out with "the boys", a weekend camping trip with the guys.
The really sad thing is that our society has such a hangup on the variations in sexual appetite that we essentially force anyone that doesn't meet the image if "straight" into situations where they are engaging in activity that is not safe.
I'm not trying to excuse Craig but he came from an era when any kind of gay sex was illegal and, in many cases, you could be arrested for meeting someone in a bar and suggesting that you spend the night together. These men also tended towards marrying a woman for either "cover" or, later if life, because they had not been able to form a lasting attachment with another man for a variety of reasons, e.g., job, and they didn;t want to be alone. This usually occured with the knowledge of the woman. It looks like Craig did the same thing.
It would have given Craig a lot more stature if he had just admitted at his news conferencs that he was bi-sexual, that his wife was aware of it (she had to be or she is as dumb as a post), and that he was relieved to not have to continue hiding behind the sham of a straight man. It would have been nice if he had appologized for his previous gay baiting and homophobic approach to legislation he took in his past (along with the deception foisted on the perople he represented). I can understand his position on same sex marriage but not the way he approached the issue. As to his atatck on the media, well it's typically Republican to point your fingure anyplace but at your self.
Craig should step down from his office and allow the people of Idaho to elect someone that would be a little more honest.
I don't care one bit about his sexual orientation. It's his hypocrisy that bothers me. It's what makes him despicable.
The man was caught trying to have sex another man /in public/ less than 50 miles from my house. That same mas the nerve to discriminate against /me/ for having gay sex /in private./
So, what's your price on the bridge?
Looks like he believes his shame is to be labelled as Gay, not for his conduct.... I am truely sorry for all the wives who we see these days stand by their man with plitical ambitions. Do we really want these hypocrits to represent us? Think well before you cast your `08 Ballot.
What also bothers me in addition to his hypocrisy is his stupidity. Why would anyone ever plead guilty to something like this especially a U.S. Senator and without consulting an attorney? I have never pled guilty to even minor driving/traffic violations [not that I have had that many] nor would I. The reason: If the ticketing officer doesn't show up, the case is automatically dismissed. If he/she does show up you at least have an opportunity to challenge the ticket and there are always valid challenges that can be mounted to at least reduce the fine and points. And if you do lose, at least you get some satisfaction of knowing the ticketing officer had to sit in court for a few hours during the day when he might have had the day off.
RJ Crane, editor
topplebush.com
And 23.4 miles (by odometer) from mine JaseAllen. As Herbert Lom used to say in the Pink Panther movies. Idiot, moron, nincompoop! And the esteemed senator is exactly that.
Did y'all catch how he opened his press conference? "Thank you for coming out today" LOL
lol...that was my favorite as well...I wonder if he even realized what he was saying...too funny
Moreover, USA Today reports this:
WASHINGTON — Moments before Sen. Larry Craig held a news conference to declare "I am not gay," Senate Republican leaders Tuesday requested an Ethics Committee investigation into the Idaho Republican's arrest in a public restroom.
An Ethics Committee investigation convened in a public restroom? That oughta be fun, huh?
A'course, the Republican leaders doing the, uh, "convening" aren't gay. Nope. Not even a little bit.
Keep Brooklyn out of this! Let the God-fearing clean white Americans in Idaho deal with it.
Hey BrooklynB, I can understand US Senators (especially necons) that have turnips for a brain but what have you got against some of the best potatoes on the planet?
Strange? I thought I owned that bridge.
He has a wide stance!
Now we know how he got it.
Self-loathing is so ugly.
Hey, he was only looking for a roll of toilet paper
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Me also thinks the gay guy doth protest to much.
By "lady" do you mean Senator Craig?
Larry Craig? Gay, gay, gay gay gay. Gay. Likes other men. Maybe Ted Haggard is going to help him now with his affliction?
Now, now, Sen. Craig has insisted he is NOT gay. He just enjoys blowing lots of strange men in public restrooms. It's sort of a hobby, like stamp collecting. It's just like those damn Democrats to attack a man for his hobby, isn't it?
Has anybody tried to give yourself a wide stance with your pants around your knees or ankles? It's not possible unless you start doing some uncomfortable contortions. The waist of the pants prevents the stance from being any wider than your waistline.
Try it. You would need to move both feet together in order to reach someone in the next stall.
Still, if you're a loyal Republican you should be doing this every time you go to the bathroom. It will help to corroborate Craig's story. So don't forget, Repubs, next time you're in the stall or at the urinal, spread 'em wide.
Wooow! Plisko baby; that explanation is a little on the "I am talking form personal experience" side. So, I am not going to try it -- will just take your word for it. wink! wink!!.
Just kidding!!!lol.
I thought it was RLS... Restless Leg Syndrome.
SouthJerseySteve, I am sure if they would have frisk him, they will have found the pharmaceutical company in his pocket.
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