Gay Republican Freakout Rundown
In early October, it was discovered that yet another anti-gay Republican was implicated in yet another secret gay bathroom mansex misconduct scandal. By my count that brings the total to nine nine in the last three years:
11/07Donald Fleischman, Brown County GOP Chairman, found with a 17 year old runaway boy in his house "where he was provided with alcohol and cannabis, and regularly fondled".no photo 10/07Joey DiFatta, New Orleans councilman of St. Bernard Parish, withdrew from his Senat campaign after being detained by police twice since 1996 for lewd behavior in public restrooms.
8/07Bob Allen, McCain Florida campaign co-chairman and Florida Representative who offered to blow a policeman in a bathroom for $20, then said he did it because he was afraid of black people, then said he was sucking cock to avoid getting hit by lightning.
8/07Glenn Murphy, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, arrested for "criminal deviate conduct" after giving a blowjob to a nonconsenting, sleeping 22 year old man.
8/07Larry Craig, senator from Idaho, and his now-famous "wide-stance", toe-tapping, guilty-plea-producing bathroom sex solicitation.
11/06Ted Haggard, Colorado evangelical preacher, accused of hiring a prostitute and purchasing methamphetamine, called his homosexuality "a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life".
08/06Mark Foley, Florida Representative, who sent explicit emails and photos to barely-legal (and barely-illegal) boys.
5/05James West, mayor of Spokane, Washington, recalled in a special election after using his office to (among other things) seduce barely-legal male interns.
1/05Jeff Gannon, conservative reporter for Talon News, Bush favorite in White House press room and former male escort.
What do these people have in common? They're all members of a party that's made political hay for the last six years demonizing homosexuals and catering to extreme religious groups. But human nature is human nature, and apparently some of that human nature includes dudes hooking up with other dudes regardless of whether those dudes are sponsoring anti-dude-on-dude legislation. I'm pretty low on the Kinsey Scale and I don't pretend to accurately represent the homosexual Id, but I understand that the human sexual urge is powerful. It's caused me to do some pretty crazy things in some pretty crazy places and that's living in a society where it's socially acceptable for me to openly flirt with members of my preferred gender. If you prevent someone from openly doing something that they really want to do, they're going to find ways to do it secretly, which might mean cutting some corners, taking some unnecessary risks, or making some bad decisions. Decisions that lead to far worse consequences than simply acknowleging reality and making your decisions as a mature and moral adult to pursue your particular flavor of happiness.
Because today is National Coming Out Day I'd like to encourage the Republican party to make a change for the better - to make changes in their own self interest. Stop demonizing gays - gays in the Democratic party, gays in your own party, and nonpolitical gays. Stop putting them in the position of inventing insane explanations when their behavior comes to light. Stop setting 10% of the allies in your own party up for the kind of failure that will make everyone look bad. Start putting some serious effort toward making a reality from the Reagan-era myth that conservatives are working to remove government influence from our private lives. Start doing your part to ensure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for every American regardless of which of those Americans want to hook up with each other. Doing otherwise is shooting yourselves in the foot, and some of you apparently need that foot for tapping under the bathroom stall.
Disclaimers: I do not intend to imply that pedophiles and homosexuals are similar, although it seems to me that repressed homosexuality and resulting social development difficulties might lead to bad choices involving acting out in inappropriate ways. I also realize that Democratic homosexuals like Jim McGreevy have been involved in similar scandals, but those instances seem to be less frequent and less scandalous primarily because the Democratic party seems to be a lot more accepting in this area. And as for the scandal tally I'm not counting Ed Schrock, Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove, and other gay Republicans who have managed to find a way to avoid letting their personal lives collide with their professional lives - I wish they'd work toward making their own lives a little easier but God bless 'em anyway. And I'm not just talking about closeted homosexual shame - anyone living a double life shouldn't have to. If your minister likes to dress up in diving suits, gloves, and rubber underwear before restraining himself with "straps, cords and suspenders" maybe it's better to find a way for everyone to be cool with that before the coroner's report makes your whole community a laughingstock.
ps; Fully half of the above scandals came to light in August. Is late summer when the Gay Republican Summer Vacation Season is scheduled or something?
11/07Donald Fleischman, Brown County GOP Chairman, found with a 17 year old runaway boy in his house "where he was provided with alcohol and cannabis, and regularly fondled".no photo 10/07Joey DiFatta, New Orleans councilman of St. Bernard Parish, withdrew from his Senat campaign after being detained by police twice since 1996 for lewd behavior in public restrooms.
8/07Bob Allen, McCain Florida campaign co-chairman and Florida Representative who offered to blow a policeman in a bathroom for $20, then said he did it because he was afraid of black people, then said he was sucking cock to avoid getting hit by lightning.
8/07Glenn Murphy, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, arrested for "criminal deviate conduct" after giving a blowjob to a nonconsenting, sleeping 22 year old man.
8/07Larry Craig, senator from Idaho, and his now-famous "wide-stance", toe-tapping, guilty-plea-producing bathroom sex solicitation.
11/06Ted Haggard, Colorado evangelical preacher, accused of hiring a prostitute and purchasing methamphetamine, called his homosexuality "a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life".
08/06Mark Foley, Florida Representative, who sent explicit emails and photos to barely-legal (and barely-illegal) boys.
5/05James West, mayor of Spokane, Washington, recalled in a special election after using his office to (among other things) seduce barely-legal male interns.
1/05Jeff Gannon, conservative reporter for Talon News, Bush favorite in White House press room and former male escort.
What do these people have in common? They're all members of a party that's made political hay for the last six years demonizing homosexuals and catering to extreme religious groups. But human nature is human nature, and apparently some of that human nature includes dudes hooking up with other dudes regardless of whether those dudes are sponsoring anti-dude-on-dude legislation. I'm pretty low on the Kinsey Scale and I don't pretend to accurately represent the homosexual Id, but I understand that the human sexual urge is powerful. It's caused me to do some pretty crazy things in some pretty crazy places and that's living in a society where it's socially acceptable for me to openly flirt with members of my preferred gender. If you prevent someone from openly doing something that they really want to do, they're going to find ways to do it secretly, which might mean cutting some corners, taking some unnecessary risks, or making some bad decisions. Decisions that lead to far worse consequences than simply acknowleging reality and making your decisions as a mature and moral adult to pursue your particular flavor of happiness.
Because today is National Coming Out Day I'd like to encourage the Republican party to make a change for the better - to make changes in their own self interest. Stop demonizing gays - gays in the Democratic party, gays in your own party, and nonpolitical gays. Stop putting them in the position of inventing insane explanations when their behavior comes to light. Stop setting 10% of the allies in your own party up for the kind of failure that will make everyone look bad. Start putting some serious effort toward making a reality from the Reagan-era myth that conservatives are working to remove government influence from our private lives. Start doing your part to ensure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for every American regardless of which of those Americans want to hook up with each other. Doing otherwise is shooting yourselves in the foot, and some of you apparently need that foot for tapping under the bathroom stall.
Disclaimers: I do not intend to imply that pedophiles and homosexuals are similar, although it seems to me that repressed homosexuality and resulting social development difficulties might lead to bad choices involving acting out in inappropriate ways. I also realize that Democratic homosexuals like Jim McGreevy have been involved in similar scandals, but those instances seem to be less frequent and less scandalous primarily because the Democratic party seems to be a lot more accepting in this area. And as for the scandal tally I'm not counting Ed Schrock, Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove, and other gay Republicans who have managed to find a way to avoid letting their personal lives collide with their professional lives - I wish they'd work toward making their own lives a little easier but God bless 'em anyway. And I'm not just talking about closeted homosexual shame - anyone living a double life shouldn't have to. If your minister likes to dress up in diving suits, gloves, and rubber underwear before restraining himself with "straps, cords and suspenders" maybe it's better to find a way for everyone to be cool with that before the coroner's report makes your whole community a laughingstock.
ps; Fully half of the above scandals came to light in August. Is late summer when the Gay Republican Summer Vacation Season is scheduled or something?