Pam has a rundown of freeper reaction to the Larry Craig revelations. Here’s a typical one:
I thought Republicans were Anti-Gay? Am I missing something here? The GOP apparently has Gays in High Places. And the Main Stream media rather than saying, The Republicans are not the narrow minded Cretins we make them out to be. Instead say another “Fag Republican” was caught. What gives? The Demorats love Gays until they are members of the GOP. Then they are dirty scoundrels? Two faced liars and hypocrits. That’s what the Demorats are today. They hurl the Gay Insult when a GOP member is outed. If they out themselves as Demorats they are courageous. Otherwise they are Sexual Deviants.
The central charge here is that the Democrats ‘love gays’ unless they are Republicans, and then we think they are some kind of perverts. It’s a false charge. Democrats do not go around calling, for example, the Log Cabin Republicans ‘perverts’.
The reason is simple. Log Cabin Republicans are openly gay. That means they can go to gay bars, be seen in public with a boyfriend, or fill out a dating profile. Closeted gay men cannot do those things without incurring grave risks. One result of this can be that closeted gay men will resort to more clandestine means to meet partners. And then there is a certain kind of closeted gay man. A gay man that publicly abhors homosexuality and votes and campaigns against the ‘homosexual agenda’ is much more likely to combine clandestine means with deep-seated psychological issues and conflicts. Denial and shame compete with strong compulsions. I think this is what leads to bizarre behavior like peeking into stranger’s stalls in public lavatories. I’m not saying that some openly gay men don’t do this, too. But they’re perverts. And Larry Craig is a pervert.
I’ve known straight women that had sex with strangers in public bathrooms. Most people think that’s skeevy. Why did they do it? For a cheap thrill…for the danger…because it was bad…so they’d have a good story to tell. But at least that was consensual. Invading someone’s privacy while they’re trying to use the bathroom is beyond any reasonable range of socially acceptable sexual behavior. Add to this that no one wants to discover sexual activity is taking place in a public restroom when they go in there to use the facilities. It’s gross.
It’s a basic violation of the social contract, and much worse than pissing all over the seats.
That’s why undercover cops do these sting operations in bathrooms that gain a reputation as hook-up joints. The public deserves it.
Now, when you have a politician that is loitering in public lavatories and peeking in at people that take a while in the stalls, that’s unacceptable no matter what party they belong to. Just last week, a solid liberal, Rep. Bob Filner of California, pushed around a security guard in the baggage claim at an airport. You didn’t see any liberal bloggers defending that. It was disgraceful behavior, and the voters in his district should take that behavior into account when they go to vote next year.
Senator Craig’s problem begins with the fact that he was engaging in gross, unacceptable, behavior…invading people’s privacy and subjecting people to sexual behavior in public restrooms. Imagine if he had gone into the ladies’ room and done the same thing?
That’s what Republicans fail to understand. There’s no double standard here on our part. The double standard is on Larry Craig’s part. He’s in the closet, but outwardly he’s against gay marriage, against hate crimes legislation…
Hell, here’s his record:
* Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
* Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
* Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
* Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
* Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)Craig has a 0% rating in HRC’s 2006 Congressional Scorecard.
That record is where the hypocrisy begins. Why is he voting against gay rights when he is himself gay? And this gets back to his psychological problems. He doesn’t think his own behavior is okay. He knows it’s wrong. All his gay behavior is abnormal gay behavior. He’s not in a loving relationship. He doesn’t even know, or want to know, the men he has sex with. It’s just furtive, illegal, copulation to him. And he probably feels a deep sense of shame everytime he succumbs to his urges. Given how he acts on his urges, he should feel shame.
That’s why I feel in a tinge of sympathy for Craig, despite his hypocrisy. He has an opportunity to do what Governor McGreevey of New Jersey did when he was outed. McGreevey admitted he had been living a lie, got a divorce from his wife, and let the shame wash away. I’m sure he is much happier now, even though he is no longer able to serve in public office. But Craig is not yet willing to go that route. Instead, he pathetically insists that he has a ‘wide stance’ when he takes a crap, and that this somehow explains how he managed to rub feet with a man in an adjoining stall.
That’s the stuff of late-night jokes, not a serious defense. Part of Craig’s problem is that he doesn’t just have to admit he’s gay, he has to admit that he’s gross. And that is not an easy thing to do.
I’ll tell you what, though. If Craig does admit that he’s gay and that he’s been gross, it won’t be the Democrats that will be beating him up for it. For the most part, we’ll be forgiving and supportive.
The Republicans, by and large, with indeed be narrow-minded cretins.
