Idaho Senator Larry Craig was arrested and pled guilty to disorderly conduct after he was caught propositioning an undercover police officer for sex in an airport bathroom. Pam has the run down on his votes on key gay/lesbian policy issues:
* 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)
This would be funny is this guy didn’t wield so much power, but at least he didn’t say a black man scared him into offering a blowjob like the last Republican who was caught doing this.
Is anyone keeping count of how many Republican politicians have been caught in gay sex scandals this year?
Unless he’s been arguing in favor of increasing the criminal penalties for soliciting sex in public bathrooms, there’s no hypocrisy here. Being gay does not require one to take a particular position on social policies.
Well, I guess he would also think that it would be OK for him to be dismissed from his job for his sexuality since he doesn’t want people like himself to be protected from job discrimination.
I think it’s pretty likely that will occur, actually. ;)
Is anyone keeping count of how many Republican politicians have been caught in gay sex scandals this year?
I feel like the answer is partially yes, in that I’ve seen some kind of list of Republicans caught either in solicitation or various types of bizarre perversions (ranging from the DC madam to beastiality chat) over the last few years. will come back and note if I come across it again…
Robert, I’m not familiar with this particular yahoo. But were the news reports that portrayed him as a family values conservative incorrect? Or are you really arguing that his behavior is perfectly consistent with his public statements?
I don’t know what his moral values or teachings are; I just know that political opinions about hate crimes laws and marital arrangements are not things that become hypocritical in the light of homosexuality. I’m an Italian but that doesn’t mean I have to favor increased immigration from Italy. ;)
He’s made himself a very powerful and rich person by pushing a particularly noxious right wing social agenda. One small but significant part of this agenda was to pander to anti-gay bigotry. He’s a hypocrite to the core.
what bugs me about this story is not Craig’s hypocracy so much (if he was, indeed, soliciting sex from a guy in a bathroom – we can give him a bit of benefit of doubt . . . maybe he just had to tap his foot to a great Madonna tune in his head).
What bugs me is that no one is discussing whether asking for sex from someone in a public place should be illegal at all.
People do it all the time, no one is about to arrest everyone who asks a stranger for sex in public. If a man asks me (a woman) to have sex with him, and I drag a cop over to arrest him, do you think that guy will be spending the night jail? A stranger soliciting sex is annoying and maybe a little scary, but I can always say “no.” Repeted advances and physical contact fall nicely under laws against accosting people. And Craig didn’t even ask out loud, in plain words, he just hinted. What about leers? Do those count as “lewd” sexual solicitations that should get people arrested? Do the plainclothes cops haunt bars in that airport where Craig was arrested, to see if any men are soliciting sex with women or vice versa? Yes, Craig might be a hypocritical self-hating closet case, but that’s a matter for the electorate, not law enforcement officers. I guess I’m just naive, but I think that our justice system probably has better things to do than covertly hunt down men who ask other men for sex.
Our great Mikado, virtuous man,
When he to rule our land began,
Resolved to try a plan whereby
Young men might be steadied.
So he decreed in words succinct,
That all who flirted, leered or winked,
(Unless connubially linked)
Should forthwith be beheaded.
– The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan farce, 1885
marmelade,
I’m not sure exactly how the law works, but generally the rules of the Tearoom are that you ask for sex and subsequently have sex in that bathroom.
For anybody who doesn’t know about the Tearoom Trade sutdy by Laud Humphreys I suggest reading it. It is quite famous in sociology; primarily because of some of the ethical issues that the study had, but it is essentially a study of public bathrooms where men have sex with other men. Humphreys acted as the look out, and he also got information from the liscence plates of the guys. He then interviewed them in their homes under false pretenses. He found out that most of the guys were married men, who were living this kind of double life style. I guess just like Larry Craig.
I would believe his denials and the whole I was just tapping my foot if 1) there were not other know cases of him soliciting men for sex in public places and 2) he didn’t use all of the nonverbal codes they association with Tearooms.
As much as I love to see Yet Another Closeted Hypocrite taken down, I think Marmelade makes a good point . . . why on earth is this illegal?
—Myca
Are you aksing why it is illegal to have sex in a public bathroom or why it was illegal to ask for sex in the bathroom?
The second.
I understand that having sex in a public bathroom is out of line . . . but if ‘asking for sex’ consists of a foot-tapping ritual that only another person interested in anonymous sex with a stranger would recognize or respond to, then ‘disorderly conduct’ seems a little disingenuous, no?
—Myca
‘disorderly conduct’ seems a little disingenuous
He got the foot tap code wrong, and the officer arrested him to prevent a disruption in the bathroom scene that day.
Regarding “why on earth is this illegal,”
well, I assume it has something to do with people like Larry Craig making policy, yes?
*grin* Okay, that’s fair.
There is a certain joy in seeing a card-carrying member of the morality brigade hoist on his own petard.
—Myca
… why on earth is this illegal?
Because it’s an invasion of privacy. I’d like the guy who peers through the crack in the stall door then sticks his foot under the stall wall to touch my foot and who keeps rubbing his hand on the underside of the wall to be arrested. I can think of few things that I want less while I’m crapping than for a stranger to touch me.
So, he didn’t get arrested for “asking for sex.” He got arrested for invading a reasonable expectation of privacy. I’m okay with that. I am, however, not okay with laws making asking somebody for sex illegal – a law that Leering Larry is in favor of if it is applied to gay men. Honestly, I’d be jumping in to defend the creep if he had been arrested for soliciting sex in a public area of a public restroom.
I’m suddenly getting a lot of hits for this post, using a variety of search terms. The attention given to Sen. Craig is also bringing suspicion to Sen. Graham rather suddenly. I have very mixed feelings about that.
Identical politics, though:
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2007/08/on-senator-graham.html
Jake, I agree it’s rude behavior (particularly the peering), but I think arresting people for this is over-reacting. I agree with Dale Carpenter:
The interesting part of this is not the arrest, which seems pretty thin, but the fact that Craig pleaded guilty.
Yeah, I’m not surprised the Senator Graham name has come up. My gaydar starts beeping every time I see that guy on TV. In the link I followed he’s 52, never married… oh I guess I’m picking on single heteros, probably just hasn’t found the right woman yet. ;)
Craig, I’m guessing is more a MSM (men who have sex with men) type. Basically hetero but gets a kick from certain thrill seeking sex activities.
Jake, I come at this with the assumption that treating these sorts of come-ons as a criminal matter has served to harass the local gay community an inordinate amount, and in that light, I see the costs outweighing the benefits.
Granted, I don’t give a whole lot of a crap what happens specifically to this dude . . . it’s more the whole ‘sting operation’ and all the non-senators they’ve gathered in their net that I’m concerned about.
—Myca
I await the inevitable announcement that a GOP senator or congresscritter has been caught with a gerbil up his ass [or arse,for our foreign friends]. :)
BTW, “The Ass Gerbils” [or “The Arse Gerbils”] would be a great name for a rock band.
I’ve had plenty of passes made at me by men. It seems that I used to look just like a prostitute! Who knew? In none of those cases would I say that the men should have been arrested. But then, not a single one of those times was I sitting on the toilet nor asleep in my bed, etc. If it shouldn’t be illegal to touch a stranger while they’re defecating, should it also not be illegal to take photos or video of people in the bathroom? I see the two as very similar acts. They are both an invasion of privacy (not to mention truly, truly creepy).
If you want to talk about the problems w/ sting operations, I’m with you. If you want to discuss whether or not Senator Creep (R-Id) would have caressed the stall wall had the officer not tapped his foot, I’m open to it. But I know that there are a not insignificant number of people who would have felt truly threatened by the actions of Senator Creep (R-Id).
BTW, “The Ass Gerbils” [or “The Arse Gerbils”] would be a great name for a rock band.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this! :D
I have to ask — is there any evidence whatsoever that Graham is gay — other than his being “effeminate” and never married at 52? Because I do have to say, those qualities alone being used to “out” anyone really creeps me out. Heck, those qualities alone being used to ID someone as gay really creeps me out. I mean, talk about holding up the heterosexist and sexist gender roles.