SOME THOUGHTS ON SENATOR CRAIG

I have been reluctant to comment on the situation with Senator Craig because I have a lot of mixed emotions about it. On the one hand he was a closeted hypocrite who caused a lot of harm to the lgbt community and his downfall is well deserved.

On the other hand he was obviously a victim of entrapment. What was the police officer doing to attract his attention? Also he never actually engaged in anything. It was a situation where the authorities knew that most people would plead guilty rather than fight it and risk the negative backlash. It's about outing and humiliating not about preventing anything. If they really wanted to prevent this kind of behavior, they would have a uniformed police officer walk through on a regular basis. That would be a deterent not entrapment.

Do I approve of propositioning people in public bathrooms? Absolutely not! I remember many years ago I was traveling cross country and stopped at a rest stop in Indiana. While standing at the urinal I heard a voice from the stall behind me asking if he could help me. This was at a time when a lot of us were trying very hard to get the movement started and trying to dispel a lot of the negative stereotypes that were being used to condemn us.

Suddenly here I was being confronted with the real negative image. That man in a few words was unraveling much of the positive gains we had made. I was disgusted.

But I did understand where he was coming from. When you deny a people a place in the sun, it isn't right to then condemn their attempts to survive in the shadows. But, times have changed.

Senator Criag and other right wing hypocrites who have been literaly caught with their pants down are the logical result of the very policies that the reigious fundamentalists are promoting. Deny who you are. Keep sexual orientation hidden. Fill people full of guilt and self-hatred over how they are created and who they are. Then condemn them for acting like guilt ridden self hating hypocrites. The real hypocrites are the religous fanatics who are promoting these ridiculous and hateful notions of sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Adding to the hypocrisey is the fact that they are doing it for political and financial gain. Then they have the nerve to call themselves Christian. The fundamentalists and the Right wing branch that controls the Republican Party are reaping what they have sown. They created Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, etc, etc, etc. Now they want to throw them under the bus.