Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Larry Craig is Definitely Not Gay

A proud gay man lives his adult life with his male partner or husband, not a wife and kids. Gay men do not support a constitutional amendment to prohibit same sex marriage. Gay men do not vote against long-overdue legislation that would protect gay men and lesbians from discrimination in the work place (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA).

On the other hand, repressed, hypocritical, right-wing politictions with homosexual tendencies behave exactly as Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has done in the past two months and throughout his political career. How ludicrous to believe that one of the hundred or so most powerful people in the United States was intimidated by a Minnesota beat officer into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit.

In a “he said, he said” case such as this one, Senator Craig could well have denied the officer’s interpretation of the several easily misunderstood actions the Senator reportedly took in the airport bathroom. Moving from one stall to another? No toilet paper! Tapping one’s foot toward the next stall? Groovy muzak! Waiving at your stall neighbor under the divider? Those crazy Idahoans are so friendly!

Of course, unlike most closeted men with homosexual tendencies caught soliciting sex in a public restroom, Senator Craig thought he held a trump card, literally, his business card. He waived it at the officer like the “Get Out of Jail Free” card in Monopoly. Too many nameless and unheralded closeted men with homosexual tendencies have not had that card to play and hundreds, actually thousands, have lost jobs, families and – through suicide – their lives as a result of similar arrests. If Senator Craig hadn’t lost his nerve, if he had stood tall and claimed that as a U.S. Senator it was his God-given right to have sex in any bathroom he saw fit….Well, let’s just he could been immortalized as the patron saint of all closeted men with homosexual tendencies. What a missed opportunity!

Though Larry Craig is clearly correct when he says he’s not gay, he was a wrong about another thing. Larry Craig claimed his arrest cast a “cloud over Idaho.” This is not true. Idaho is a beautiful state with crystal clear skies and lakes. What he cast was a big shameful, shroud-like cloud over the conservative right-wing in this country, which is just as homosexual as any other segment of the population, but refuses to accept the honesty and pride of being gay.

3 comments:

theszak said...

By John McArdle
http://rollcall.com/
issues/1_1/breakingnews/19764-1.html


Breaking News

E-mail this Story

Craig Arrested, Pleads Guilty Following Incident in Airport Restroom but Says He Did Nothing Wrong

By John McArdle
Roll Call Staff

Monday, Aug. 27, 2007; 7:17 pm

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call on Monday afternoon.

Craig's arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

In a statement released Monday night, Craig denied any wrongdoing and said he regrets his guilty plea.

After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, "What do you think about that?" the report states.

Craig was detained for approximately 45 minutes, interviewed, photographed, fingerprinted and released, and police prepared a formal complaint for interference with privacy and disorderly conduct.

According to the incident report, Sgt. Dave Karsnia was working as a plainclothes officer on June 11 investigating civilian complaints regarding sexual activity in the men's public restroom in which Craig was arrested.

Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men's restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity.

Karsnia entered the bathroom at noon that day and about 13 minutes after taking a seat in a stall, he stated he could see "an older white male with grey hair standing outside my stall."

The man, who lingered in front of the stall for two minutes, was later identified as Craig.

"I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, 'fidget' with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes," the report states.

Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia's and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.

"My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall," Karsnia stated in his report. "From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me."

Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.

"At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moved his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot wh\
ich was within my stall area," the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that "I could ... see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider."

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

"With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, 'No!' I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. ... Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn't want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom."

In a recorded interview after his arrest, Craig "either disagreed with me or 'didn't recall' the events as they happened," the report states.

Craig stated "that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine," the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.

"It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper," the arresting officer said in the report.

In the statement he released Monday night, Craig said the police were "misconstruing my actions."

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said. "I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct."

And although police documents show that Craig returned to the airport 11 days after the incident to inquire about a police contact so "his lawyer can speak to someone," Craig said Monday night that he decided to enter a guilty plea without consulting a lawyer.

"I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter," he said. "In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

On Aug. 8, the day he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in the Minnesota court, Craig appeared via satellite at a ceremony that took place in Idaho in which former Idaho federal Judge Randy Smith was invested into his new position as a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In October 2006, Craig's office publicly denied allegations that he was a homosexual made on a gay activist Web site -- http://www.blogactive.com Craig's office told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the charge was "completely ridiculous," saying that the allegations had "no basis in fact."

Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.

Roll Call
The Newspaper of Capitol Hill Since 1955
Breaking News
http://rollcall.com/
issues/1_1/breakingnews/19764-1.html

theszak said...

Chris Burrous, Jeff James, Lisa Gonzales
http://tinyurl.com/397z36
http://cbs13.com/
video/?id=24308@kovr.dayport.com

theszak said...

Jerry Seinfeld
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=b52QkGp1OUQ