Commentary
The Outing of Larry Craig?
By Joan Opyr, 10-19-06
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Is he or isn't he?
Gay activist Mike Rogers claimed Idaho Senator Larry Craig has had gay affairs on the Ed Schultz Radio Show yesterday. Craig denies the allegations. New West's Jill Kuraitis reports that Craig's press secretary, Sid Smith, says "The Senator says this story is absolutely ridiculous – almost laughable . . . . It has no basis in fact.” Who's telling the truth, Rogers or Craig? Does it matter? Yes, it does, but only because Craig is a big wheel in the GOP, and that means he can't be gay. The Republicans talk about a big tent, but in truth, it's a pup tent. There's only enough room for Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the Coleman stove of hellfire and damnation that serves as their Bible. If you're not white, straight, Christian and male, out in the cold you go.
Three-dollar Bill. Gay as a goose. Larry the Prairie Fairy. He was born in Idaho, but reared on the Potomac. I heard my first Larry-Craig-is-gay joke more than fourteen years ago on my first visit to Idaho. Next to dyke drama, drag shows, softball and dancing, “Who’s in the club?” is the most popular pastime in the gay community. We “knew” the truth about Rosie O’Donnell when she was pretending to have a crush on Tom Cruise. We “knew” about Ellen DeGeneres when she was starring in Mr. Wrong. Tony Perkins, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, Liberace -- was anyone really surprised? The one and only outing that has ever startled me was that of Jim McGreevey, former Governor of New Jersey. Not a whisper, not a word, but then New Jersey is a long way from Idaho, and McGreevey was not a well-known national figure.
Neither was Larry Craig. He’s Idaho’s senior Senator, but I doubt many people outside of the state or the Washington beltway had ever heard of him until this week. If that sounds harsh, think about this: can you name the Senators of the states that border your own? I’m a pretty savvy political observer, and I know that Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray represent Washington. Conrad Burns and . . . some other guy represent Montana. Oregon? Um, Ron Wyden? Maybe? Wyoming? Oh, hell, I don’t know.
Utah threw up Orrin Hatch, and Nevada gave us Harry Reid, but these are men who have been around forever and who hold senior positions in their respective parties. I see their faces in Time Magazine and on CNN. Like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, they’re political celebrities -- talking heads and household names.
Nevertheless, Larry Craig is an important man. He’s competent and well-respected. He's not is a star, but in Idaho, that’s something of a relief. We sent the late and looney Helen Chenoweth to Congress three times, where she muttered about black helicopters, spoke in defense of right-wing militias, made stupid remarks about endangered salmon, and railed against the immorality of Bill Clinton even after her own affair with a married man had been exposed. Larry Craig is no Helen Chenoweth. He’s a Republican, and he’s a conservative, but the similarities end there. Craig and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, and several times a month, I write him a letter or send him an email to tell him that I think he’s dead wrong. In response, I get a boilerplate letter, rubber-stamped with his signature, explaining his position. I disagree with nearly every vote he's ever cast, but I recognize that the man is no fool. I'm sorry he takes the positions he takes, but he has not shamed the state as did Chenoweth, Steve Symms, and George Hansen. Larry Craig is a hard-right Republican; he is not, thank G-d, a blooming idiot.
Like many gay people, I have mixed feelings about outing. Larry Craig has opposed legislation like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, that would benefit gay and lesbian people, and he has been a vocal supporter of several anti-gay bills. Craig voted for the Defense of Marriage Act. He supports a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. If he’s gay, then he’s a shade of Roy Cohn, and I believe he should be exposed as a self-loathing hypocrite. If he’s had sex with other men, then he’s been playing a very nasty political game. He has attacked his own to advance his career within the fundamentalist, gay-bating GOP. If Larry Craig is a closeted homosexual, then I am in the awkward position of having no fellow feeling for him whatsoever. I’m a lesbian, and I was once closeted, but I can’t sympathize. Why? Because I didn’t toss rocks at other gays and lesbians from the safety of my closet. I didn’t hide behind closed doors in my glass house and do active harm to my GLBT brothers and sisters.
I feel no pity for Larry Craig. Like Mike Rogers, the blog writer who has theoretically and allegedly "outed" Craig, I would show the Senator no mercy. Craig has done nothing whatsoever to deserve it. On the contrary, he has courted our anger and our scorn. And yet outing is such an odd and unsettling thing. Why is it that being gay is still so shocking? Why is the private life of a boring, dull, workaday politician like Larry Craig suddenly front-page news? Does it really still surprise us that public figures lie about their private lives or that conservative Republicans really do come in all races, creeds, and sexual orientations -- they just hide it to get ahead in a homophobic and heterosexist world?
Here in Idaho, we’ve all heard the whispers. The rumor mill has been grinding for years, peppering us with terrible jokes like those recited above. Will Larry Craig go the way of Spokane Mayor Jim West? That was a bad joke, too. Want to hear the worst? How do you get a job in the Spokane Mayor’s office? Drop to your knees and face West.
Wouldn’t it be better if we could all just come out and stay out? Wouldn’t it be better if Larry Craig, gay or straight, had used his political power to make the world a better, safer, and more equitable place for all people, gay, straight, lesbian or bisexual? Charity, after all, begins at home.
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Comments
I also fixed the link in the story above. Just hit my name.
Jill Kuraitis
I am at the same time both saddened and angered that a powerful Senator can sell out other LGBT people for mere political power and influence.
Kim Smith, Eugene, Oregon
It is ironic that the sabatours in this case are gay. One step forward, two steps back.
His expertise (and that of his string puller -- ?-- former Idaho senator James McClure) was also put to use as head of the group in the Senate responsible for strategy related to the Republican party's shift to the extreme right. His speech patterns even mimic those of charlatan TV ministers.
The guy is a bought, sold, and delivered creep.
Now, the continued selling out of our nation's people and resources -- that's a tragedy :-(
Aren't there any Democrats? Used to be!!! What happened to them.
Jim Santa Fe
What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?
And of him who comes early to the wedding feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violations and all feasters law-breakers?
What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, yet with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws."
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
old utterly out-of-date prophecy, not only Gibran, but
all the others dating back a couple of thousand years,
that don't mean diddley squat today?
Let's talk about Socrates: To thine own self be true.
If Larry had just NOT taken such an anti-gay position
in the Senate for many years! He's painted himself into
a corner, and he can rot there.
Good Luck Idaho - and God save you from prophets
and shadows.
Jim SF
I look forward to the day when the fact of a person's sexuality is about as exciting to the rest of us as hearing that they collect stamps.
The Prophet is a poem, not a prophecy, written in 1923, hardly "a couple of thousand years" ago.
Kahlil Gibran was not a prophet but a poet, much like William Shakespeare, whose play Hamlet contains the line "To thine own self be true," which is based on Socrates' adage "know thyself."
The dumbing down of America is no joke!
But yeah, Craig painted himself into a corner. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Realize, we are taking exception to his hypocrisy and creapy nature, and not that he might or might not be gay. Let's not put a mark against Gay folks.
I continue to be saddened by Larry Craig's lying and obfuscations. When will the newspapers of Idaho put the public good above their private interests?
We all sin, R's or D's.
R's know they sin and resign.
The D's on the other hand excuse their sin and don't resign.
"Craig's immoral, deceitful, disgusting, vile and illegal behavior is what should push those in Idaho to get rid of him."
Did you push for Clinton to resign for his immoral, deceitful, disgusting, vile Oval Office behavior And for lying to the citizens over and over about it?
Self-righteousness always carries the danger of a backfire.
The Republicans have had a pretty good run with their "holier-than-thou" approach. However, the odds seem to have broken against them.
In place of problem-solving and leveling with the people, the tendency to try to evoke moral indignation seems to be wearing thin, as a political ploy.
Now, when they seek to change the subject from the excesses and failures of the G.W. Bush Administration, and how to correct them, to the imputed sins of others, perhaps the public, even voters way out on the right, might be moved to say, "Hold on a minute. That's not what we need to talk over."
Besides, Larry Craig is right. He's not gay. He's H-O-M-O-S-E-X-U-A-L.
All the best,
Harvard Hollenberg
Daryl L. Hunter