Spring Break
Where there's smoke ...
George Henson, ghenson@smu.edu
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: Opinion
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In 2006, the song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won the Academy Award for best original song for the movie "Hustle & Flow." Change "pimp" to "closeted Republican" and you may just have the new theme song for the Republican Party, a party that has made homophobia a major plank in its "pro-family" platform for years.
Last week, a Minnesota judge denied Idaho Senator Larry Craig's motion to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from his arrest for lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport men's room. Following the decision, and much to his fellow Republicans' chagrin, Craig reneged on his previous promise to resign if the petition was denied.
Depending on whose version of events you believe, Craig was either cruising for sex in a public restroom by touching the foot of the undercover policeman in the adjoining stall, or he was guilty of nothing more than, in the senator's words, "a wide stance."
In June, Craig plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct hoping to avoid the publicity that a lewdness trial would certainly attract. When the details of the arrest were made public, Craig called his now famous press conference and declared, "I am not gay. I have never been gay."
If by "gay" Craig means that he doesn't have a male partner, doesn't live in a gay neighborhood, doesn't march in gay pride parades and doesn't have a rainbow sticker on his bumper, then sure, he's not gay.
At best, he's another in a long line of closeted men who get married, lie to family and friends, deny their ontology, seek out clandestine sex in public restrooms and project their internalized homophobia onto the gay men whose open and honest lives they envy. Perhaps it's that envy that turned Craig into one of the most anti-gay members of the U.S. Senate, which includes a vote two weeks ago to deny federal hate-crimes protection to gays and lesbians.
Craig's case may seem unusual. The truth is it's far more common than Republicans would like you to believe. Rumors about Craig's closeted sexuality have been floating around Washington since his name first surfaced linked to a congressional page sex scandal in 1982.
Last week, a Minnesota judge denied Idaho Senator Larry Craig's motion to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from his arrest for lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport men's room. Following the decision, and much to his fellow Republicans' chagrin, Craig reneged on his previous promise to resign if the petition was denied.
Depending on whose version of events you believe, Craig was either cruising for sex in a public restroom by touching the foot of the undercover policeman in the adjoining stall, or he was guilty of nothing more than, in the senator's words, "a wide stance."
In June, Craig plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct hoping to avoid the publicity that a lewdness trial would certainly attract. When the details of the arrest were made public, Craig called his now famous press conference and declared, "I am not gay. I have never been gay."
If by "gay" Craig means that he doesn't have a male partner, doesn't live in a gay neighborhood, doesn't march in gay pride parades and doesn't have a rainbow sticker on his bumper, then sure, he's not gay.
At best, he's another in a long line of closeted men who get married, lie to family and friends, deny their ontology, seek out clandestine sex in public restrooms and project their internalized homophobia onto the gay men whose open and honest lives they envy. Perhaps it's that envy that turned Craig into one of the most anti-gay members of the U.S. Senate, which includes a vote two weeks ago to deny federal hate-crimes protection to gays and lesbians.
Craig's case may seem unusual. The truth is it's far more common than Republicans would like you to believe. Rumors about Craig's closeted sexuality have been floating around Washington since his name first surfaced linked to a congressional page sex scandal in 1982.
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