GOP Legislator in Gay Hookup Scandal
Political Affairs:
THE PROVOCATION: These stories seem to surface with astonishing regularity. And they often seem to involve Republicans, many of them so-called "family values" politicians who regularly castigate others for being in same-sex relationships. The funny thing is, this isn't a relationship at all. It's a hookup. People do it all the time. But to engage in a gay hookup while at the same time railing against same-sex marriage goes beyond hypocritical. It's downright pathetic.
This particular case involves a 64-year-old Republican named Phillip Hinkle. A response to the 18-year-old's Craigslist ad from Hinkle's email address included the following:
"Cannot be a long time sugar daddy, but can for tonight. Would you be interested in keeping me company for a while tonight? ... "I am an in shape married professional, 5'8", fit 170 lbs, and love getting and staying naked."According to the 18-year-old, the two did not have sex.
Sex scandals are nothing new in politics. They seem to happen all the time - which isn't surprising, since they happen to ordinary people in all walks of life. But it's interesting to see that, so often, they seem to involve to "family values" Republicans. Hinkle's website, for instance, touts the fact that he co-wrote a bill creating an "In God We Trust" license plate for Indiana. He also makes it a point to mention that he's married, with two children and four grandchildren.
What isn't on his website, but is a matter of public record, is the fact that Hinkle voted to pass a state constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage in the state. (The amendment, which "provides that only marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Indiana" and "provides that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized," passed 70-26).
Liberal politicians get ensnared in sex scandals, too. Bill Clinton, former Sen. John Edwards and ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer are among them. Anthony Weiner is the latest. But what seems striking is the number of conservatives who have been caught in this kind of activity - just as often, if not more so, than their liberal counterparts. Indeed, The Daily Beast did a survey of sex scandals and found that 35 of them involved Republicans, compared to 28 for Democrats. Six of the seven prostitution scandals involved Republicans, and Republicans were implicated in 17 of the 26 cases involving hypocrisy.
And the hypocrisy is what really stands out. Republicans tend to invest a hefty chunk of their political capital into the proposition that people should be married to someone of the opposite sex and remain faithful. Then, many of them go off and do exactly the opposite of what they preach in public. They have affairs. Many times with someone of the same sex. Remember these cases?
 |
| John Ensign and Cindy Hampton |
- John Ensign served as governor of Nevada until earlier this year, when he was resigned admitting he had carried on an affair with the wife of a top aide. Interestingly, Ensign had called for President Clinton to resign over Clinton's infidelity with Monica Lewinsky. Ensign said, at that point, Clinton had "no credibility left." To Ensign's credit, he didn't turn out to be a complete hypocrite. He did exactly what he had called upon Clinton to do. He resigned.
- David Vitter, a Republican U.S. senator from Louisiana, was identified as a client of a prostitution service. Vitter was, interestingly enough, an advocate of abstinence-only sex education. He also proposed amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. He was re-elected in 2010 and remains in office.
- Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina, quit the Republican Governors Association after admitting an affair with a woman in Argentina. The scandal resulted in his divorce from Jenny Sanford, with whom the governor had four sons. Facing an inquiry over whether Mark Sanford used public funds for a trip to meet his paramour in Argentina, the governor reimbursed the state for the money used on this trip. Sanford flatly denied using any public funds for the trip. However, he acknowledged that the issue raised "some very legitimate concerns and questions." Further, he used the term "reimburse" to describe his payment to the state. By definition, you can't reimburse someone unless you've received money from that party in the first place.
- Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida, left Congress amid a scandal over suggestive emails sent to men, still in their teens, who were involved in the congressional page program. After leaving Congress, Foley revealed that he was gay. To his credit, he voted in Congress against a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages and also opposed a bill that would have outlawed adoptions by gays and lesbians in Washington, D.C.
- Larry Craig was a senator from Idaho when he was arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct at an airport in Minnesota. Craig was caught in a police sting targeting men who used the airport's restroom for sexual encounters. Craig pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor but later said he had made a mistake and vehemently denied being gay. He did not seek re-election in 2008, a year after the story broke. Craig's voting record on gay rights was abysmal. He voted against bills to recognize anti-gay hate crimes and to ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In addition, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
 |
| Larry Craig |
Cases like the one involving Craig are particularly troubling. After the restroom scandal broke, three other allegations of the same sort against Craig emerged. One of them came from a 40-year-old man described by the Idaho Statesman as "a professional man with close ties to Republican officials." The man said he had a sexual encounter with Craig at Union Station in Washington, D.C., in 2004. Craig's response: "I am not gay and I have never been in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody. There's a very clear bottom line here. I don't do that kind of thing. I am not gay, and I never have been."
One is tempted to invoke Shakespeare at this point: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." The only difficulty lies in the fact that the people who engage in sexual activity of this sort are no ladies, and calling any one of them a lady would be too kind (unless we invoke the old Rodgers and Hart musical title "The Lady is a Tramp"). They're not gentlemen, either. Epithets such as cheater, liar, hypocrite and jerk come to mind. The political advice they're following comes straight from the school of Italian fascism, courtesy of one Emilio De Bono: "If you know anything, deny, deny, deny," he once said. "I want to save Fascism."
These politicians don't want to save anything but their own asses, and denial is what they do best. Their attitude is that the best defense is a good offense, preferably via preemptive strike. No one will suspect you're cheating if you create the impression that you're in the perfect marriage. No one will think you're gay if you support bills that deny gay rights. There's a problem there, though. It seems that the most vehemently anti-gay males are more likely to actually be gay themselves. A study done on this phenomenon reached just that conclusion: "Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies."
There's that term again. Denial. It seems to be at the heart of both politics and homophobia. It's no wonder there's so much repulsive behavior involved in both.
http://www.theprovocation.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With a donation of $20.00(for UK and Canada $30.) Will send you FREE of charge and FREE freight the AF*Logo T Shirt shown on top of page. This will help us GREATLY to stay doing what we are doing to bring you these current posting
Comments