Is Gay or Straight simply a sex act? Ranting on this whole damn Craig thing....

[The Straight Story]

If you are a man and you have a sexual encounter or few with another man, does that make you gay?

If you are man and have sexual encounters with a woman, does that make you straight?

Growing up, I was molested by a male family member from time to time.

Later, in my mid-teens I did similar things with other males.

Sex was sex. As far as whom I preferred - women. Always have, always will. Not just for sex, but for a companion.

In craig's instance, he may well be someone who lived a life similar to mine - molested, and saw sex as simply a physical thing on one hand, and an emotional thing on the other. Take what ya can get.

I grew out of that myself, and eventually saw past my molestation. Took me awhile though to be true to who I was. I am not gay, never was, but when it came to sex - I was someone who took what they could get.

It is like being an alcoholic - you don't care how good the beer is, you want the effect and not the taste.

Sen. Craig may be gay, he may be straight, but what matters is that he broke the law for his own sexual desires - in a place I send my own daughter to, the bathroom, he was wanting to get his jollies. No care for anyone else but himself. And his selfishness is he issue here.

I don't care if a woman is gay or straight, when I walk my 6 yr old to the bathroom, I expect that she can go in there and do her business and not have someone trying to get her to do something sexual for them. It may well be a straight woman just wanting some pleasure, or it may be a lesbian, I don't care. Take your selfish desires somewhere else.

Craig cared about his dick - he did not care how his needs got cared for, he just knew he had needs and took what he could get.

That does not make him gay, or straight - that makes him an opportunist - and shame on him for not having the self control to just go to a room and do it himself.

No need to bring sexual orientation into it.

[MiniMandaRuth]

1. I was just about to ask the same thing.

My question is, is he just... erm... curious? I don't know if that's proper, seeing as he is an 'older man' who 'should of gotten his orientation straightened out' (Excuse the accidental pun) by now?

Or is he just being a rich man who probably before this, felt unreachable by law, and decided to try it once and for all?

[Ghost in the Machine]

2. You have no choice about who molests you, so that wouldn't factor in

in the process, imho. If there was a choice, everyone would choose *not* to be molested, I think.

Experimenting during your teen years is normal, from what I understand. I think it might be because you're unsure of your own sexuality and it helps you figure yourself out.

I understand where you're coming from about sex just being an act, or even a need, and using whoever is willing to help you meet your needs. It's what I refer to as "the difference between 'fucking' and 'making love'". 'Making love' is something you do with your spouse or significant other and you have an emotional investment in the act. 'Fucking' is what you do with drunk chick that ya met in the bar, and neither of you will probably remember tomorrow. It's just sex on its most primal level. Pure animalistic behavior.

:kick:ed

[cboy4]

3. I'm not sure what Craig is. I suspect he's at the very least bisexual.

And the only reason to bring sexual orientation into this is because of yet another case of Republican hypocrisy, as pointed out in the Idaho Statesman newspaper:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/1264/story/144614.html

Idahoans have a lot to think about while waiting to hear what Craig says next. Including his rhetoric and record on social and gay-rights issues:

• In 1999, as one of the loudest Republican voices for President Clinton's impeachment, Craig dismissed the idea of censure. "It's a ‘Bad boy, Bill Clinton. You're a naughty boy,' " Craig told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Jan. 24. "The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy."

• In July 2004, Craig voted for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, which failed in the Senate. A few days after the vote, in a guest opinion co-authored by fellow Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo, Craig decried "a campaign by activists to use state and federal courts to force recognition of a constitutional right to same-sex marriages, and so override the people and their legislatures."

• On Nov. 6, 2006, one day before the election, Craig released a statement saying he supported a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions. The amendment passed. Yet in a May 14 interview with the Statesman, Craig said he supported same-sex civil unions.

[Sapphocrat]

4. You're confusing Craig with something he isn't.

Craig is not a pedophile. His interest is in other grown men, not children. I'd bet money he would have no prurient interest whatsoever in a six-year-old girl -- or boy.

Please learn the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia, and kindly refrain from blurring the rock-solid line between the two. Every time someone does, the tired, grossly unfair, and radically wrong "gay = child molester" meme is further cemented into the public consciousness. Used as a talking point of the right wing, that meme has done more damage to our fight for equal rights than almost any other.

[begin_within]

5. Bi now, gay later.

[closeupready]

6. What would have happened, I wonder, if he'd made a pass at a guy in the laundromat?

I mean he probably doesn't go to laundromats, but wherever he goes? The grocery store, the gym? People know who he is.

[treestar]

7. He could be straight but sees same sex encounters in such a way

that he can avoid thinking he is cheating on his wife? Anyone think that?

[blondeatlast]

8. Gay and pedophile are not related. Period. nt

[Toasterlad]

9. I Agree With Sapphocrat.

I'm sorry for what you experienced, but I believe you're letting it color your view of homosexuals. The vast majority of homosexual men are NOT pedophiles, just as the vast majority of heterosexual men are not pedophiles. Craig is a hypocrite, and a lawbreaker, but there is no evidence to show he is a pedophile, and there is no reason to believe he's a physical threat to your daughter or anyone else's child.

Please see my response to a similar post last night. These half-assed attempts to "pardon" the gay community for Craig's actions are misguided, awkward, and frankly, painful. We are aware of what Craig did. He attempted to solicit gay sex from an undercover officer. It is not necessary to "sanitize" his crime by "removing" the gay element. It is enough that he is a typical republican hypocrite who got his just desserts. The fact that he is gay is unfortunate (for the gay community), but it needn't be treated like a dirty little secret. The fact that he is gay is intrinsic to his crime; if he were not gay, this would not have happened, and he wouldn't have been arrested for solicitation in a public restroom. We can deal with the fact that solicitation is a crime (if a completely victimless, lame and morally ambiguous one) and that gay people are often convicted of it. It doesn't make it any more or less shameful to be gay.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1685578&mesg_id=1686448

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Child abuse is done for POWER, as well as rape

it has NOTHING to do with sexual orientation

Please learn the difference

Oh and by the way, your wee ones are as safe in a public bathroom as they have always been, and it has nothing to do with homosexuality

Oh and I am sorry about your abuse growing up, but that abuse was about power, not sex

[camero]

11. Well if orientation is based on the act....

then more likely than not we are all a bit bi-sexual.

Craig is just a typical Republican engaging in predatory behavior. Gay or straight doesn't have anything to do with it.

[NMMNG]

12. Craig (allegedly) solicited sex from an anonymous male adult

That doesn't make him a pedophile. Please don't perpetuate this notion that RWers love spewing that gay people are pedophiles. If some GOPer had been arrested for screwing a female prostitute would we have all this "Won't somebody please think of the children? Oh I'm so worried about my children" nonsense on here right now?

[Javaman]

13. Blondie - X Offender Lyrics

I saw you standing on the corner, you looked so big and fine.
I really wanted to go out with you, so when you smiled,
I laid my heart on the line
You read me my rights and then you said "Let's go" and nothing more
I thought of my nights, and how they were
They were filled with

I know you wouldn't go
You'd watch my heart burst then you'd step in
I had to know so I asked
You just had to laugh

We sat in the night with my hands cuffed at my side
I look at your life and your style
I wanted nothing more
I know you wouldn't go
You'd watch my heart burst then you'd step in
I had to know so I asked
You just had to laugh

Walking the line, you were a marksman
Told me that law, like wine, is ageless
Public defender
You had to admit
You wanted the love of a sex offender

I know you wouldn't go
You'd watch my heart burst then you'd step in
I had to know so I asked
You just had to laugh

My vision in blue, I call you from inside my cell
And in the trial, you were there
With your badge and rubber boots

I think all the time how I'm going to perpetrate love with you
And when I get out, there's no doubt I'll be sex offensive to you

[goodhue]

14. You send your daughter into the men's room?

Otherwise great post