At the risk of offending the gay community...

[mudesi]

It is not at all impossible that Larry Craig is gay. Actually, it's quite probable, and also completely irrelevant. I don't think there is a problem with pointing this out, but I do understand why it can be somewhat of a sore spot for all the oppressed and vilified homosexuals who have to put up with being labeled "sexual deviants" by the likes of people like Craig himself.

However, a sexual orientation is a sexual orientation, nothing more and nothing less. You can't call Craig a "predator" or a "pervert" and say he has no sexual orientation. Everybody has a sexual orientation. There are straight pedophiles, there are gay pedophiles, there are bisexual pedophiles. There are straight people who solicit sex in bathroom stalls, gay people who solicit sex in bathroom stalls, and bisexual people who solicit sex in bathroom stalls. Straight rapists, gay rapists, bisexual rapists. Etc.

I understand why there are some here who hate to associate Craig with "gay", but it doesn't change the facts. He probably is gay. The position we all ought to be taking here is that his orientation has precisely zero relevance to any illegal activities he may or may not have committed, with the exception of his blatant hypocrisy.

[Webster Green]

1. More likely that he's bi, isn't it?..

The clue being the fact that he is married.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. I Contend That Marriage Is A Sham And Has Never Been Consummated

I have a new term- confusedsexual or deniedsexual-he does not know or rejects his true sexual identity...

JMO...

[Terran]

13. Agreed

Literally *everything* I have learned about him and what he did at the airport points to him being gay--not bisexual. There are tons of bisexual married-with-kids men out there, but he ain't one 'em.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. My Best Friend When I Was Younger Was Bisexual

He dated men, women and transgendered females and was comfortable with all of them... I submit Craig is only truly comfortable with the former...

[hlthe2b]

10. I believe that he married and adopted her three children shortly

after the 1982 scandal. He was the one member of Congress to come out to deny being involved, suggesting that being the rare "single" member of Congress made him a target.

With that bit of the picture, I'm not sure I would assume anything with respect to the marriage.. or what it says about his sexual orientation. If the marriage was entered solely in order to help him remain deeply closeted, I would say that is very sad. However, that would not necessarily mean that both parties could not benefit from the partnership, however non-traditional...:shrug:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. Yeah

You can have a marriage without sex I guess... My thesis is more aimed at Craig's true sexual identification or lack thereof...

[StarryNite]

22. Yup,

his marriage was just to cover his ass, so to speak.

[canetoad]

19. So was Elton John

:crazy:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. Elton John Would Say He Was Truly Attracted To Women At One Time

I don't think that's the case with Craig...

It seemed he married out of political expedience; shortly after rumors about him being gay circulated...

[patrice]

3. There are some people for whom being "gay"

(however that is defined) is not an either-or proposition. Perhaps Craig falls in that category.

And, personally, I'm a little confused about what is/was "lewd" and why, short of assault, "we" are prosecuting it.

When I was younger, men used to say all sorts of things to me and, though I did not like it, I handled it myself, by ignoring them. There are probably some situations that are much worse than what I experienced, but we need to be careful about making that distinction.

[TahitiNut]

4. I suspect it's not unusual for self-described 'straight' guys ...

... to accept or even SEEK fellatio FROM other guys - strangers - while, at the same time, they'd be disgusted at GIVING fellatio. I personally regard that as a compulsion warranting some kind of counseling or intervention.

The neoconservative right seems to ATTRACT people with such superior/subordinate attitudes toward their fellow human beings - attitudes that subordinate others to mere objects for one's own gratification.

I think it's a gross disservice to both GLBT and straight to associate such objectification of others to one's own gratification with a sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is irrelevant - even if the right and the media flood us with such an association.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. I Suspect Craig Was The Fellatrix

eom

[Terran]

14. Oh come on...

"Fellatrix" would be a female. He was the fellator. :spank:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I Didn't Know It Was Gender Specific...

I do believe he was the one giving head...

[Terran]

21. Yes...

Like "dominatrix" is a woman who 'gives' S&M, or "executrix" (rarely used) is a woman in charge of executing a will. I think it's a Latin thing.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. You Are Correct Sir...

I submit if a straight man wants a blowjob, even an anonymous one, he's going to find a female prostitute...He's not going to go to the trouble Senator Craig did to get one from a male...

He's probably more asexual than anything... I don't think he has had much sex , except maybe for the solo kind, with all the restrictions he placed on himself , and the environmental barriers that prevented him from getting the sex he wanted...

He was just born in a wrong place and meliu...

It's a story that's probably been played out many, many times...

[nashville_brook]

8. i really like how you tie "objectivification" to this -- that's how I see it,

but i had not gone that far -- focusing on his use of power after the arrest. i think that's a really sophisticated reading.

and -- ewww.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. That Was Tahiti...

I would suspect being the recipient of oral sex from a man and a woman isn't that much different... If all Craig wanted was oral sex he could easily have found a female prostitute and that would have come with a much smaller chance of detection and embarrassment...And even if he was discovered there wouldn't be the brouhaha for getting arrested soliciting sex in a public restroom... I don't think he would have went to such lengths just to get "oral"...

Also, I don't think it was a power thing with Craig... As I said up thread I don't think his marraiage has ever been consummated and his sexual identification is beyond identification...

Just my spin...

[TahitiNut]

24. Oh, I'd guess it's a "power thing" ... AND a "sex=dirty" thing.

Many of us 'discover' sex in the hood on the sly ... and, in our formative, adolescent minds, begin to associate sexual activities with something taboo and "dirty." Hopefully, maturity and healthy emotional development leaves such associations behind and we make the connections with love, trust, mutual respect, and (most important, imho) emotional intimacy. The vestigial connections with the taboo and secretive evolve into what I'd call 'playful' and 'child-like' aspects - 'spice' - in the most hopefully fullest maturity. IMHO.

In many folks, however, as in all emotional and psychological development, some quirks and twists may be more pronounced and - in the more pathological cases - malicious, angry, and self-loathing aspects grow. Tumors in the psyche. Craig is, I'd say, quite twisted. He's just no decent representative of sexual orientation - of any kind, imho. He's about USING others ... not about loving others. He's about deceit and prevarication - not about honesty and trust.

Just my view. ;shrug:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. I Concur

I would just add that with all the restrictions he placed on himself and the environmental barriers I don't think he has had much sex with others at all... He's a psychoanalysts' dream...

[hlthe2b]

11. Good points...

[Terran]

15. You're right

It's not at all unusual. Not. at. all.

[nashville_brook]

6. i think you are correct -- the two are confused in the hypocrisy portion of this scandal

the tape recording of his arrest is the worst part of the whole affair for me. caught red-handed, he depends on his status as "powerful senator" to obliquely intimidate the arresting officer (providing his business card as ID and saying "what do you think of that"). was the officer supposed to shudder in his boots and apologize? Craig comported himself like a dictatorial party boss, not subject to same laws as the rest of us.

whether or not he's closeted or cruises bathrooms for sex is not nearly as troubling as his misuse of power.

[patrice]

27. Apparently that card has worked well for him in other situations. nt

[Left Is Write]

7. I couldn't care less what his sexual orientation is.

He is a completely repugnant person.

His very public anti-gay stance is completely repugnant. Whether it is also hypocritical is up for debate.

I've never liked the man.

[Midlodemocrat]

26. I agree. His public and rabid anti-gay stance is

reason enough to despise him.


:hi:

[LostInAnomie]

18. Gay, straight, bi, or N/A does not matter to me.

What matters to me is that he actively sought out the same behavior that he and his ilk have deemed deviant, abhorrent, unnatural, perverse, etc. and sought to demonize and prohibit at every turn. That make him a hypocrite, and I am glad his career is ruined.

[Prophet 451]

28. Don't know and don't care

The issue to me is not whether Craig enjoys a tumble with men on occasion. I'm bisexual and I enjoy a tumble with guys sometimes (with the full blessing of my female partner). To me, the issue isn't him getting it on in a public restroom either, except to the extent that is a crime. Not my thing but hope it works out for you. The problem is the hypocracy.

I'm British. In British government, we have had swindlers, pederasts, con-artists of every type, the well-meaning but stupid and the clever but evil. The one thing we cannot stand above all else is a hypocrite (probably because we've so often been guilty of it as a nation).