Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

The Mayor of Spokane, Washington. The Governor of New Jersey. The Congressman from Florida. Their names are well-known; I will identify them by their former offices. Each former officeholder was a male; each resigned his office. Each resignation was occasioned by the revelation that said officeholder was engaged in some behavior that involved male-to-male activity. The news about each person began a national buzz and built to a crescendo.

What is it that gives us three "gay scandals" in a year? And why does the press enjoy these stories so much? Have there been a comparable number of infamous heterosexuals in the news in this time frame? One public-radio commentator, when asked if the story about the former Congressman from Florida would have any long-lasting impact, said: "A gay sex scandal in Congress? Are you kidding? This has legs." That's old show-biz lingo, which indicates where we're at.

T

View our poll archive

he former Mayor had his conflicts. He'd been an active member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, against gay rights, against this and that. The standard conservative boilerplate. He liked to pick up the young men with promises of jobs and perks. It's an old profile. The former Congressman from Florida was from the same cookie-cutter, a prominent voice in protecting children, warning about predators on the internet, etc. His exit from Congress came as a result of the release of his private-- that's "private"-- electronic communications with some young men who were current or former Congressional pages. I recall back in the early 1960s, my first stepfather asked me if I might be interested in applying to become a page in Congress. He or some in his family must have known one of the Tafts, one of whom-- there are so many Tafts in Ohio-- might have been a Congressman at the time. I told my stepfather: "No!" The prospect sounded dreadful.

The former Governor of New Jersey announced he was "a gay American," and then resigned his office. From the way he presented his situation, there seemed to be a connection-- came out, quit. I never quite figured out the full story. There was the sidebar story-- that he had a gentleman friend he put on the payroll, to save New Jersey from the threat of terrorists, though I think that said gentleman has denied intimacy with the former Governor ("he said," "he said"). The former Governor-- who married twice, to two separate women in sequence-- is now, according to a prominent national gay publication, happily set up with a gentleman friend. In the photo of the two of them, the new companion looks very much like Governor himself! How does that happen? It was not clear to me why the Gov. of New Jersey had to resign. He chose to come out-- and, yes, got the book deal, and went on Oprah and Larry King, et al.-- but why did he quit? Because he put a boyfriend on the payroll? We're talking New Jersey here; a gay Gov. with a boyfriend on the payroll seems only a novelty, not a reason to exit. But I suppose we'll never know the whole poop.

Purge the pinko scourge?

Our guys in WA and FL were both crusading Republicans, talking one story and then working another side of the street. Theirs is a familiar tale, and the players still pop up, an apparently never-ending assembly line of the victims of the closet. The latest reports I have heard, as I write this, is that the right-wing spin contends that the "gay Mafia" "has penetrated" "high circles" of the GOP in the Congress and in the lobbying world-- but this, too, is an old story. (Are there any "new" stories in DC?) It's been kicking around since the time of Republican Speaker of the House Joe Martin (R-MA and gay) and, of course, in the gay clique around-- and maybe including-- the late Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy. One report I heard on the news today is that there is a list of closeted gay Republicans bouncing around Washington, DC, and what will happen with that?

When I hear these reports about public officials who get their names in the news for the wrong reasons, I sometimes think I have a different moral paradigm than the screamers. Why do they call the pages who work for the Congresspeople "children"? Most are 16 or 17 years old. Yes, I understand they are there under supervision of the program run by the Congress. But Washington is not a city on a hill. And a 16-year-old male is not a child. He is a teenager, and some teens are more mature than others. But to label this cohort as children is not accurate. One former page who received unwanted e-mail from the former Congressman was interviewed and he said: "When I saw it was from him, I hit the delete button." The others who engaged in conversation online with the distinguished gentleman from Florida must have liked to talk about their personal behaviors.

I would like to think that the hypocrisy angle of the Mayor and the Congressman was the lead item in this story. But it isn't. It's the purely salacious aspect-- "gay sex scandal." It would be nice if we had a Horkheimer/Adorno-lite who would fully deal with why so many gay men in the conservative parties have to live these twisted lives, and why, when they actually have an option to live differently-- continue in their constant ways. It is an enduring, if not great, wonder of our world. Stay tuned. More to come.

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com