It’s another example of a politician choosing words carefully and diverting attention. Senator Larry Craig (R, duh) is strenuously denying… that he’s gay.
Here’s the thing: he wasn’t arrested for being gay. He isn’t in disgrace because he’s gay. All this is because he cruises for sex in men’s rooms.
But by subtly changing the focus he is creating a framework that allows him to then claim discrimination, “witch hunts,” and the like. Because if he was strenuously denying allegations that he cruises for sex in public places, he couldn’t hide behind those excuses. There’s no politically correct way to deflect criticism for that kind of thing.
And we as a society need to stop focusing on the gay part. I am gay, and I don’t cruise bathrooms or any other places; I don’t molest people, hit on interns, take drugs, get massages from male prostitutes; and I certainly don’t rail against and vote against equal rights from everyone. Being gay is not the reason that people do these things, if evidenced only by the fact that straight people do it even more.
No, we should be focusing on the moral shortcomings of a man who purports to embody such high morals. It’s the hypocrisy of it all that we should note, and not let “I am not gay!” dominate the issue. It’s a red herring, once again, designed to deflect our attention and, incidentally, set us up yet again for a divisive election cycle where gay people will be portrayed as the great threat to America, painted with a broad brush designed to convince voters that they’d better never use a public toilet again.
