The Ewwww Factor
4 September 2007 - 22 אלול 5767 by Huw
Jspot makes a good point about Craig’s resignation. It was a clear victory for homophobia:
I like to see hypocrisy unmasked as much as the next guy, and I won’t deny that there was a smile on my surprised face when I first heard the news about Craig earlier this week. I firmly support Jeremy’s decision to award the Senator a Piggy Award. But let’s be clear: this was no victory against hypocrisy. It was a victory for homophobia and a blow to privacy rights.
JS makes a very good point about what happened:
Let’s remember that Craig’s arrest was not for having sex in a public place, but for allegedly expressing his interest in sex–and in a subtle enough way that it’s designed not to get attention… If Craig had actually been having sex in a bathroom stall, then sure, there would have been grounds for his arrest.
That point was not made clear to me (or maybe my thick skull ignored it) until I read jspot today - although in my head I realise that no officer seeking to make an arrest would actually engage in sex (disappointing, for all that, as adorably cute as the arresting officer was).
Jspot makes it very clear that the overwhelming response, left and right, lumped Craig’s behavior in with the corruption of Jack Abramoff and Ted Stevens (whose home was recently raided by the FBI), not to mention Mark Foley’s sexual harassment of teens. The message to closeted queer folk everywhere is clear: we may tolerate you, but we still don’t like you, especially if we have to think about your sex lives.
Personally, I just thought it hypocritical. There’s a difference, on the one hand, between a very closeted person who chooses to live a life of closetedness, or a very out person who chooses to live a life of celibacy and yet lets others make free choices; and - on the other hand - a closeted or celibate person whose life attempts to force others into making the same choice. The Senator had acted, politically, in anti-gay ways. In a sense it was his own actions that forced his desires to surface in what is called “tea room sex” or, in the UK, “cottaging.”
Of course there is a covert language for this: it is illegal. This bothers some but, as jspot asks, ” Does anyone doubt that somewhere in that airport that day, there were at least five men propositioning women in far more overt and obnoxious ways?”.
My admittedly biased understanding of Idaho politics comes from a friend in Boise who said the entire state used to vote Democrat until some very wealthy folks from Orange County (California) began to retire to their sky lodges and brought their voting habits with them. I don’t know if this is valid history or not, but if it is true, my assumption is they will just buy themselves a new senator - perhaps more of a class with them. This one, like so many famous in LA, will know how to quietly bring boys back to his pied a terre and pay them off very well for their silence.
Meanwhile, privacy and civil liberties (which include the right to politely proposition in public, certainly?) will have suffered a huge blow in Minneapolis and no one on the right - and very very few on the left (myself included) have uttered a peep because the smirks or grossed out look were glued to our faces.
Update: According to the NYTimes, Craig may not resign after all.
Glad that you liked the JSpot post; thanks for the kind and thoughtful words!
Hey Matt. Thanks for stopping by!
No problem! Incidentally, where did you get the photo of the baby-faced cop?
googled his name. where did I get it… erf. Breaking my own rules about credit. And my software put one heck of a random name on it… let me see if I can find it again.
Wait–you googled the name? So that really is the arresting officer? Seriously? I figured that it was just a cute photo you’d found somewhere!
Here it is. Stole it from Mo Rocca.
I’m assuming it’s a screen capture? Yo no ce.