I've just finished my coffee and the Sunday New York Times. It had no fewer than six articles and op ed columns about Senator Craig's resignation and a cartoon. Alberto Gonzales and Tony Snow's resignations last week were barely mentioned.
I wrote on Thursday that I didn't think Senator Craig should resign over soliciting a policeman in a public bathroom. After reading all the calls for his resignation by Republican leaders, it seems to come down to this: homophobia is so entrenched in this party that he had to pay with his career. It's the "Children's Hour" forty years later writ large.
Laura McDonald in today's New York Times wrote a fascinating column about a 1970's research report that found that "policing bathrooms is pointless" and that "blackmail, payoffs, the destruction of reputations and families, all result from police interventions" in bathroom solicitations. And so they still do 35 years later.
Surely it's time for such stings to end. Surely it's time to apply a single standard for straight and gay public leaders. And surely it's time for politicans who struggle with their own sexuality to stop trying to legislate the sexuality of others.
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4 comments:
Having Craig resign at this time did exactly what they wanted. It cleared the news of Gonzales' resignation and focused the media on another topic.
You're right Rev. Haffner -- why are their police wasting time in airport bathrooms to begin with?
"And surely it's time for politicians who struggle with their own sexuality to stop trying to legislate the sexuality of others."
I would go even further and say that politicians should stop trying to legislate the sexuality of others regardless of whether or not they struggle with their own. It only reflects a terrible fear of other peoples sexuality, as if other peoples sexual choices are what is going to drag this country down.
I don't want to sully my Sunday by going there right now, but I hope people will consider what Jesus emphasized (Loving God and loving each other.) As has been pointed out previously, Jesus did NOT put a lot of emphasis on sexuality. He sent that woman that the Pharisees wanted so badly to stone, home to "sin no more."
For better or worse, Senator Craig's political career seems to be over. But I would bet my soul that Jesus would sit with him and offer up some sort of compassionate support. Can the Chistian church do that, as well.
I agree that Senator Craig's great "sin" was hypocrisy. Nevertheless, I have heard too many people gloating over his demise. This was a human being with a family and friends who has become publicly embarrassed because in some law enforcement officer who was lurking in a public restroom believed he was sending the wrong "signals." I am not for public sex acts in the restrooms where people of all ages are allowed to enter presumably to take care of business. However, I don't think simply "signally" interest is a crime.
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