When rumors swirled around Capitol Hill in 2004 that a Republican U.S. senator had engaged a stranger in sexual activities in the men’s room at Union Station in Washington, Larry Craig of Iowa was not on most people’s list of suspects.
Craig’s relative obscurity gave him cover, but mainly his anti-gaydar camouflage was quite convincing. Who would expect a man with the owl-eyed demeanor and reedy rasp of a Midwestern school marm, and a high-profile anti-gay record that rivals the great Republican homo-hater, former N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms, to be gay?
So the news that he’d pleaded guilty to coming onto an undercover cop in restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport on June 11, 2007, was surprising, to say the least.
And given the revelation, Craig’s record on gay civil rights is simply astonishing:
- 1996: Voted YES on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibiting same-sex marriage.
- 2000: Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.
- 2002: Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes.
- 2002: Rated 25 percent by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record.
- 2006: Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.
Since the revelation of Craig’s arrest, numerous men have come forward to say they’ve had sex with Craig. One of them is Mike Jones, the sex “escort” who outed Craig’s fellow nominee, Rev. Ted Haggard, after a long professional association. Another was an unnamed gay Republican functionary who was apparently the source of the 2004 rumors about Craig in the Union Station men’s room.
Craig remains adamant, however: “I am not gay” And he is refusing to give up his Senate seat early, as he’d originally promised, but will serve until his term ends in January, probably in order to ensure that a lucrative lobbying career will be waiting for him.
But this prompts a question: Who would want him?
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