Thread Title: "I am not Gay" or Just Desserts or Tappy McHappy Pants

[goprog]

public vs. private

Reality vs. illusion, fact vs. fiction.

There's a difference between you and I "breaking the law",
whatever law that might be, and an elected official who enacts
these laws and then breaks them. If Craig was not a senator
and this happened it would not be a big deal. If William
Jefferson of Louisiana was not a congressman and was found with
$92,000 in bribe money in his freezer it would not be that big
a deal (illegal yes.)

But there is a difference between the two. Jefferson's act IMO
is clearly wrong and I think that would be agreed to near
unanimously. Any laws he helped pass making what he did
illegal I think are accepted as good laws (unless you are a
corporation that likes to give or take bribes for business.)

Craig's act is not so clearly wrong (yes, broke some "civil
society" ordinance, but I put that in the category of laws
about what kind of signs you can put in your yard and what
sort of Christmas decorations you're allowed.) The problem
with Craig is being a hypocrite and fighting for laws that
a large number of people think are NOT good laws and truly
affect their lives in negative ways. We should be outraged
at him simply for that to start with. This is (at his expense
I suppose) an opportunity to broaden the discussion in the
MSM (mainstream media) which might enlighten just a few more
people (voters). Of course it may simply cause Idaho voters
to toss him out (if he doesn't resign) and be replaced by
someone just as bad who isn't a hypocrite (in this particular
sense.)

 

[spiceman1957]

Sudshane

Thats a mighty pretty and delicious cake.

? Made from scratch
? Do you mixed the food color with the other liquids then
add to dry
? Toasted the nuts
? Cream Cheese frosting

 

[washertalk]

lol

"Zip Me Up Before You GoGo"!

I liked Wham ! I never thought about replacing those words though. LOL.

I still remember that neon video in like 1983?

 

[~sudsshane]

Thank you John...

yes to all of the above. I also use cake flour instead of All Purpose flour.

 

[neptunebob]

Thanks Washertalk, I'm glad someone remembers and it's not a figment of my imagination (or maybe the 80s were a dream, like Who Killed JR?). I agree with AndrewinOrlando, because he is Senator Craig, it is more of scandal than with George Michael - I mean George was not a government official, he was just one half of Wham!.

We recently had a local councilman who did something like this in a bathroom at the University of Pittsburgh. Recently he ran for reelection. His wife was at the poll and she was promoting him to be elected. How did she ever cope with this? He did get reelected, though.

 

[vinvac]

Rick,

I loved your post! That is my feeling as well, being gay is a very small part of who I really am. I have lived in very small, conservative towns all my life, have been school board president, church organist, lay speaker for the church, president of the local resque squad and help with many other community functions.

What bothers me is, if I were as open as some here, I wonder if I would be treated with the same respect that I have been for many years. I am sure many people know or think they know that I am a gay man, but they don't ask and I don't feel the need to tell.

I have to agree that being republican or democrat makes a huge difference in our current goverment and society. There are so many "fakes out there" for many different reasons, generally trying to cover for there own short comings. Churches covering themselves, politians covering themselves, because they themselves have been forced into hiding who they really are.

MTF

 

[mickeyd]

Home from vacation in Chi-town

Saw Craig at Midway. Gawd, how horrible he looks in person, a hybrid of Cheney and the last chief justice whose name suddenly escapes me, that silly man who instituted shoulder epaulets for the head guy's robe, not to mention throwing the presidential election for the first time in American history. I wouldn't go near him. ;-D

Nice to see everyone in full-moon high spirits. Missed you all !

 

[JerseyMike]

It's interesting how the local Idaho media is covering this.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/143801.html

 

[rickr]

Thanks Morgan, glad you liked my post. It isn't that I am closeted, or that I live in a small town. It is just that I have limited interest in my gay friends. I never deny that I am gay, and in fact, if the subject comes up, I will always say that I am. I am also for gay rights. I just don't wear my "gayness" on my sleave. <: It is not that big of a deal to me.

 

[goprog]

Right. Nightly News says a number of Republicans have
contributed money they received from Craig to charity.

Oh hurray, good for them. Why don't they do the same
with the money they receive from oil and pharmaceutical
companies (same for Democrats.) Oh, and defense/arms
manufacturers, too. While the Craig story has its
problems, there are other more important issues that
should be front and center. They're just not as
salacious.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

"Being gay" is not that big a deal to me either. In fact, I was even less into my "gayness" before I became a member here as some of the "oldtimers" will recall -- I was uncomfortable with the subject and did my own share of "taking exception" to the campy postings. Now I'm right there in there with y'all. Taking the username "Maggie~Hamilton" was not just a nod toward those who called me a "wicked old witch," it also represented an epiphany of sorts. A way of embracing my femininity. (Okay, never mind that Margaret Hamilton was not exactly effeminate ... it's the thought that counts, haha!)

While I have gotten over my discomfort with camp, and indeed I am "out" to everyone -- it's no big secret here! -- I too do not "wear my gayness on my sleeve." By the same token, I do not avoid discussing controversial events when they happen, especially when they happen involving one of my pet peeves -- hypocritical religious or political fanatics.

Here's a pretty funny link someone sent to me --

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=16944534

 

[goprog]

Maggie's link

LMAO!

 

[jmirawm]

LMAO !!!!

@ MaggieH's link..... "aww hell, we didn't have gay people back then"

 

[whirlcool]

From the link.....

That was almost too much! Thanks for that link!

I agree with the guy in the coveralls.... BUT "they didn't have gay people way back then????" I am sure we have people around that think like that.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

"I am sure we have people around that think like that.&

You're not kidding. Somewhere there's a web site with a compilation of the more inane and outrageous comments that Jerry Falwell made. One of them, made way back in the early 1970s when he first started the greatest fundraiser of his career, was something along that line. A reporter had asked, Well Rev., what would you do if you found out one of your church members was a homosexual, and he replied something like, Oh, we don't have people like that here in Lynchburg.

 

[alr2903]

Part of the audio interview was on talk radio during my ride home from work. Im thinking this whole thing can be attributed to "Restless Leg Syndrome"

 

[earthling177]

Missing the point

Here’s another point of view from my better half.

We’re missing the point by a mile. We should get a huge fund raising effort, PayPal and all, to get as much money as possible. Then, we should have TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads and maybe even mail the people who voted for this guy, including his pictures when possible. Something along the lines of:

------
My fellow gay citizens --

We are writing to you regarding something pretty important, which is the arrest of the closeted gay senator Craig. For decades, we’ve been having problems with laws that should not be in the books and, worse, that are selectively enforced. When heterosexual couples get caught having sex in public places, they basically get a slap in the wrist. But our poor fellow gay senator Craig is being attacked for something that is not a disease and it shouldn’t be criminalized. Besides, laws like that are dangerous -- just think if one of your children was in the same bathroom and happens to have a "wide stance" and innocently taps their foot, they might be arrested for something they don't even know what it is! Think of the children!!!

Why can't be more enlightened, like New York State, where it was decided that if people are having sex inside the stalls it is private enough? Why do we have laws that are targeted specifically at gay people and not enforced when it's a "straight" couple?

Please contribute as much as you can afford to defend our fellow, gay senator Craig.

Thanks in advance!
------

Who knows, maybe we can kill two birds with a stone, we embarrass him as much as possible and we also stamp the stupid laws from the books. ;-)

 

[goprog]

My fellow gay citizens

Good idea - sounds like a very Karl Rove thing to do. LOL

 

[Unimatic1140]

The Metropolitan Airport Police have just released the audio tape of the interview between the sexy blonde police officer (oh his accent, yea baby as Austin Powers would say LOL) and Senator Craig. But it is really sad to hear the senator, but we all have choices in this world and sometimes you have to pay the consequences for poor choices, especially when you are hurting others.

It's quite fascinating to read what you guys have to say about your "gayness" per se.

As for my gayness I love being gay, it's one of the best things that ever happened to me, I was so lucky to be born this way. Even though there is still lots of ignorance and discrimination against us out there, we enjoy such amazing freedoms. We're not expected to do this or that just because it was the way everyone else did it, we have no rules and expectations to live up to that are set for us by our family in that respect. Was it hard growing up this way, absolutely it was a nightmare at times, but it made me a strong adult so it was worth it all. I absolutely wear my gayness on my sleeve proudly because it's just who I am. I wear it on my sleeve in the same way that I proudly wear the fact that I have 30 some vintage washing machines, 6 vintage dryers, 6 vintage dishwashers, 10 vintage television sets, etc, etc. Do I have a picture of Neal at my desk at work, you bet, everyone in my entire company knows I'm gay. Does everyone else who has any interest in knowing me know that I'm gay, you bet they do. Does it make some people uncomfortable when they find out I'm gay, I really don't know, nor do I care, you would have to ask them because it is their issue to deal with not mine. Granted my outlook might be a bit different from others here because I have only lived in very "Blue" metropolitan areas all of my life. I only wish everyone here to be comfortable with everything you do be it sexual orientation, owning 1000 washers,raising 14 kids or 17 cats, what ever it is I hope you can find the strength be proud of it.

 

[pturo]

Bob, I think the thing with this Republican Senator Craig being a hot topic for us is that he VOTES and MAKES LAWS in this country that affect us all, and his(alleged) behaviour is beyond hypocritical to his spoken politics.

George Michael's behavior does not affect gay people except for maybe publicity.

Bill Clinton never came out against oral sex,or supported legislation that banned it.

Senator Craig came out against everything gay publicly.

Sorry if not enough people liked your bundt cakes, but a lot of us can seperate good food from good political discussion.