The Nation‘s Richard Kim offers an intriguing rumination-cum-hypothesis on Larry Craig, Bob Allen and other hypocritical politicos:
…I wonder if the GOP’s burgeoning “bathroom problem” isn’t reflective of something larger than just a bunch of conservative dudes who couldn’t come out of the closet. There’s something palpably sad to me about what happened to Allen and Craig too, something oddly touching about their misplaced faith in the fading world of secret, anonymous gay sex. That world–once found in bathrooms, parks, piers and adult bookstores; the furtive refuges of adventuresome queers, married men, the curious–has been swept away by so many police raids, privatization schemes, quality of life campaigns and internet dating services. But mostly, it’s fallen away as gays have become increasingly integrated into the mainstream, and also, paradoxically, more marked than ever. “You’re either gay or you’re not” seems to be the equation.
Until someone like Craig, Allen, Mark Foley, Ted Haggard or Jim McGreevey shows up to ripple momentarily the waters of public discourse on sex. These guys have problems, no doubt. But we might also pause to wonder if there’s some cultural knot that gay liberation–despite its original and best intentions–has left in place. At the very least the link between public power and domestic heterosexuality–with all the fetishistic displays of family life that entails–has yet to be completely severed.
This theory, of course, doesn’t include popular, openly gay, childless lawmakers like Barney Frank.
Tallskin
“That world–once found in bathrooms, parks, piers and adult bookstores; the furtive refuges of adventuresome queers, married men, the curious–has been swept away by so many police raids, privatization schemes, quality of life campaigns and internet dating services. But mostly, it’s fallen away as gays have become increasingly integrated into the mainstream, and also, paradoxically, more marked than ever. “You’re either gay or you’re not†seems to be the equation.” — This is exactly what has happened here in Britain, but with one huge difference to the US experience, namely Blair won the 1997 election! The most pro-gay govt in UK history. He changed everything for us.
Damn, I still curse that Gore fucked up his election in 2000 and lost to Bush. He managed to reduce a lead in the polls to a neck and neck race.
How different things would be now of Gore had won! (Ain’t I the master of understatement!)
Over here in the UK the series of catastrophic defeats the Conservative Party has suffered since losing massively to Blair in 1997 has disoriented them and made them swing wildly from liberal to snarling right wing back to liberal again, back to drooling right wing. And so on. They don’t know what they should do, what groups they should appeal to, what their policies should be.
At the moment they are liberal, with openly gay members in the opposition front bench, with these same openly gay men (no openly gay women but that’s because the majority of MPs of all parties are men) speaking on behalf of the party. (I have to pinch myself sometimes watching these men, remembering how vile and anti-gay the conservatives used to be under Thatcher).
So, you need to ensure two things 1) make sure the Democrats are gay friendly and 2) make sure they win and keep winning!
Tallskin
Oh, and i forgot to add that the other HUGE difference between the UK and USA is that religion here in England is a busted flush, it has little power.
As far as I see it from over here gays in the US have got to unite with secularists and atheists to bash and force the religious back into the private sphere. Because religion is always going to be anti-gay and provides the intellectual framework, the bedrock, upon which all other types of homophobia is based.
Bill Perdue
I have to agree that the English Labour Party’s victory and its legislative and equality enforcement agenda are a great step forward. Only two things mar that picture. Foremost is the LP’s increasing distance from the trade union movement. Second is Labour’s (Blair’s) fawning collusion with Bushes oil piracy in Iraq. People who have loyally voted for Labour all their lives are breaking with the LP over the question of Iraq. Both trends will work to demoralize and could work to defeat the LP. The LP needs to denounce that war and get out.
The Democratic Party in the US is a different animal altogether and is fundamentally different from the Labour Party. Throughout most of its history it’s been the more reactionary of the two parties and while it pretends to be for labor, against racism, a friend of environmentalists, etc., it’s nothing of the sort.
In politics the GOP, which once masqueraded as a centrist party, is now openly extremist and confrontational. Its theocratic leaders aim to end abortion rights, reimpose strict misogyny, reject science and scientific ethics, and terminate gay and lesbian struggles for equality. For eight the GOP has lashed out at unions, environmentalists, women, civil libertarians, immigrants, minorities, and our GLBT communities while the Democrats did nothing. Before the 2006 election the Democrats pledged health care reform, an end to the war, etc., but aside from a few cosmetic bills, their Congressional majorities have done nothing of the sort.
The Democrats are paying the price for decades of pretending to be the allies of working people, minorities, women, etc. Increasingly, they’re trapped between a rock and a hard place as growing political volatility makes it impossible for them to continue substituting promises and posturing for real world political results. For decades Democrats have stabbed voters in the back after reeling in their votes. They’re consummate frauds and little better than closeted Republicans.
In reality, the two parties are mirror images of each other. Competing for the approval, money and power bestowed by the rich, they see eye to eye with them and with each another on key issues, disagreeing chiefly about which set of felons ought to hold office. Neither party is a barrier to attempts to impose theocracy or to strengthen the rule of the rich; in fact, both are integral to the process.
A Democrat victory in 2008 is far from assured. They repeated the same mistake after the 2004 and 2006 elections by refusing to take a stand for the immediate and total withdrawal of US troops. It’s the usual treachery and they excuse it by wailing that their hands are tied.
Democrats are in deep trouble. Last year the AFL-CIO split. About half the membership (Teamsters, SEIU, UNITE, HERE, the Carpenters and several other unions) formed the Change to Win Coalition, and their man goal is to divert union funds away from pointless efforts on behalf of Democratic hacks and into unionizing the unorganized. The big loser in this split will be the Democratic Party.
A week ago the latest a Gallup poll said that the Congressional approval rate is the lowest it’s been since 1974. Barely 18% approve of the actions of the Congress while 76% disapprove. The poll was taken from August 13-16, 2007. Even George Bush has a higher rating!
The solution for us to build and vote for the union backed and controlled US Labor Party. Check them out at http://www.thelaborparty.org