Tabloids have been having a field day with news that a married British lawmaker allegedly paid for male escorts and offered them flirty drugs.
Mere days after The Sunday Mirror ran an exposé, Labour Party member Keith Vaz stepped down, saying the move was “in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee.”
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In a statement, Vaz expressed boilerplate remorse:
How about we take this to the next level?
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“I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair.”
He added that he finds it “deeply disturbing that a national newspaper should have paid individuals to have acted in this way” and intimates that he plans to get lawyers involved.
The Sunday Mirror says the report is totally justified by Vaz’s responsibilities and influence on politics, particularly since he enjoyed a powerful role in the Home Office, which controls Britain’s policies on sex work and drugs.
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Before his announcement, fellow politicians suggested his resignation was a foregone conclusion.
John Whittingdale, who worked as a secretary under former Prime Minister David Cameron told Sky News, “Given the areas of which the committee is responsible, that does seem to me to be a sensible course of action.”
As The New York Times reports, Vaz allegedly met with two male escorts on August 27th at a London apartment. He apparently asked one of them to bring poppers, and said he’d pay for cocaine but wouldn’t snort any of it. The encounter was apparently videotaped and the footage was posted online.
The poppers detail might be a bit unnecessary, but it’s worth noting Vaz argued against adding them to a list of banned substances, so at least he’s not a complete hypocrite.
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Despite telling the escorts he was a washing machine salesman named Jim, one of them apparently recognized him from the news and decided to blab to the papers.
Billy Budd
We cant feel sorry for him because he is indeed a hypocrite. All these puritans and politicians and clergics of any kind always have something to hide. We live out in the open and are penalized. It is very unfair.
Tobi
His parliamentary colleagues called him Vazeline behind his back, says it all really… !
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
He is many things ..but hypocrite in this instance is not one of those things
browngay
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: @PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID:
He is exactly that. As I have said before, people like him who live double lives when they don’t have to; after all, he is a politician in Britain, lived most of his life there and not in his native country India where being gay has been recriminalized and carries a sentence of life imprisonment.
Before deciding on if he is a hypocrite or not remember the unhappy and sad lives of gay Indian people who are forced into sham marriages and a life of lies and despair. Many Indian gay couples and individuals often have found no other way out that situation but suicide!
‘People’ like Keith are directly responsible for such a situation.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@browngay: first off you know FUCK ALL about his personal circumstances as to whether hie and wife have an understanding..indeed he may be legitimately bisexual and his marriage far from a sham and hence not a “double life ” Furthermore the public have no fucking business knowing about who he’s fucking. He is corrupt as fuck in all other respects bot he’s never bad mouthed gay people or opposed gay rights.
finally, you seriously discount the far greater difficulties in being openly sexual let alone openly gay in the community he’s from and represents as an MP, especially in that generation.
Doughosier
He’s not attractive, why can’t he pay for sex?
Hussain-TheCanadian
Who in their right mind would allow such a spectacle to be filmed?????
browngay
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: Sure; His wife knew about it and on the weekend both would discuss their week: he his sex rendezvous and she the illicit money she had been receiving into their accounts on his behalf from his crooked dealings……….
I want to say
Firstly, Cheating is wrong no matter what your orientation. bisexual men don’t have a right to cheat on their wife.
Secondly, I want to emphasize even bisexual men need to come out of the closet. if they are living actively bi sexual lives
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@browngay: Again, you are bloviating without recourse to the facts of his relationship with his wife. This is nothing more than you virtue signalling your own moral puritanism. Good for you.
captainburrito
@browngay: If he cheated that was wrong but a matter for his family. Paying for drugs was also wrong and a matter for the law.
Otherwise i think his infidelity is his own private matter, same with his sexual orientation unless he had been voting against gay rights.
Whether he comes out or not is not your decision. That is not your legitimate concern.
gmale
@captainburrito: What I don’t understand is why does he feel the need to hide it. He is of Indian origin and celebrated it by being part of the Asian Diversity Clubs in Parliament and politics yet hid his sexual diversity and orientation? Isn’t it because he could run into opposition and hostility, which goes back to my original point about changing attitudes in the Indian community towards gays.
bjjb
Leave him alone….if that’s his sexual priority let it be……
Kangol
@bjjb: He was pro-gay for his entire career in Parliament. He voted for pro-gay legislation. Sad news that he’s now out of Parliament.