05-06-2005, 04:29 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Banned
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Spokane Mayor, Another Republican Foe of Gay Rights is Outed
When will closeted Republican politicians stop their hypocrisy?
They continue their attack on gays and gay rights, and the press continues to out them. Is it dysfunction, self loathing, or denial that makes these guys tick?
Quote:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...ck=1&cset=true
Mayor says he didn't abuse boys years ago
By Nicholas K. Geranios
Associated Press
Published May 6, 2005
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Mayor James West, a Republican foe of gay rights, was accused in a newspaper story Thursday of molesting two boys decades ago and was caught by the paper using the trappings of his office to try to court a young man on a gay Web site.
West on Thursday denied the molestation allegations but acknowledged he "had relations with adult men."
He admitted offering autographed sports memorabilia and a possible City Hall internship to what he thought was an 18-year-old man on the Web site Gay.com. The man was a private computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review as part of a journalism sting operation.
West, 54, a former Boy Scout leader and Army paratrooper who was married briefly in the 1990s, denied that the online offers constituted abuse of his office, and he said he would serve the more than three years remaining in his term.
"I am a law-abiding citizen," West said during a brief news conference. He took no questions.
The Spokesman-Review ran interviews Thursday with two men who allege West molested them decades ago when they were Boy Scouts and the mayor was a troop leader and sheriff's deputy. Both men have criminal records because of drug problems.
"I categorically deny allegations about incidents that supposedly occurred 24 years ago as alleged by two convicted felons and about which I have no knowledge," West said.
No criminal investigations are under way, according to sheriff and police departments, which said the statute of limitation for any charges has run out.
West, a conservative with an abrasive style and a fierce temper, rose to become majority leader of the state Senate during a two-decade legislative career. He consistently opposed efforts to expand civil rights protections for gays and voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, a ban on gay marriage, in 1998.
West said he would not characterize himself as gay. As for his visits to the Gay.com Web site, he told the newspaper: "I can't tell you why I go there ... curiosity, confused, whatever, I don't know."
In 1990, he married. The marriage lasted five years.
The newspaper said its investigation of West arose out of tips received in 2002 during its investigations of sexual abuse of children by priests.
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Last edited by host; 05-06-2005 at 04:30 AM..
Reason: Spelling correction: hypocrisy
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