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Banned
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Originally Posted by seretogis
It's unfortunate that pederasts are still confused with homosexuals, even on this board.
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If, by your reference to "this board"....you mean "this thread"....I know that you cannot be posting about me or about Elphaba....so, what is it that you are talking about?
I've been through the "confusion" accusation before. I assure you, it is misplaced....before....in the following example with the BSA hypocrisy story, and certainly, if it is your point....now, too.
This thread is about hypocrisy in congress, in the republican party, and in any "walk of life" where homosexuals, based solely on their perceived sexual orientation, are discriminated against, harrassed, or judged.
If ex-congressman Foley had been affiliated with a different political party, one that permitted him to have a political career, and be open about who he is, <b>there would not be anything worthy of discussion here</b>, except the irony that Foley sponsored the legislation that made his activities on the internet with three former house pages, criminal acts.
<b>I predict that the "big" story here, will be the confirmation of the lack of truthfulness, ethics, of congressional leaders, and their inability to put political priorities aside...the risk of losing a "safe seat", in November, 2006, vs. the protection of young house pages from Foley's advances. The hypocrisy of a party political platform that attracts votes by targeting homosexuals is also supported and advanced as an agenda, by speaker Hastert, et al, in addition to their other "shortcomings".</b>
It is also about the irony that the "leaders" in congress....of the political party that "keeps us safe from terror", cannot even put political priorities aside, <b>to protect it's own teenage pages !</b>, from a fellow republican member who received at the least, complaints from the parents of a 16 year old male page, that the "member's" contacts with their son were inappropriate. We know from reporting, and from the failure of house leaders to even get their "stories" straight, that there is much more to this controversy, than that.
.....but it is not about anyone who posted on this thread, being "confused":
I've invited discussion about what I just described, in past threads:
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http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=88552
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?
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Originally Posted by host
ACLU = Bad -- BSA policy of exclusion of homosexual scoutmasters = Good
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=86269
MSNBC Sez; 61 yrs. old High Ranking BSA Official Guilty of Having Male Child Porn
So many posts on this thread avoid the obvious hypocrisy of pornographer Smith, The BSA policy makers, ACLU bashers who use the ACLU v. BSA as a
hot button issue, the Christian Evangelicals who have politicized this, and of the posters here who try to persuade us of "what this isn't about" ( TFP members who volunteer their time to lead the praiseworthy boys who participate in the BSA, are explicity excluded from my focus here !).
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/national/30scout.html
.....As of February 2003, Mr. Smith said, scout leaders, parents and other volunteers could go to the Internet for a training course on protecting scouts while out on tours and trips. He expressed confidence that the Web site would prove helpful "in providing the most wholesome possible environment for young people."
When five boy scouts were among 17 young people honored with Congressional Award Gold Medals in 1999, Mr. Smith accompanied the group to Washington and posed with them for a photo in Statuary Hall.
Mr. Smith also responded on behalf of the Boy Scouts in September 2004 when a lawyer and onetime Eagle Scout, Bruce D. Collins, wrote a letter taking issue with the Boy Scouts' dismissal of an assistant scoutmaster, James Dale, because he was gay. The case reached the Supreme Court and established the Boy Scouts' right to bar gays under the organization's own First Amendment right of expressive association.
Mr. Smith replied that "some intolerant elements in our society want to force scouting to abandon its values and become fundamentally different." He said that Mr. Collins "would do well to communicate his displeasure to those directing their discriminatory assault against his beloved Boy Scouts - the A.C.L.U.".......
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Is it a coincidence, or more BSA Executive level hypocrisy that pornagrapher Smith's "letter to the editor" on the bsalegal.org website, displays as a search result on Google, but is not available at the web address. Luckily, Smith's "ACLU as scapegoat" letter is available on Google's cache.... |
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http://www.washblade.com/2005/12-2/v...cunningham.cfm
Duke’s House of cards (Gay)
The resignation and guilty plea of Duke Cunningham is the latest morality tale played out among closeted congressional Republicans, with a familiar moral.
Friday, December 02, 2005
.....What you won’t read about in these mainstream press accounts is the other double life led by the closet case, Duke, the anti-gay conservative.
Cunningham, who is married with grown children, has admitted to romantic, loving relationships with men, both during his Vietnam military service and as a civilian. That was the remarkable story that this publication reported two years ago, when Elizabeth Birch, the former Human Rights Campaign leader, inadvertently outed Cunningham at a gay rights forum.
Birch never mentioned Cunningham’s name, but she talked about a rabidly anti-gay congressman who asked to meet privately with her in the midst of a controversy over his use in a speech on the floor of the House the term “homos” to describe gays who have served in the military.
Alone with Birch and an HRC staffer, the unnamed congressman shared that he had loved men during his life. In telling the story, Birch offered up a few too many details about the closeted congressman.
A few Google searches later, the Blade reported that it had to be Cunningham, whose career was pockmarked with bizarre gay pronouncements, including a reference to the rectal treatment he received for prostate cancer, something he told an audience “was just not natural, unless maybe you’re Barney Frank.”
There’s every reason to believe Birch’s inadvertent outing, even as Cunningham denied it through a spokesperson.
This is, after all, a man without principles, who could “love men” in private, all the while condemning gays in speeches and in congressional votes. Little surprise that he could live a second double life, in which he sold those unprincipled votes to the highest bidder.
THE SAD STORY of Cunningham’s double lives was destined to come to an ugly end, just as it did for Ed Schrock, another anti-gay Congressman who was outed, if not so inadvertently. Caught last year leaving explicit voice messages on a gay phone hookup line, the married Virginia Republican abruptly announced he would not seek re-election.
Things went differently for two gay Republicans in Congress who showed the courage to come out, albeit under pressure. Jim Kolbe, who announced his retirement this week, and Steve Gunderson, who quit in 1996, both came out because they believed they were about to be outed involuntarily.
Neither had been particularly friendly to gay rights while still in the closet. Kolbe had scored a 43 and a 67 on HRC’s report card, while Gunderson managed a mediocre 57. Once they no longer were living their own double-life lies, their voting records followed suit. They both scored a perfect 100 in the term after they came out, and Kolbe went on to score perfect or near-perfect scores every term since.
The same could be said for Mark Foley, a Florida Republican who traveled openly within gay circles with his long-term partner until he went back into the closet for a U.S. Senate run in 2004.
<b>Like the others, the closeted Foley scored a dismal 44 on HRC’s scorecard, but during his 1996 re-election bid he was outed by local activists in his South Florida district. Since then, he’s scored in the 80s or higher on HRC’s report card and played an active role on several important pieces of gay rights legislation.</b>
WITH THE RETIREMENT of Gunderson and now Kolbe, and the forced departures of Cunningham and Schrock, Foley is one of just two closeted Republicans left in Congress. And “closeted” is the only fair term because Foley has not denied being gay, he has simply refused to answer the question.
<b>David Dreier, a member of the GOP House leadership, is also openly closeted, refusing to deny long-standing rumors that he is gay. The rumors only came to a head in the last year, and their only visible impact so far was to take Dreier out of the running for House majority leader after Tom DeLay was forced to resign.
But Dreier’s voting record looks very much like that of his pre-outed colleagues, ranging between 0 and 25 in the last decade.</b>
In each case, the closer a closeted member of Congress comes to grips with being gay, with or without a nudge, the better their voting record on gay rights issues. The deeper the hole they dig with their lives, the more their voting records reflect their own self-loathing, and the sadder the end they come to........
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Quote:
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/expo...ng/051105.html
May 11, 2005
Foley's metamorphosis
By Betsy Rothstein
....In September 2003, Foley dropped out of the race, triggering a media frenzy. The skeptics smelled a scandal. They wondered if Foley had dropped out because he realized he couldn’t win. They wondered if his decision in had anything to do with the news conference he held in May 2003 to declare that he would not discuss his sexual orientation after a few publications tried to out him as gay.....
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Quote:
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/01/Pe...cause_Ma.shtml
Don't ask, because Mark Foley won't tell
By ADAM C. SMITH
Published June 1, 2003
It's a basic political premise: Get in front of a potentially damaging story before it overwhelms you. That's certainly what Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Foley had in mind when the five-term congressman called an unusual press conference recently.
Reports that he's gay are about to spread from alternative and gay media outlets to major Florida newspapers, Foley said. He blamed Democratic activists for spreading the rumor and decried the "repulsive" campaign tactic.
He wanted reporters to know that he won't answer questions about his sexuality; it has nothing to do with his candidacy.
Don't ask, won't tell.
It's an awkward issue not only for the 48-year-old Foley, who is running for Bob Graham's Senate seat in 2004. Journalists covering his campaign are wrestling with the relevancy of the gay question. So is the Republican Party, increasingly struggling to balance a desire for tolerance and inclusiveness with conservative views of family values.
This is new and uncomfortable political ground, and a lot of Republican activists acknowledge they have no idea how it will play out.
"Is it relevant? I'm not sure I have the answer," said Paul Bedinghaus, chairman of the Pinellas GOP. "If I were hiring someone for a job, absolutely not. But there's something about public service and public policy that makes this different somehow. We have not as a party in Florida had to face this question yet, and we may have to shortly."
The national party is grappling too. When Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania made an analogy between homosexuality and incest and bestiality, some Republicans complained the party didn't repudiate him strongly enough. Others complained the party didn't defend him adequately.
And Republican National Committee Chairman Marc Racicot infuriated some conservative groups by meeting in March with the Human Rights Campaign, a group that lobbies for legal protections for gays and which has contributed $20,000 to Foley's political action committee since 2000.
In Florida Foley did succeed in getting control of the budding story, sort of. He rounded up prominent conservatives, from Gov. Jeb Bush to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, to tout his strong Republican record.
But his damage control effort pushed whispers that most media had ignored for months into newspapers across the state (his hometown paper, the Palm Beach Post, opted not to report on his news conference). It made CNN and the Bill O'Reilly show.
He also managed to infuriate some gay activists for his denunciation of people trying to "slur me" with the gay rumor.
Norm Kent, publisher of Florida's largest gay newspaper, the Express in Broward County, is a longtime liberal activist. But he had expected to endorse Foley, who has generally had a strong voting record on anti-discrimination and hate crime bills protecting gays and lesbians. That changed when he read about Foley's conference call with Florida reporters.
"If homosexuality is nothing to be ashamed of, what's "repulsive' about discussing one's sexuality?" asked Kent. "It's obvious he's trying to placate part of his party by selectively choosing his words in a way that's harmful and denigrating to the gay community."
Kent asked another question: Would Tom DeLay, an evangelical Christian, rally to the defense of an openly gay Republican candidate?
Many conservative voters will only accept a gay politician "as long as he appears to not be happy about it," U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., told Slate.com after Foley's news conference.
Frank, who steered clear of addressing the question of Foley's sexuality, is one of three openly gay members of Congress (along with U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz). All acknowledged their homosexuality after winning congressional seats and have been re-elected. No openly gay nonincumbent has successfully run for Congress.
Indeed, many Republicans in Florida last week were speculating about whether even questions about Foley's sexuality will kill his chances in the Republican primary. Christian conservatives are not a huge force in Florida politics, but they are a force nonetheless and many Christian conservatives see homosexuality as immoral.
State Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, seemed to sum up the Florida GOP comfort zone on the gay question last week. He's not buying into the reports about Foley. "Just because you're single doesn't mean you have a different lifestyle."
At the same time, Wise is confident that an openly gay candidate could never win a statewide Republican primary in Florida.
"I think the standards of family values are pretty strong in the Republican Party," Wise said. "The issue is we're looking for candidates who have good family values and care about the family."
Foley's only announced primary challenger, former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum (whose media adviser is openly gay) said he sees no issue. Likewise, Gov. Bush dismissed potential damage to Foley, citing his strong conservative voting record.
"People vote for people - not private issues," Bush said. "Sexual preference is not a defining character issue."
Still, the Florida GOP is finding that a big tent philosophy makes some party faithful uneasy. While Foley blamed Democrats for spreading rumors about him, virtually everybody mentioning the issue to this newspaper before his news conference was Republican.
Last year, Patrick Howell, an openly gay self-described Reagan conservative, ran for an Orlando-area state legislative seat being vacated by Republican Allen Trovillion. Trovillion, a social conservative, endorsed the Democrat who wound up winning.
Even news that state GOP chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan planned to meet this week with a gay Republican organization, the Broward Log Cabin Republican Club, upset some activists.
"What is this," Sandi Trusso of Ocala asked in an e-mail to Gov. Bush about the Log Cabin meeting. "Is it time for a recall on the state chairman's office? I thought we were Republicans!"
Exit polls in 2000 found that 4 percent of voters nationally identified themselves as gay, and one in four of those voters - 1.1-million people - backed George W. Bush over Al Gore. In a race as close as 2000, that's a group of voters who may have decided the election.
How appreciative are Republicans? Today, it seems even a rumor could be enough to derail the sort of fiscally conservative, socially moderate candidate well suited to win statewide elections.
"I hope Mark can overcome it," said former state party chairman Tom Slade. "But I have my doubts."
- Political Editor Adam C. S
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<b>So, what we have is a closeted gay republican congressman, with a prior house voting record that was not supportive of gay issues, who, in addition to that dysfunction and hypocrisy, sponsored the very legislation that made what the messages that he sent to teenage boys, via the internet, criminal acts, and this adds to his level of hypocrisy, and makes the curious spectacle of folks who rise politically in an anti-gay party, and vote against gay rights legislation, even as they, themselves, hide their own sexual orientation, even more curious. The lies from the house leadership, and the reaction to the complaints from parents of a house page....the decision by Rep. Alexander to take the complaints to the house republican re-election committee chairman, Rep. Reynolds, instead of to the house ethics committee, and to exclude the democratic house member of the house page board from knowledge of the complaints about Foley, adds to the hypocrisy, selfishness, and incompetence of these "leaders".</b>
Last edited by host; 10-02-2006 at 01:01 AM..
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