Passion/Compassion
September 1, 2007 by Lulu Maude
By now Sen. Larry Craig must have announced his resignation. What a hellish education he’s received this week. The party to which he’s given his allegiance for his entire career has tossed him ought like so much rotten fruit. (Puns be damned!) The gay blogosphere has had lots of jokes at his expense. He’s persona non grata wherever he goes.
I’m not terribly proud of my own contributions to kicking him when he’s down, but in examining what is my usually very tender heart I’ve bumped into some undeniable baggage. This man and his former colleagues have contributed immeasurably to the vilification and demonization of a lot of very good people. We’ve paid a very high price to live according to our passions, our collective sense of authenticity.
In the culture war waged too successfully by the Christian Right and their governmental lackeys in the last decade, gays and lesbians have been portrayed as the very sort of people that, well, Larry Craig behaved as. Frankly, lots of us are much too wholesome to head for the bathroom in search of touch.
Even if Larry Craig is innocent of the charges against him, he knows now the tactics that police will use to elicit confessions both true and false. He knows the indignity that many before him have suffered. Let him read about the Stonewall riots and the lifetime of police jailings and beatings that led up to them.
Since any gay activity that Craig has experienced may be limited to the impersonal or professional, what he doesn’t know are all the gay and lesbian people who have responsibly cared for children and ailing parents, all the while being told that their way of life didn’t support and perpetuate the family. He hasn’t taken the time to know people who live very much in the family spirit, as parents, siblings, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, who take the time and energy to stay close to those they love… or to create new families when rejected by the family of origin, because the need for the continuity and love is so compelling.
Craig doesn’t know the pain of being denied access to an ailing partner because the law didn’t recognize the union. He hasn’t experienced the loss of both person and property as so-called “legal” relatives moved in on the person they’d rejected years ago to the exclusion of the partner. He has never had to recognize his privilege, as most people of privilege are loath to do.
Perhaps Larry Craig will come to understand the revulsion that comes from society to take its place in the dark, self-abnegating pit of the soul. That internalized hatred takes years to wash from many a spirit, and can only happen for most of us when our spirits can breathe free in the sun. Very little of what straight bigots says about us exists in fact, but it’s hard to shake all the negativity loose. Our careers, too, sit on the line that Larry Craig so recently crossed.
Bob Dylan has sung, “When you’ve got nothin’, you’ve got nothin’ to lose. You’re invisible now; you’ve got no secrets to conceal.”
Larry Craig, may your education begin. You’ve paid dearly for it.
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excellent, lulu maude. one can only hope that he will actually learn something from this.
the compassionate, loving, empathetic part of me thinks his public personal stems from growing up gay in a homophobic society. it is true that certain progress has been made in gaining equal rights for the LGBT community, but given craig’s age, i suspect if he is truly gay ~ as opposed to a . . . well, maybe straight’s not the right word, but a married man who likes a little dick on the side ~ he may be filled with a deeply internalized self hatred that informs his public stance.
if he were my neighbor, i’d work with him a little on this. as a public figure, absolutely not. who knows about his internal struggles? i don’t care, actually. similarly, i don’t care if george bush is a sociopathic cretin because his mommy didn’t breastfeed him long enough. i don’t give a shit if dick cheney is a murdering beast because he was abused as a kid.
people like these folks ~ those who are holding public office ~ make decisions and policy that affect the rest of our lives on every level.
larry craig’s public persona is homophobic and against equal rights for all people. for that reason, i have no sympathy for him and i have been laughing delightedly all week at yet another rethug exposed in his hypocrisy.
when he admits he is gay or, at least, admits he’s a straight man who likes to suck cock; when he admits that he has been in error in judging and attempting to constrict the lives of others through his policy decisions, i’ll reconsider my complete lack of sympathy or concern for his wellbeing.
another republican hypocrite sacrificed on the altar of the truth. still delicious to me.
The all-out effort to push him out stands in stark contrast not only to what happened with David Vitter but also the rash of other GOP miscreants and freaks who simply find Jesus and go on with business as usual until they are indicted.
DING! DING! DING!
That’s the real reason he’s being booted, the arrest and guilty plea are just the excuse. This also explains why the arrest was kept quiet until the day it was needed, when Gonzo resigned. And what shiny object has the media been following all week, rather than examine the meltdown at the DOJ?
This smells like Rove from top to bottom. (Eww, sorry. Didn’t mean to gross out anyone.)
Of course, if Idaho had a Democrat in the Governor’s Mansion like Louisiana (home of Diaper Dave Vitter), he’d be safe as houses and the GOP would be defending him tooth and nail.
Eloquent in the extreme Lulu! Very well said. Another good thing about this sort of thing coming out…it always brings out the Vitter and Haggard humiliation again and again…and don’t you know they wish it would stop…and ‘blow’ over! Although, I have to say that I don’t care what anyone does in private…I don’t need to know any of that. But when they use their position to prey upon poor hapless folks’ rights that’s another thing. Look at Barney Frank…he is up front about his homosexuality and has had a partner in love for over 25 years I believe. Nobody is worried by him…or afraid of him. He doesn’t trample on other peoples’ rights and then turn around and do something sneaky on the side. These are the types that have to be found out in their hypocrisy and weeded the hell out. We need lawmakers…not law breakers.
I too don’t care if he is gay, bi-sexual or straight. He got however what he deserved.
If you hold public office and decisions you make impact everyone in the country you shouldn’t be a hypocrite. I have sympathy for his wife and family though.
And the worst part is not that he got caught so much as that the fact he betrayed himself and what he is. That’s the really sad part of all this.
God Bless.
I don’t know what Craig is..a bisexual, a homosexual or just a ‘naughty boy’.
It really doesn’t matter what he is..what matters to me is how he supports the vilification of an entire segment of our population who’s only ‘crime’, if you call it that, is being different sexually. Proud, good people are being treated like the blacks were decades ago..as second class citizens.
I don’t give a shit what happens to Craig..but unless and until he apologizes to the GLBT community he is still a piece of shit that I wouldn’t walk across the street to spit on if he was on fire.