Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Think back, way back, to before we found out about Larry Craig's wide stance. Before Craig there was Bob Allen, the anti-gay Republican state representative from Florida, who was caught soliciting sex from an undercover cop in a men's room in a public park. He was the one who blamed it on all the big scary black men. Well Allen was convicted by a jury:
Allen, a longtime foe of LGBT rights in Florida, will be sentenced next Thursday. He could be facing 60 days in the county jail and a $500. fine. Republicans in the legislature said the conviction will allow them to move forward with plans to remove Allen from office.
Maybe the mayor of Ft. Lauderdale was right. Maybe we need robo-toilets to keep all the Republican politicians from having sex in them.
Comments
Hmm, I was once jumped and beaten by a group of young black men. Somehow I don't think offering blow jobs all around would have helped.
Has anyone ever heard a more transparent use of race as a justification? Off the top of my head, I can't think of a worse one.
And, as with Craig, it's worth pointing out that the issue is not soliciting gay sex, but soliciting public sex.
Posted by: James Hanley | November 12, 2007 9:34 AM
this really highlights the fact that we need 3 restrooms in public places:
1. Men
2. Women
3. GOP
Posted by: richCares | November 12, 2007 2:06 PM
Ed: Think you outta mention Barney? Didn't he have a live-in boyfriend who ran a prostitution business out of his condo?
Or do only Republicans get called on this?
Posted by: Increase Mather | November 12, 2007 4:22 PM
IM: Barney admitted he made a mistake, faced House discipline over the incident, and then submitted himself to 10 re-election races where his constituents had the opportunity to throw him out if they thought that was warranted by his conduct.
I can see how that is directly comparable to Bob Allen getting arrested, lying about it and his motivations, and then displaying bizarre transference issues concerning gay black authority figures. Yep, same thing.
Wait, I guess you meant they're the same because icky gay sex was involved. Yeah, there's that.
Posted by: kehrsam | November 12, 2007 5:22 PM
Increase Mather wrote:
Depends on what "this" is. On being gay? Everyone knows Barney Frank is gay. And the incident with the prostitute was like 15 years ago or more. Do I therefore have to bring it up every time a gay Republican who votes anti-gay gets outed as a closet case? I hardly think so.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | November 12, 2007 8:51 PM
Anybody notice any difference in the way the MSM has "reported" the Allen story compared to Barney? With Barney (like Clinton with interns) it was all about privacy rights. Barney was merely "misused" by his boyfriend. He had no idea prostitution was happening out of his home.
How do we know? Why, CBS told us so. Kinda like "fake but accurate" Bush docs.
So, Barney was reelected, of course he was, the voters of Taxachusetts are always gonna send the Barneys and Teddys back to Congress; it's their birthright, don't you know?
Posted by: Increase Mather | November 13, 2007 5:07 PM
Yeah; the media was so lenient with Clinton. Do you even listen to yourself?
Posted by: Skemono | November 13, 2007 5:43 PM