I live just outside of the Portland, Oregon city limits. We've gotten national news coverage because Portland's first openly gay mayor, Sam Adams, lied about his relationship with a much younger intern. Sound familiar?
For those of you who don't know the story, Adams and the man had a brief relationship before Adams ran for mayor. Another openly gay opponent dropped some hints that Adams had "had an inappropriate relationship" - isn't this political and personal blackmail? And when asked about it, Adams lied.
Tip for the uninitiated politician who lies about sex: it is sure to bite you in the ass (no pun intended here.)
Some people in Portland and the surrounding area feel that Adams' sex life is his own business - and I agree. On the other hand, others are outraged about the lying - and I understand that, also.
Many people in the GLBT community have said he is a bad role model and that he makes them all look bad.
I think it's sad that:
1. We're a society so obsessed with sex that Adams was even questioned in the first place;
2. We're such a homophobic society that even while progress happens - e.g. we elect an openly gay mayor with little issue about his sexual orientation - GLBT citizens worry about how they are judged because of his behavior.
I have to wonder aloud, why is anyone naive enough to be shocked that a politician would lie? On the other hand, why has that come to be accepted?
What do you think?
10 comments:
Okay, look at the people looking at you. Imagine them only picturing what you do sexually in PRIVACY? What has this world come to when we are judged by our sexual acts and not the contact of our character. There are as many heterosexual deviants as there are homosexual deviants. A deviant is a deviant is a deviant and good, caring and loving respetful people come in all shapes and sizes. This country can be so totally screwed up that I must shake my head and roll my eyes 90% of the time. Well, you asked.
I have to say that Granny Annie has said what I would have said but a great deal better!
When people discuss homosexuals the only part of that word they see is the "sex".
Will we get beyond this?? The media has to get a life.
You've forgotten to mention a few rather important details about this whole sordid mess, my friend.
This "inappropriate relationship" that was whispered about wasn't because the young intern was much younger than the midlife Adams; it was because when they started their relationship, the boy was 17 years old. When Willamette Week was going to go public with a further expose, Adams admitted that he had dated the boy when he was 17, but claims that he refrained from boinking him until two weeks after his 18th birthday. (An expert in sexual predators would look at the time between their "dates" and their sexual liason as "grooming".)
And then look at Adams' eventual "apology". He said that he lied about his sexual relationship because he was afraid that the voting public wouldn't believe that he hadn't waited to boink the kid until after he was legal and that they wouldn't vote for him. Today he not only admits that he lied about sex with the boy, he admits that he cajoled the boy into lying about it, too.
And it wasn't just that Adams lied; Adams denounced his opponent for even suggesting that he had had any sort of sexual relationship with the boy, making a big deal out of his outrage and proclaiming that he had never had any sort of sexual relationship with the kid. He claimed that he was the boy's "mentor" and as such wouldn't even consider having any sort of relationship with him. (Adams was a Portland city councilman at the time.)
I think that this is sleazy beyond words--and I would think the same thing had it been a female intern and a middle-aged man. This isn't about gay sex; this is about just plain sleaze.
There's more to it, of course. There's the writer for the Portland Mercury who was writing about this whole sordid affair and who was subsequently hired in the planning division of the mayor's office despite the fact that even she acknowledges that she has a degree in journalism and no knowledge whatsoever of city planning. (She quit writing about the affair, however.)
There's Adams getting the kid a cushy job--all the while knowing that he had convinced this kid to lie about their relationship. That's ugly.
The state Attorney General's office is looking into it because there are plenty of things that Adams can be charged with--from influence peddling to statutory rape.
So yeah--it really is a big deal.
LB: I think it is sleazy, but I think it's ridiculous that he was ever asked about it. And I suppose no level of sleaze surprises me with politicians.
He's a politician, so of course he's going to lie. You can't graduate politician school without knowing how to obscure the truth.
It always amazes me why people are so interested in another persons sexuality anyway. Is that the only thing that matters about a person?
Everybody has a secret, and everybody lies.
It seemed as if his opponent had some knowledge of an illegal affair (the pre-age of legal consent portion) and that somehow we have established that running for political office should place some sort of barrier between being able to perform illegal actions and not being asked about them if they are of a sexual nature. That is sad indeed. Law-breaking is law-breaking.
Being surprised a politician would lie is just...well...I don't want to be offensive, so I will leave the last word of that sentence to your imagination. Hint: it is not "brilliant". :-)
We have an openly gay mayor too. I don't know if or how he has sex. I can ask him, if you want.
As a side note, I have just returned from Europe's largest city, where there is exactly ONE gay book store. I bought a novel there. It's good.
I don't think its just Politicians that lie about relationships.
I think most people would deny.
I do wish the media would pay more attention to the greed out there other then peoples private lives.
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