An interesting story in the L.A. Times about the outing of closeted (as of last week), homophobic Spokane mayor James West. While I'm in no way condoning West, who is at best deeply disturbed and at worst just plain evil, the tactics of the mayor's antagonists at the Spokane Spokesman-Review are also disturbing, and none too gay friendly.
The Spokane paper claims it wanted to investigate charges - made by two men with criminal drug records - that West molested them years ago when he was a Boy Scout leader. So the paper created a fictional 17-year-old to entice West on a gay chat site. [Note: other stories have said the phony flirt was 18 years old.] Well, excuse me, but if they wanted to investigate alleged pedophilia, shouldn't the paper have created a fictional 10-year-old? Do the editors care about the distinction between homosexuality and pedophilia?
The reason this matters is because the story is being played not
as "closeted mayor persecuted gays" but "gay mayor could be
pedophile." In this respect, it's like those who outed Jeff Gannon
(a conservative who, unlike West, did not engage in anti-gay
polemics) by demonizing his consensual, adult sex life and claiming
it made him unworthy of the refined company of White House
reporters. Our straight liberal friends seem quick to repeatedly
play on anti-gay (and, specifically, anti-gay sex)
prejudices to destroy their target, as gay liberals cheer them on -
and then wonder why so many Americans view gay marriage equality as
beyond the pale.