Idaho, Republicans, Senator Larry Craig, and Gay Bashing

Interesting post here on the Mark Foley matter, the GOP's packaging of "homosexual lifestyle" message, and Senator Larry Craig, a Republican:

Since the Mark Foley scandal broke earlier this month, increasing attention has been paid to the hypocrisy of Republican leaders. Every election year, these party leaders make what many of us see as anti-gay appeals to religious conservative voters who object to what they disparagingly call the "homosexual lifestyle." What these party leaders don't tell these voters is how many of them actually lead secret lives which include sexual encounters with members of the same sex. Recent stories in USA Today, National Journal, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have discussed this GOP messaging problem. As readers know, my work is bipartisan. The recent use of gays by the Republican Party during this election makes it necessary to focus on the Party and how it facilitates keeping gay men closeted.

My tactics at blogACTIVE have taken a new path from those of the past. Reporting on hypocrisy within the gay community has been going on for years.

My goal with this site and my companion site, Proud Of Who We Are, is to take that message further. To educate not just gays and lesbians about these homophobes, but to educate the greater electorate at large. Because of this, I find myself in the odd position of being one of the few people who seems to be willing to tell religious conservatives, who don't approve of people like me, just how many conservative political leaders are like me.

I have been calling on gay Republican representatives, senators, and high-level staffers to stand up and be proud of who they are, to level with voters about the truth, and to let people decide on their politicians based on truth, honesty and openness.

As this message is posted, I have apppeared on the Ed Schultz Show, a nationally syndicated radio program broadcast in more than 100 cities and on Sirius Satellite. On the show I have called on Senator Larry Craig to end his years of hypocrisy by leveling with Idahoans about who he really is. I am also calling upon several prominent Idaho social conservative leaders to ask them how they square their anti-gay positions with their support for this leader.

I have done extensive research into this case, including trips to the Pacific Northwest to meet with men who have say they have physical relations with the Senator. I have also met with a man here in Washington, D.C., who says the same -- and that these incidents occurred in the bathrooms of Union Station. None of these men know each other, or knew that I was talking to others. They all reported similar personal characteristics about the Senator, which lead me to believe, beyond any doubt, that their stories are valid.