Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Senator Craig’s Innocence

That's right you hunky piece of man

For me, it's being oogled and fawned over by some queen. Gross!

**Off Topic**

I have a theory I'd like to test with male heterosexual Ranters.

I suspect that if an effeminate gay man came onto you, you'd shrug it off and go on your way.

However, if a very masculine gay man came onto you, you'd feel annoyed or threatened than with the effeminate gay man.

Am I correct?

Ardy, given that you found each of those propositions uncomfortable, are you suggesting they be criminal?

Not at all.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want airport bathrooms to defacto bath houses. And I suspect neither would you.

I personally think prostitution should be somehow legal. On the other hand I would prefer that my wife or children not be propositioned as they stroll down the street.

I would prefer that men who I proposition accept it, but we don't always get what we want, do we?

With regards to the rolling Stones

It is interesting to consider the parallels between gay and straight "hookups". In someplace like a US airport, there is almost no possibility of a casual sexual encounter between a man and a woman either being started or consumated in a restroom, just by the nature of airport restrooms. But there is a very high probability of such a straight encounter being started in a bar, ticket line, or waiting area, and then later being consumated in a private place like a hotel room or (rarely) an airplane restroom during a flight. Would anyone get arrested if such a hookup occurred between members of the same sex? Probably not.

It is not really fair to compare vice squad trolling in restrooms with their anti-prostitution stings. Prostitution is all about the money, prostitutes can be male, female, (or someplace inbetween!) looking to service either gay or straight customers. But the stories about Craig never mentioned any actual prostitution occurring in the airport restrooms. I don't really know much about the t-room scene. Do some or most of these trysts involve somebody getting paid, or are they just for the fun of it?

As for prostitution, I have mixed feelings: There is a reasonable free-market consenting adult arguement for legalization, but I don't want to get hit on by hookers all over the streets, malls, parks, etc. Maybe the best compromise is to make it legal but restricted to a limited number of adult venues. (Amsterdam comes to mind.) So at airports, there could be pickup bars with nearby japanese-style micro hotel rooms that rent by the hour. If you meet somebody while waiting for a late flight, and are both so inclined, off you go to the micro hotel. Looking for paid companionship? Start in the gay or straight side of the bar. Limiting the pros to the bar keeps the kids out of it, and anybody making a lewd scene out in the public areas gets arrested.

BTW, 99.95% of all the aggressive lewd acts I have seen in the US have been by men and directed toward women. I have seen uncouth creeps yank down bikini bottoms, grab breasts or bottoms, go for a rough crotch grab, etc. in very public places and with shocked and traumatized victims. (Alcohol is almost always part of the equation.)

Unless you are the "new meat" in the cell block, this is just not going to happen in a gay encounter. Contrast this kind of assault with a little toe-tapping and hand signals under the stall: Parents should not worry nearly so much about their boys being assaulted in a restroom as about their daughters being assaulted in social situations with their peers.

I can only answer for myself, but I answer based on personal experiences from my life, and the answer is no. Although once, while with a drunk friend, I felt compelled to use a bit of physical force to emphasise this, the force was not anywhere close to what could be construed as a fight. In my experience, homosexual men as a group, are much more receptive to the idea that a man they are attracted to is uninterested in their advances, than heterosexual men, as a group, are receptive to the idea that a woman they are attracted to would be uninterested in their advances. My personal experiences should not be conflated though, as it relates to persons being present who I have also considered to be friends, and because of this may be a biased population for statistical use.

Something else you may find amusing is that experiences with a gay man coming onto me provided me with insight regarding my own attempts to initiate heterosexual relationships with a bit of a view from the other side of the coin. They were beneficial to my evolution as a human being.

It really comes down to how secure one is with their publicly posed sexuality. The greater the insecurity, the greater the perceived threat. If this insecurity has been capped and trapped in the subconscious, it is liable to be expressed even more intensely.

I believe you are selling all of Idaho short. There is no question that it has a population of Christian Identity types, as well as quite a few Mormon survivalists, but the State population's general live and let live attitude was at least as big of a reason for this as was the wide open territory.

Read the last subtitled section in this Aug 29, 2007 Idaho Statesman article.

Idaho also deserves to be noted for they way that they threw one of the first post-911 'terrorist' criminal cases back at the Fed, because they were unwilling to accept its rotten core. It is a trial seldom mentioned in the press, that of Sami Al-Hussayen, and cuts to the chase regarding the tyrannical overreach of our current government. (Cite 1 and Cite 2)

Idaho can be surprising and rewarding.

(Note: The Idaho panhandle should not be considered a part of Idaho in this message)

pondering: good posts. I like your ideas!

Good posts, a knight! Idaho is a strange state. Even the panhandle has its unexpected hidden qualities. I hope Em will chime in here if my perceptions are off base, but I believe the panhandle's reputation as a haven for survivalists and a hotbed of bigotry is overblown and somewhat passé. And 21st century Coeur D'Alene is truly a gem of a town, not unlike my own Asheville.

Ver-r-r-y interresting! Once again underscoring the difference between a healthy gay person and an unhealthy Senator.