On June 7, 2006, Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho voted to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution which would have specifically made marriages between same-sex partners unconstitutional. It’s a good thing that others in the Senate showed the necessary resolve, understanding of liberty, moral compass, and general good sense to vote this amendment down, because Sen. Craig failed to do that job himself. Instead, Senator Craig voted with the minority of Americans who believe that equal protection under law is a real drag, who believe that civil rights should exist only for some people and not others, who believe that gay Americans should be classified under the constitution as second-class citizens.

On June 11, 2007, Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is alleged to have stared through a crack of the door of a men’s room stall at an undercover police officer, and then to have played footsie with the same undercover police officer as each sat in adjacent men’s room stalls. Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge stemming from the incident and is currently serving a year’s probation.

Whether Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is actually gay or not may matter for the tabloids, but I don’t think his sexual identity is really what matters. What’s striking to me is that Senator Craig has been caught in the trap of prurient and obsessive sex policing set up by his own political party. If Senator Craig’s political career comes to an end, it will be thanks to the system of unequal treatment under the law for gay and lesbian Americans that he himself has worked to erect and perpetuate. It will take someone with more courage than Larry Craig to end that unfair and unjust system.

(Source: Los Angeles Times August 27 2007)