the_wicker_man
Joined: 14 Jan 2009
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 Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:24 am Post subject: Problems in Happy Gay Land |
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January 28, 2009, 10:00 pm
The Great Gay Hope
PORTLAND, Ore. � The politician was in his 40s, a rising star, a man with the pilot light of ambition burning bright. The intern was just 17, sorting through emotions about his sexuality, a boy who said he needed someone to mentor him in the political world.
They had an affair, just kisses at first, the teenager said. And then, after his 18th birthday, sex, and a relationship that was hidden from the public eye.
Came the mayor�s race and allegations of the affair. The politician, with the sturdy patriotic name of Sam Adams, denounced the rumors as scurrilous � they played to the worst stereotypes about homosexual predators, he said. How dare you.
The storm passed. The new year opened with Portland as the largest city in the United States with an openly gay mayor. At the same time, people flocked to theaters to watch a film by Portland�s own Gus Van Sant, the story of Harvey Milk, the pioneer gay politician, treated as a second-class citizen for most of his life.
It all came crashing down over the last two weeks, a bonfire of pride, lies and hypocrisy. The mayor admitted that he had lied about the affair, had smeared his accuser, and had urged the boy � a kid with the improbable name of Beau Breedlove � to lie as well. He did it all to get elected, he said.
Sam Adams, mayor of Portland, Ore.Sam Adams, mayor of Portland, Ore. (Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian, via Associated Press)
�I want to apologize to the gay community for embarrassing them,� the 45-year-old mayor, now contrite, told his city last week. Three newspapers � including a popular gay paper � called on him to resign.
Sam Adams was the Great Gay hope. Mayor today. Senator tomorrow. And beyond?
�I personally gave Sam Adams my vote, my support, my friendship and my money,� wrote Marty Davis, publisher of Just Out, the city�s gay newspaper. �In return, he took my trust.�
So now, instead of breaking barriers, Sam Adams has stirred old hatreds. Daily, people have gathered outside City Hall to shout at one another and wave placards.
�Pedophile!�
�Bigot!�
This week, after seven days of soul-searching, the mayor said he would stay on the job, though he faces a criminal investigation by the Oregon Attorney General.
�I know I have let you down,� the mayor said in a videotape message to the city. �And I ask your forgiveness.�
Portland is The City That Works, a slogan not just emblazoned on official vehicles, but taken to heart by its citizens. It is perhaps the most European of American cities, literate and small-scale urban, a pleasant surprise around every corner. And it is often a city of firsts, doing things well and sensibly before any other.
But with the betrayal by Sam Adams, the city now offers an old lesson in timeless and tawdry human weakness. The story of Sam Adams is not about gay predators or gay anything, because Portland has seen this civic morality tale once before, with a heterosexual mayor.
It�s about why voters should never give their hearts over completely to politicians. As a class, they are inherently insecure � a character flaw at the base of all politicians, from Bill Clinton to Bob Packwood. And they lie, with rare exceptions � a hard thing to say at a time when the doors of possibility are open to leaders yet untarnished.
Some years ago I watched Neil Goldschmidt completely dominate a room of fellow politicians. He was the Great Jewish Hope � Portland mayor at age 32, transportation secretary for President Jimmy Carter at age 39, and then governor of Oregon.
People who saw Goldschmidt in his prime wondered when this guy would make history and become the first Jewish president. He could talk a dog off a meat wagon. He was smarter than anyone in the room. The great mystery around him was why he stepped off the political ladder.
The answer came years later, when the Willamette Week revealed that Goldschmidt had sexually abused his babysitter, starting when she was 14 and he was the married mayor of Portland. Mystery solved. The newspaper, which won a deserved Pulitzer for the story, also broke the lies of Sam Adams.
When Goldschmidt finally came clean under the newspaper�s pressure, he characterized it all as a distant mistake. But it was not anything like that. It was serial sex abuse, and if it happened now Goldschmidt would likely be in prison and a registered sex offender.
Sam Adams is no Neil Goldschmidt, his supporters say. He�s closer to Bill Clinton, a gifted politician lying about sex, these sympathizers say.
�I may have been 17,� Breedlove told The Oregonian, by way of asking people to forgive Adams. �But I was an adult and I knew what I was doing.�
Nobody at age 17 knows what they are doing, which is why they should never be having sex with middle-aged men, especially those in powerful positions.
Now Adams, with the support of some in this immensely tolerant city, will try to carry on � the first openly gay mayor of a major American city, with an asterisk.
That footnote holds a lesson, the words a wise Portlander told me long ago: Heroes are hard to come by, he said, especially when the lot you have to choose from is the human race. |
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Gay Candidate for Fort Lauderdale Mayor Has Curious Legal History
Earl Rynerson, an openly gay candidate for mayor of Fort Lauderdale, has been involved in a series of lawsuits, and records show he has some unexpected habits.
Earl Rynerson is an openly gay businessman with a history of curious legal problems and an apparent penchant for bondage pornography. And he thinks he's just the man to be your mayor.
The 56-year-old former lieutenant colonel in the Air Force is injecting some color and controversy into an otherwise quiet mayoral race in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Rynerson is running as a fiscal conservative, calling for pay cuts for highly compensated bureaucrats and pledging to rein in the city's swelling budget. But the beachside businessman has encountered some major fiscal problems of his own.
Rynerson has been sued numerous times since he moved to Fort Lauderdale 10 years ago, refusing to pay local businesses and credit card companies for services rendered -- and running up thousands of dollars in unpaid bills.
His legal wrangles, according to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, include a kitchen remodeling he didn't like, a $1,350 fence he had built around his yard but didn't want to pay for, a $6,000 trip to Africa he said wasn't up to snuff, work on his car that didn't meet his standards and other disputes.
Rynerson, who owns a tile and stone store in the city, said he was often left unhappy but never gave up without a fight. "I am a person that if I don't receive services, then I make an issue out of it," he told the Sun-Sentinel. "I'm making my stand and I'll continue to press the issue."
Unpaid bills are only one of a number of potentially embarrassing issues that have come to light since Rynerson announced his candidacy.
The native Kentuckian distributed signs and literature trumpeting "Lt. Col. Earl Rynerson for mayor," but he hasn't been active duty for more than a decade -- and the signs put him in direct violation of military code. He apologized and said it was an aesthetic choice that he's since fixed; he says new signs will indicate his retired status.
Drawing more eyes is his apparent predilection for porn and his membership in an anonymous sex site. While not illegal, they are possible dark spots on the resume of man who is running a campaign to "polish up the city" of Fort Lauderdale.
Rynerson's credit card bill included at least 3 monthly payments to "Access 4M4M site," the billing name of a "men for men" sex site based in New York. "The m4m4sex website is for men looking to meet other men for sex," the Web site declares in plain English.
Another charge on his card provides a phone number for the International Masters Association, which "unites the Leather community online and [brings] Masters and slaves together," providing services for people "interested in Leather, Gear, Bondage, Rubber, Watersports and other fetishes."
Rynerson said the stories of his credit card purchases were greatly exaggerated, and compared the Web sites to YouTube and MySpace. "These are online services that a lot of people use," he told the Sun-Sentinel. "There's nothing pornographic ... nothing to that."
He neither confirmed nor denied that he used the sites, saying it was an issue of privacy. "Whether or not I subscribe or don't subscribe to racy Web sites I think it's a personal issue," he told the newspaper. "An individual's private life and personal life should be kept private and personal."
Rynerson could not be reached for comment, despite repeated calls and e-mails to him and to his campaign manager.
Rynerson, who was a city commissioner in San Francisco before he moved to Florida, has pumped more than $77,000 of his own money into his campaign for an office that pays just $41,000 a year.
Fort Lauderdale's mayor is essentially a city commissioner who chairs meetings but does not control the budget or city employees -- those duties belong to the city manager, whom Rynerson has said he will replace if elected.
It's a big move in a city with a relatively weak mayor, but Rynerson originally entered the race because of comments made by incumbent mayor Jim Naugle, who angered gay Floridians with his opposition to gay marriage and controversial 2007 call to "reduce homosexual sex in bathrooms."
A city with a large gay population -- and one that benefits greatly from gay tourism -- Fort Lauderdale might have voted the 6-term mayor out of office even if term limits had not been imposed on him.
Rynerson isn't the only candidate who was stirred by Naugle's comments to run for office. Dean Trantalis, a former city commissioner and local gay activist, has also thrown his hat in the ring.
Trantalis sees Rynerson as something of an interloper who has not been active in Fort Lauderdale politics before, even as a citizen.
"He's never even voted in city elections and now he wants to be mayor. He doesn't even have a record of any commitment or a record of any involvement in the city," he told FOXNews.com.
But Steve Rossi, a former FBI agent and prosecutor who is also running for mayor, said many of the accusations made against Rynerson are mere "innuendo," and emerged simply because Rynerson was running for public office.
"The bottom line is I think the guy is a decent guy, a good guy. He's got a lot of very good ideas," said Rossi, who praised Rynerson's command of numbers.
The Feb. 10 vote is a non-partisan primary, meaning Democrats and Republicans run together. If a candidate captures more than 50 percent of the votes, there will be no runoff.
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