PWWA activist calls on Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig to “be proud of who you are” and stop gay-baiting

Washington, Oct. 17 -- Mike Rogers, the nation's top gay activist blogger, today called on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to “be proud of who you are,” acknowledge that his own sexuality includes private encounters with men, and cease deceiving conservative voters by advancing an anti-homosexual agenda in public.

Rogers, the president of Proud of Who We Are, broadcast his invitation to Craig today at 3:35 p.m. Mountain time on the nationally syndicated radio program, the Ed Schultz Show, and in a followup letter to the senator’s Idaho district offices.

Rogers said on the radio program that his reporting has uncovered three independent and corroborating sources that the conservative Idaho Republican senator has had multiple sexual encounters with men, in contrast to his gay-baiting political stance.

“It’s my conclusion that Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho engages in same-sex sexual activity,” Rogers said. “He has same-sex encounters with men, and then votes against the community of men that are out and proud of who we are.”

Rogers said he had independently interviewed three Craig sexual partners, two in the Pacific Northwest, and one who lives in Washington, D.C. The Washington source told Rogers that he and Sen. Craig had oral sex in two different bathrooms of Union Station, the train depot within sight of U.S. Senate Office Buildings.

Rogers said the sources each independently described something unique about the senator that could only be known to someone who had had sexual contact with him.

“Without a doubt in my mind, I am absolutely solid on the sources,” Rogers said. “I have come to the absolute conclusion based on multiple sourcing in multiple cities around the country. There is no doubt in my mind regarding this information.”

It wasn’t what Sen. Craig did that merits exposure, Rogers said. “It’s his gross hypocrisy and his duping of the American people,” he said. “It’s about someone who has been aggressive against the gay community.”

During recent debates in Congress about whether same-sex marriages should be legal, Sen. Craig said, “Marriage has always been defined as the union of a man and a woman, and I believe it should stay that way.”

In his home state, Craig has drawn on conservative support from factions like the Idaho Values Alliance, whose executive director, Bryan Fischer, said recently, “The plain truth is that our culture must choose between the homosexual agenda or Judeo-Christian values.”

Rogers called on Craig to tell the truth to Idaho citizens. “An end to hypocrisy in government,” Rogers said, “is something both the right and the left can agree on.”

Many family values activists are now questioning whether the presence of closeted gay Americans in the Republican Party has run counter to the party’s professed “family values,” which GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman is relying on to help win elections.

Last week, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL), who now hosts “Scarborough Country” on MSNBC, said on the air that, “there are gay members of the Republican Party in Congress right now that hold pretty powerful positions, that have not come out of the closet, and that vote in a way that could be termed anti-gay.”

“This raises yet another plausible question for values voters: has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and or staffers?” wrote Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, after the Foley page scandal broke. “The GOP will have to decide whether it wants to be the party that defends the traditional moral and family values that our nation was built upon and directed by for two centuries. Put another way, does the party want to represent values voters or Mark Foley and friends?”

Similarly, Rev. Lou Sheldon told National Public Radio, “the Republican party is at a major crossroads. And after this election there’s going to be a huge debate: Can homosexuality continue to be welcomed into the big tent?”

More revelations about leading gay GOP conservatives still lie ahead, Rogers said at the end of today’s radio interview.

He told interviewer Ed Schultz that he decided to launch his campaign to expose hypocritical gay conservatives when the far right took aim at gay people for political advantage. “It is time to expose that underground network of closeted men who are enabling that,” Rogers said.
The Ed Schultz Show is broadcast on 105 stations across the country, including KPTQ-AM in Spokane, Washington, which can be heard in Idaho, and on XM Satellite Radio.