' [ Sen. ] Larry Craig isn't simply 'a nasty, naughty, bad boy,' as the senator famously called Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Larry Craig is a confused and closeted gay man unable to connect the dots between his sexuality and his belief in marriage and family. ... Craig's personal story is a cautionary tale in support of gay rights as consistent with marriage and family values. Craig should never have married a woman in the first place, and his scandal is a reminder that legal recognition for gay relationships can help other closet cases see an alternative to attempting heterosexual marriage, with all the collateral damage to unwitting spouse and children.' — Syndicated gay-press columnist Chris Crain, Sept. 4.
'Why are undercover cops hanging out in airport restrooms? Are we all done with terrorists? Does this mean that Appalachian grandmothers can pass through airport security without being frisked for explosives? Just asking.' — Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writer's Group, Sept. 2.
'The New York Times ran 15 articles on [ Sen. Larry ] Craig's guilty plea to 'disorderly conduct' in a bathroom. The Washington Post ran 20 articles on Craig. MSNBC covered it like it was the first moon landing—Three small taps for a man, one giant leap for public gay sex!' — Conservative commentator Ann Coulter in a Sept. 5 column.
' [ Sen. Larry ] Craig was born in 1945, which would have made him 29 years old at the time of the Stonewall riots. Craig has known—for most of his adult life—that he didn't have to be a closeted, lying piece of shit. He had options.' — Gay writer Dan Savage at TheStranger.com, Sept. 4.
'When [ Sen. Larry ] Craig said, 'I am not gay,' he might even have believed it. That wasn't him in the men's room. That was another guy with whom he happens to share the same body and consciousness. And that guy is bad! There should be laws to stop that guy! And yet, no matter how many laws Craig votes for or against, that guy, that doppelganger, keeps appearing, interfering with his simple attempts to use the bathroom of a large regional airport.' — Columnist Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 4.
' [ A ] closeted gay Republican [ lives ] a life of desperation and fear and loneliness, of expressing one's true feelings only in the anonymity of the Internet, of furtive bathroom encounters, of late nights darting in and out of dark bars, hoping not to be seen. It [ is a ] life without a long-term partner, without real love.' — Syndicated gay-press columnist Dale Carpenter in an Aug. 29 filing.
'The states have always determined age of marriage, other conditions and over time we've gotten rid a lot of discrimination that used to exist in marriage laws. That's now happening. People are making decisions. Civil unions, marriage. They're deciding in the states and I think that's the appropriate place for that to be.' — Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Aug. 31.
'Couples, such as plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage ... by reason of the fact that both persons comprising such a couple are of the same sex. [ State marriage law ] must be read and applied in a gender neutral manner so as to permit same-sex couples to enter into a civil marriage.' — Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson striking down Iowa's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act on Aug. 30. He said the law violates the state constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection. One same-sex couple managed to marry the next day before Hanson issued a stay of his decision while the county appeals the ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
