Finding Love on Craig's List

And while we are on the topic of Democrats who are dropping their bids for public office, how about this story that flew under the radar last month. Did you hear about this one in the media?

Duluth (Minnesota) Democrat Representative Kerry Gauthier was caught in earlier in the summer having a sexual encounter with a male minor at a rest stop in MINNESOTA.

Gauthier, a Democrat, was questioned by police on the evening of July 22 at the Thompson Hill rest area off Interstate 35, where he met a 17-year-old boy for sex.

The two arranged the meeting on Craigslist, and the teen admitted he had told Gauthier he was 18 when responding to the post from the 56-year-old state lawmaker. The age of consent in Minnesota is 16.

After pressure from his own Democrat party, which cut off Gauthier's funds, Gauthier finally did the right thing and dropped out of the race on August 22..

Now, I could really care less about this man's sexual orientation. But once again there is a two-fold hypocrisy  to this story. First is the that Democrats are so pro-gay-marriage and so in-your-face with their sexual wants, needs, exploits, etc., so the fact that one of their own would be too ashamed of his sexual orientation to go public is a telling fact.

Secondly, in 2007 a Republican politician from Idaho was arrested for "lewd conduct in a public restroom" after his foot touched the foot of an undercover policeman in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Yes, that's right -- in MINNESOTA. Larry Craig was practically crucified by the media, and his shame was the media's foremost topic, subjecting him and his family to months and months of public humiliation. The fact that there is a Wikipedia page devoted solely to the "Larry_Craig_scandal" says it all. Will we be seeing a Wikipedia page for Kerry Gauthier's scandal? Not likely.

So, the argument that this Gauthier scandal was consensual sex between two consenting adults is bogus. The kid was seventeen. If this had been a Catholic priest caught in such an act, his life would be over as he knew it. Eighteen is adulthood, regardless of what the law says about consent. This kid will be able to stay on his parents' health insurance until he reaches age 27, and is unable to vote for or against Mr. Gauthier until he reaches 18, so don't tell me he is an adult and this is no body's business.

Moreover, those who say that Craig was anti-gay and that is why his ordeal was a scandal are again ignoring the hypocrisy in Mr. Gauthier's actions. Here is a man whose party celebrates homosexuality, yet he is so ashamed of his own orientation that he solicits a boy on Craigslist. Yes, Craigslist. Irony bites.