Sex, Lies and . . . a Sam Adams

I wrote a blog entitled "My Samuel Adams story" awhile back.
This and that are not, in any way, connected.
It pertained to beer, not the Sam Adams the American hero or Sam Adams the Mayor of Portland. This one's about the Portland mayor.

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If there is one, single, entrenched view by the general populace describing their discomfort with the whole notion of homosexuality, it's probably this: The view that gay men are wantonly sexual animals whose passions can be barely contained. Along with it is the closely-related notion that gay men are hopelessly obsessed with boys and youth.

In the fight for recognition of gay couples this is, to my mind, the most intractable and pernicious images hindering progress for gay rights and recognition of gay marriage. That's also why the unfolding scandal of newly-elected mayor of Portland, Oregon is so vexing.

Sam Adams worked in many civic positions and for the campaigns of many Oregon Democrats before running for, and winning, a seat on Portland's city council. From there, in 2007, he launched his mayoral campaign which he won, assuming the office at the beginning of this month.

What a short honeymoon.

No sooner had he settled-in to office than a previous relationship with an underage intern came to light. The intern, Beau Breedlove (seriously, I'm not making this up) now admits that Adams kissed him in an "intimate" manner before he had turned 18, the age of majority in Oregon.

Under Oregon law that "intimate" moment would constitute, at the very least, "sexual harassment." The Oregon A.G. is investigating and the Oregon press is all abuzz with the implications and mulling over legal precedents (some of which you can read for yourself here) but the simple long-and-short of the matter is that the voters of Portland -- easily one of America's most progressive cities, and the largest currently having an openly gay mayor -- is now in the process of re-thinking their attitude towards homosexuals.

This comes at a particularly perplexing time for Democrats.

After Republican scandals involving the likes of Tom Foley and scandalous behavior with Congressional pages, Jack Abramoff and his blackmail and bribery scandals, and Scooter Lewis and that underhanded 'leaking' stuff, Democrats had managed to portray themselves as a partythat had better moral standing than those so-called "Family Values" Republicans.

Then came William Jefferson and his freezer stashed with pay-off cash. And then we had Rod Blagojavech and his pay-to-play Senate-appointment scandal nonsense.

Now this.

I really don't have an iron in the Sam Adams fire -- well, except to say that I've never had a Sam Adams that I liked, so what does that tell you? -- but I sure can tell you that this continuing saga will have legs, will surely further-tarnish the general Democratic image, and will once again re-affirm that stereotypical image of gay men as those horned-up dogs constantly on the prowl for any available teenage boy.

Sam Adams may be technically innocent just like Rod Blagojavech may be technically innocent, but that's almost beside the point as the fallout continues irregardless. The casualties will be both Democrats and gays as those old fears about both get reinforced.

And now, I'm just waiting for the next shoe to drop.

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POST SCRIPT:

NOTE: The feeding frenzy on this story was such that it actually took full attention away from Obama's inauguration day celebrations.

Here's video showing the split-screen coverage of the Inaugural Parade and the Adams' press conference:

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