Texas Governor's Gay Sex Scandal Covered in Austin paper, the First Non-Internet Media Outlet to Report On It.

By Jackson Thoreau 

OpEdNews.com

Under the appropriate heading of "Naked City," the weekly Austin Chronicle became the first media source beyond Internet blogs and ezines to report on the alleged sex scandal involving Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The Feb. 26 story by Michael King mentioned a "support rally" this week at the Governor's Mansion for Perry under the theme, "It's OK to Be Gay." The story mentions the numerous rumors that "the governor's marriage is in trouble, that his wife Anita has/will/may decide to divorce him, and that the issue is Rick's alleged infidelity, with one or another member of his administration of undetermined gender. [Rumors of this sort, about multitudinous politicians, circulate all the time, but the current Perry rumors are indeed extraordinary in their baroque detail and remarkable persistence.]"

King said he looked into the Perry rumors when they first surfaced some weeks ago and "found no evidence of any truth to any of them, whatsoever." He lamented that "nobody will go on the record." Did anyone involved in the story "go on the record" when everyone from Saturday Night Live to Reuters published the alleged affair rumor against John Kerry a few weeks ago? No, but of course, Kerry is a Democrat so the media and people in general believe the myth that Democrats are more likely to have extramarital affairs than Republicans.

King had this comment from Perry spokesperson Kathy Walt: "These are false, malicious, and hurtful rumors, and the Chronicle's own investigation acknowledges that fact."

King also wrote that "numerous other reporters, from here to New York, have looked into the rumors, with, as far as we know, an identical lack of results. Nor do we expect anything we say here to have any effect on the rumors, which have become entirely self-replicating as they echo through the blogosphere."

A note on this story: It is extremely difficult to find "evidence" of extramarital affairs unless one party spills the beans or it comes out in a court divorce document. In 2001, The Washington Post put two reporters to spy on former Democratic Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening, who was rumored to have had sex with Jennifer Crawford, his unmarried chief of staff, while he was separated from his wife. The Post reported in Sept. 2001 that Glendening eased out of Crawford's home early on a few mornings that summer.

Remember that Crawford was unmarried and Glendening was separated. Has any media outlet devoted similar resources to try to catch Perry, who says he is committed to his wife? No. Can anyone recall the media catching a Republican in an affair through such an investigation? I can't. And it's not like Republicans don't have affairs; read my essay at to learn about a few of them.

So just because some reporters found "no evidence" to support the rumors doesn't mean the rumors do not have some basis. It just might take more work to unearth some evidence-- such as reporters following Perry around 24 hours a day as they did to former Democratic Sen. Gary Hart, a potential 1988 presidential candidate, and Glendening - than these reporters can devote at the moment.

The Chronicle also pointed out how last year Perry signed the "Defense of Marriage Act," the Texas Legislature's "latest gratuitous demonstration that it believes gay and lesbian Texans deserve fewer rights than other citizens." The rumors have become stronger as Bush and other Republicans push for a Constitutional amendment to ensure that no gay couple marries.

The Chronicle's story mentioned how Perry and his wife spent Presidents Day weekend in the Bahamas with major political donors James and Cecelia Leininger and John and Bobbi Nau. The official story on this was it was a "working trip" paid for by "campaign funds" to discuss "public school finance." As the Chronicle pointed out, "That is, during a luxury retreat in the Bahamas, the governor discussed "public school finance" with a group of wealthy right-wing activists who have done everything in their power to undermine, or even abolish, public education."

The story is at click here. Here is a photo of the "support Perry" rally.

Meanwhile, a blog written by Wick Allison, publisher/editor of D Magazine, a mainstream city magazine, mentioned that Geoff Connor, Perry's secretary of state and alleged playmate, threatened to track down the source of the rumor and sue. Republicans have blamed a Democratic operative in Houston.

This is from a strong Republican insider and apologist. Allison has given money to Republican candidates, such as $500 to Hillary Clinton's NY Senate opponent in 2000.

That would be an interesting lawsuit if Connor were to actually sue someone, wouldn't it? I doubt he would follow through since the gay stories would get further into the public record.

A politically-connected attorney in Texas told me he has known about Perry's gay side since the 1980s. And two district judges in Odessa told him that the rumor was always there when they served in the Legislature with Perry.

I don't care if he is gay or bi or whatever, what's appalling is the hypocrisy involved - Perry is going around condemning gays and signing laws against them in public while possibly doing something different in private.

And check out this statement in the Texas GOP's platform, the most extreme platform in the country, which also calls for abolishing Social Security, the Department of Education and others, along with getting the U.S. out of the U.N.: "The Party believes that the practice of sodomy tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country's founders, and shared by the majority of Texans." It also says, "The party opposes the decriminalization of sodomy."

Perry approved the statement, and all candidates who run as Republicans in Texas have to sign it, or forfeit financial support by the party. So if the homosexual encounter with Perry is true, I would think his own party's leaders would be making plans to get rid of him. I hear Perry won't run for governor again in 2006, even if these rumors die.

I also hear there is a court transcript or statement of facts in the Texas Court of Appeals that contains sworn testimony that former Waco Rep. Lane Denton had an encounter himself with Perry. Some reporters I know are checking on that.

Denton was found guilty in 1995 of diverting $67,201 from the Texas Department of Public Safety Officers Association while serving as its executive director in 1988-89. He received 20 years in prison, but his sentence was suspended, and he was placed on community supervision.

The Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, where the Perry document allegedly is, also ruled against Denton.

In the original trial, prosecutors said Denton funneled the trooper group's funds to a public relations company owned by New Orleans architect John Chrestia, who testified that he had been Mr. Denton's gay lover.

Blogs that have done great jobs in keeping this issue fresh include http://www.burntorangereport.com/archives/001102.html and datalounge.

Why is the story important in the battle to dethrone Bush? Why not focus on the economy or Iraq in attacking Bush?

Because with his support for a Constitutional amendment to crack down on gay rights, Bush has signaled that he plans to make "morality" and cultural issues a big part of his 2004 campaign. And pointing out the Republican hypocrisies-- which include charges of extramarital sex against Bush [see http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/knowrsex.html]  in this area is important to win this battle.

If Democrats can show that the very Republicans who blasted Clinton for having an extramarital affair in the 1990s have extramarital affairs of their own and might even be extra hypocrites in publicly bashing gays, then this supposed advantage in "morality" that Republicans seem to enjoy over Democrats can be negated. Like it or not, sex and extramarital affairs register more with many average voters who get most of their news from TV than Iraq or even the economy.

I'm not expecting the Kerry campaign to conduct this "expose the cultural Republican hypocrites" campaign. As far as I know, the Kerry campaign has nothing to do with spreading these rumors. People like me will do it and take the heat as muckrakers or mudslingers or whatever from the whining Republican babies who don't like to see their own tactics slammed back in their faces. As I have long said, many far-right Republicans can dish it out, but they can't take it.

Message to the Republican whiners: Don't be surprised and cry foul when your opponent plays by the rules you devise.

While I can't take credit for starting this Perry rumor, I have helped move it along. I see this campaign as part of my duty and my contribution to restore some legitimacy and sanity to the White House.

So a non-Internet media outlet has published this Perry story. Can we expect Reuters and others who jumped on the Kerry rumor to follow suit? It would be the fair thing to do, based on the precedent set with the Kerry rumor. But I'm not holding my breath.

Ken Mehlman--Bush-Cheney campaign manager, ex-chairman of Republican Party--comes out as gay

(OK, the current string of self-loathing Republican homosexuals who vote against gay rights while covering up their true sexuality is enigmatic to me. I understand Mormon underwear, Ahmish technophobes, Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentacostal snake handlers more easily than I understand the homosexual who not only covers up and denies his sexuality--which is almost understandable considering how homophobic American society can be, particular the religious right--but goes even further by oppressing his fellow homosexuals, denying them the same rights everyone else has which are guaranteed by The Constitution. And Ken Mehlman wasn't just a self-hating gay man, he was a total shithead dick. It used to make me angry when he would give interviews because of his extremely narrow view of who should be included in the Republican Party. He once said the party didn't need moderate Republicans who didn't embrace the entire platform of the party, which to me, was the beginning of the GOP's demise. They are a much weaker, less focused, more appealing to fringe level nuts, neocons and teabaggers than to honest conservatives. In the same light with Karl Rove, history will view Mehlman as a major cause of the demise of the GOP, should their effort falls short to reclaim in the 2010 midterms the huge number of seats they lost in the 2006 midterms. Of course, it looks like they will regain quite a few, but not the majority they so confidently boast will be theirs once more.

But why do these men do this? We all remember Republican Sen. Larry Craig and his "wide stance," hustling for dick in an airport mensroom after voting for an amendment to ban same sex marriage. He said he confessed to soliciting sex from a male prostitute in an airport bathroom with the hopes of "making it go away." He is no longer in the political game since being outed.

And we remember New Life Church founder, Pastor Ted Haggard, who for 3 years, smoked meth while having sex with a male prostitute, Mike Jones, in his early 20s--though Pastor Ted was a huge proponent of Colorado Amendment 43 which would have banned same sex marriage in that state. He even had another fling with another male prostitute after confessing and saying he...er...put it all behind him.

And who could forget Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley, a staunch opponent against same sex marriage in his own state, all while he sexually harassed teenaged boys who had served as congressional pages, texting them questions like "how big is your penis when it's erect?" And "I want to get you drunk and suck your cock." Again, he said this stuff to teenaged boys. Most homosexuals don't seek underaged youths for sexual relationships, but Foley proved to be one of the biggest self-hating scumbags in the Republican caucus. His partner in crime was  Republican Congressman, Jim Kolbe, who also faced allegations of inappropriate conduct by the House Ethics commmittee. Other Republican leaders were alleged to have knowingly been covering up Foley's behavior (which included at least one drunken night standing in the rain outside the page dorm sobbing and pleading for this one page to come out and hold him). Foley resigned in disgrace in 2006. The cover-up would eventually also cost the jobs of  House Speaker Dennis Hastert, NY Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds and his chief of staff who was once Foley's Chief of Staff, Ken Fordham.

And then last May came Rabidly Anti-Gay Activist and Southern Baptist minister, George Rekers'  10 day romp to Bermuda with a 20 year old "rent boy" who was paid to give Rekers nude massages daily--which included a whole lot of genital fondling. Rekers claimed the rentboy was merely hired to carry his luggage for him, but as the photo to the left shows, Rekers seemed to have no problems handling his own luggage while his rentboy looks on. Rekers was forced to resign from his position on the board of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), the country's more prominent gay cure organisation. You know, the folks who believe you can "cure" homosexuality.


No one would bash these guys for just being "closeted gays" if they weren't such huge goddammned proponents of anti-gay legislation, which effectively attempted to relegate homosexuals as second class citizens in the US. It's one thing to be in the closet, but quite another to betray the rights of your fellow citizens who are homosexuals, all while pretending to be one of the straight good ol' boys. It's the very definition of hypocrisy!  And all because of bible verses condemning homosexuality, when Jesus never said anything for or against homosexuality. It was the former tax collector/murderer Saul-Paul--who never met Jesus while Jesus lived, but who saw a vision of Jesus, after he was crucified, on the road to Damascus, and that inspired him to muscle in on the other apostles and effectively take over and bastardize Christianity--yeah, that guy, Saul-Paul, who denounced homosexuality in the New Testament.


And now, Ken Mehlman...
--jef)

***

Bush-Cheney campaign manager, ex-chairman of Republican Party comes out as gay

By John Byrne
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Raw Story revealed effort to keep sexuality quiet in 2004; Led aggressive anti-gay effort in Ohio in 2004

Ken Mehlman, the erstwhile chairman of the Republican National Committee and campaign manager for George W. Bush's 2004 reelection effort, has come out of the closet as gay in a column published in The Atlantic.

Mehlman came out in a column by Mark Ambinder on the website of The Atlantic, after the blogger who outed former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and onetime Virginia congressman Ed Schrock revealed that Ambinder was to publish the story. Blogger Michael Rogers was the subject of the documentary Outrage, a film about outing gays in government who have used their positions of power to advocate against gay issues, which aired earlier this year on HBO.

Mehlman, 44, spearheaded the Bush re-election campaign. The campaign used aggressively anti-gay tactics, including the mailing of a flyer in some states which suggested liberals would allow gay marriage and ban the Bible. Some believe Bush’s support for anti-gay marriage measures carried him to victory, particularly in Ohio, which had a gay marriage measure on the ballot.

According to the Atlantic's Ambinder, "Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter's questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would be asked about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8."

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman told Ambinder. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."

Mehlman's coming out marks a significant reversal for the man who was at the heart of the Bush-Cheney re-election strategy. The onetime chairman of the RNC has previously refused to discuss his sexuality in both public and private settings.

The onetime RNC chairman's sexuality received treatment in the 2009 documentary Outrage, which was aired in theaters and was later broadcast on HBO. Michael Rogers, who outed Mehlman on his blog, blogACTIVE, as well as this author, discussed the media's complicity in keeping the conflict between Mehlman's private and public life under wraps.

Prior to the 2004 presidential election, two New York newspapers received calls urging them not to publish information suggesting Mehlman was gay. Raw Story revealed this in November 2004. Raw Story was party to an investigation of claims Mehlman was gay in the run-up to the 2004 election but no one was willing to go on the record.

When asked about his sexuality in 2004 by blogACTIVE's Michael Rogers, Mehlman hung up the phone.

Two sources told blogACTIVE in 2004 that they had been pressured by the Republican Party to remain silent. The site added that two New York City newspapers "were called by press folks at the Bush campaign attempting to kill the Mehlman story."

The Washington Blade asked Mehlman about openly gay staff in an interview in May 2004.

"I'm not going to comment or provide information on the private activities of campaign staff," he said, when asked if there were out gays among the president's campaign advisers. "The president is leading based on principle. His principles are reflective of his values and his values are compassionate and conservative."

Staffers at the nation’s then-largest gay newspaper chain told Raw Story at the time the Blade's editor thwarted efforts to run a story reporting Mehlman was gay. Chris Crain, the Blade's editor at the time, denied killing the story.

“If you talked to people on my staff,” he said, “you know how many times I’ve brought up in meetings that I wanted to nail this story. And I don’t want anyone to get it before me.”

The staffers asserted that Crain refused to print an article regarding Mehlman's sexual orientation.

Crain -- who was Mehlman’s supervising editor for a Harvard public policy journal in law school and partnered with him in an organization in the early 1990’s -- said he has not “credibly” confirmed Mehlman’s sexuality. He denied that their previous involvement had any bearing on his editorial decisions.

The Blade editor said he helped former Blade reporter Adrian Brune get onto a call with Mehlman during the campaign, instructing her to ask him directly about his sexuality, which she did not. Brune asked about campaign aides being gay and Mehlman “completely evaded” the question.

Brune said she repeatedly tried to interview Mehlman.

“The Bush campaign and Ken Mehlman were very restrictive with access,” Brune remarked. “I was always denied any sort of access; they largely ignored all of our requests.”

A secondary source, Brune said, “knew Ken Mehlman at Harvard Law School and everyone knew very well that he was gay, but there was no empirical evidence to back that up.”

Raw Story and blogACTIVE revealed in 2004 that both the then-Chief Financial Officer and the number two political adviser to the Republican National Committee were openly gay. Neither would answer questions relating to the party's policies.

Dan Gurley, the then-political adviser, has since championed gay issues.

The 2004 Republican Party platform denounced prejudice and trumpeted equality, despite the party's political positioning on gay issues. It said, "Ronald Reagan believed that people were basically good, and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst thing a person could be guilty of," and included a bolded section titled, "Ensuring Equal Opportunities," leading with the sentence, "Our nation is a land of opportunity for all, and our communities must represent the idea of equality for every citizen."

Such equality and freedom from prejudice didn't apply to gay Americans. The 2004 platform continued, "We believe that neither federal nor state judges nor bureaucrats should force states to recognize other living arrangements as equivalent to marriage."

The party's position continued, "After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millenia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization, the union of a man and a woman in marriage."

In 2005, a top GOP official denied Mehlman was gay in a GQ interview.

"Ken Mehlman is not gay," Steve Schmidt, a senior official of the Bush campaign told Jake Tapper, an ABC News correspondent who wrote the piece for the magazine.

Tapper also interviewed Dan Gurley, the former National Field Director for the Republican National Committee, who acknowledged to RAW STORY and Rogers that he was gay in a phone interview last year. Gurley blamed liberals for the mailer he sent to Southern states that said liberals would ban the Bible and allow gay marriage.

“I would rather it not have been done,” Gurley told GQ. “But if the left had pursued civil unions as a positive affirmation of legitimate gay relations as opposed to calling it marriage, it’s highly unlikely a mailing like that would have existed.”

***

(And now, once more, in honor of the outing of Ken Mehlman and the memories of Haggard, Craig, Foley, Rekers, et al, ad infinitum, here is the song, Republican National Closet, for your listening pleasure.--jef)

Co-founder of Family Research Council Caught with Male Escort

The exposures of conservative hypocrites--regarding homosexuality--are becoming far too frequent these days. It used to be funny when one of these self-hating closeted Republican/Christian fundamentalist homosexuals was "outed," but increasingly, it's becoming really pathetic. They have so much ingrained self-loathing through wrong headed dogmatic "Sunday school" teaching (that their homosexuality is a sin) and prejudice, that by voting against homosexuals having the same rights under the constitution as straight citizens, they betray all the other homosexuals brave enough to live their lives in the open. Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Rev. Ted Haggerty, and a list too long to physically type out. (Hint: check out Florida...)

I lampooned this trend of outing closeted Republicans/Christian Fundamentalists with the song "Republican National Closet." I'm told it's pretty funny. I must agree. I wish I could just post a player for it, but other songs are included.

~~X0X~~

Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage

By John Byrne
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

A Christian leader and prominent neuro-psychiatrist who co-founded the Family Research Council with evangelist James Dobson took a ten-day European vacation with a callboy he met through RentBoy.com and was caught in an airport with the escort by a Miami newspaper.

The escort said he had met George Rekers, professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina, on RentBoy.com. Rekers, when confronted, didn't deny that he'd met the callboy online, but said he had hired him to help him carry his baggage and didn't learn he was generally hired for "private company" until mid-way through his European vacation.

"I had surgery," Rekers told Miami's New Times, "and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." (The paper noted that it didn't stop him from pushing a "tottering" pile of luggage through Miami International Airport.)

The callboy, identified by a pseudonym, told the New Times' Penn Bullock and Brandon Thorp that Rekers claim that he didn't know his "line of work" seemed spurious.

"He should've been able to tell you that," he said. "But that's up to him."

According to Penn and Thorp, the slender, 20-year-old escort's profile advertises his "smooth, sweet, tight ass" and "perfectly built 8 inch cock." RentBoy.com's profiles are not indexed by Google.

“It is clear that Rekers has baggage and certainly needs help,” said Wayne Besen, a prominent opponent of the "ex-gay" movement and director of the nonprofit Truth Wins Out. Referring to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a conservative who claimed he was hiking when he'd actually been meeting with a mistress, he added: “At least he did not say he was walking the Appalachian Trail.”

"This is a bombshell that completely discredits the ex-gay industry and proves that the movement is a fraud,” Besen added.

The paper printed emails exchanged between the professor and the escort prior to their trip. Rekers co-founded the conservative and anti-gay Family Research Council with Rev. James Dobson in 1983.

"I'd like to propose another trip to Rome, Italy, for a week or more," Rekers purportedly wrote in an Mar. 21 email obtained by New Times. "This is so exciting to have a nice Travel Assistant and traveling companion! Wow! I'm so glad I met you."

"I called and talked to the reservation guy in London and reserved a room with two twin beds," Rekers allegedly remarked in a later email.

Rekers is a prominent advocate against gays in Florida, where he resides. He testified against Florida allowing gay couples to adopt, asserting that children of gay couples "living with a practicing homosexual in the adoptive home,” are especially “vulnerable to psychological damage and an increasing inability to adapt."

A commenter on a California Catholic daily, which reported the findings of Rekers' investigations into gay adoption, remarked, "The active principle in these children's stress is the fact that their welfare comes in dead last in the homosexual lifestyle - it is oriented toward grooming them for traumatic early sexualization and exploitation by adults."

The escort told New Times that Rekers is "primarily a family man," despite their European jaunt.

"You don't understand how much this guy honestly cares about taking care of kids," he was quoted as saying.

Reker is the author of "Growing Up Straight: What Families should Know about Homosexuality."

Outrage!

Outrage

Here's a song about the same subject matter.