Glendale City Council Candidates Out Each Other

Mike Mohill (L), John Drayman (R)

Politics is a dirty business and all politics is local, but one local campaign for city council has gotten so dirty that it's getting national attention. The election for Glendale, Ca.City Council took a very ugly turn last week when incumbent John Drayman revealed that his challenger, Mike Mohill, had been arrested twice in the 80's for cruising other men in public parks.

Mohill responded to the revelations head on at Tuesday night's city council meeting. The Montrose Patch reports:

Mohill revealed that, though he has been married since 1977, he is gay, and that the two charges brought against him in the '80s for solicitation of lewd acts were the product of him having "gay sex in public." He did not comment as to who the men involved were or where the incidents took place.

Mohill claimed that his wife has known about his sexual orientation since his arrests in '87 and '88, and that, nonetheless, they maintain a "marriage in which we share a powerful affection and respect for each other."

Props to Mohill for coming clean and confronting the issue. Even though he knew it would probably cost him the election, Mohill did not try to deny what happened or make up some lame story about what "really" happened. Former Republican senator, Larry "Wide Stance" Craig could take a lesson from him.

But wait, there's more. Not to be outdone in the outing department, Mohill decided that if he was "going down", he would take his nemesis with him. The Patch continues:

Mohill went on to rail against Drayman, whom he blames for making this campaign "personal" rather than "public." Mohill claims that, for his part, his criticisms have been directed only toward Drayman's public life, rather than his personal life. Mohill then went on to state Drayman is "reputed to be gay himself."

To conclude, Mohill said "I would hope this statement would satisfy ... lewd curiosity. I'm not so naive as to believe this statement, as agonizing as it [is], will not severely hurt my election chances. How badly, only time will tell."

When asked about Mohill's statement, Drayman tried to deflect it with humor, but curiously, did not deny anything:

At the end of the City Council Meeting, Drayman responded to Mohill's insinuations about his "reputedly gay" lifestyle with sarcasm. Drayman directed the community to the Vanguard Weekly Newsletter: "I can't believe I'm saying this," Drayman said, "but I would encourage you to read the most recent Vanguardian.

You want to get to a flavor for this publication, read the most recent Vanguardian; it will tell you I'm having an affair with Jason Wells, who is the city editor of the Glendale News-Press, and we meet for secret rendezvous and gaze into each others' eyes. And you'll find out that Mr. Quintero is having a secret romance with my campaign manager. Why, they sat at a forum practically holding hands, thigh to thigh," Drayman recounted sarcastically.

Girls, please! Don't make me pull this blog over!

This is a prime example of how living in the closet fucks with your head. Living a lie causes you to act out in self-destructive ways. It hurts those you love and always comes back to bite you in the ass later.

You might be wondering, as I did, "if you've been busted once for cruising, why would you attempt it again?" Probably because you hate yourself and want to get caught and you believe you deserve to be punished. That's the irony of being queer. Our critics say we're psychologically screwed up, but if some of us are, it's because of what they do to us. We torture ourselves to please people who will never accept us for who we are. How fucked up is that?

Get a room, fellas! 

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Raid on Corrupt Anti-gay Pol Blows Closet Door Wide Open

The New York Post reports this morning that Democratic New York State Senator Carl Kruger, who voted against NY's marriage equality bill last year, has been arrested, along with his secret live-in partner Dr. Michael Turano, in a sweeping federal raid resulting in the arrests of several others on a variety of corruption charges. Kruger is charged with accepting $1 million in bribes, which Turano helped launder.

This sort of thing just doesn't surprise me any more. Not just the corruption, but an anti-gay politician hiding in a closet of self-loathing. Living a lie fucks with your head. Outing assholes like this is a way of saving them from themselves.

Via the New York Post:

The charges include allegations that Kruger, Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland and previously convicted Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio -- who died in prison in January -- received bribes and other largesse to help two competing health-care companies buy hospitals, and direct state funds to those firms.

Kruger's constant companion, Turano, is accused of using bribe money he deposited in two shell companies for Kruger to pay the lease on a Bentley luxury sedan, credit-card bills and the mortgage on the garish, multimillion-dollar Mill Basin home where the two men for years have shacked up with Turano's mom and brother, authorities and neighbors said.

"Sen. Kruger had a close and intimate relationship with the entire Turano family, which includes one of the defendants, Michael Turano, along with his mother and brother," US Attorney Preet Bharara told reporters yesterday.

Neither of the other two Turanos has been accused of any wrongdoing.

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Pennsylvania Marriage Amendment Defeated

Attempts to pass a resolution to amend the Pennsylvania constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman was defeated in the senate judiciary committee on Tuesday by a vote of 8-6, with three Republicans suddenly crossing party lines at the eleventh hour.

Keystone Progress, a Pennsylvania LGBT rights group, reported on their blog yesterday,

"This is your victory. We had over 120,000 emails sent to senators, over 75,000 in the last 24 hours! In addition, our allies and friends generated thousands more phone calls, emails and letters.

We should celebrate, but we need to remain vigilant. It is unlikely, but it is possible that the bill could come to life again. Especially if they think we aren't going to act again."

Philadelphia Gay News reported yesterday that although similar bills have been defeated in the past, the Judiciary Committee did approve the measure two years ago by a vote of 10-4, but it was eventually defeated.

PGN reported yesterday: Sen. John Eichelberger (R-30th Dist.) introduced the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment earlier this year after first pledging to spearhead such a measure last spring.

“We knew this was coming in the last couple of days because some of the people had switched their votes,” Eichelberger said, noting that even though the table motion could allow for the bill to be resurrected before the end of this session, that’s not going to happen. “The people who voted for this were voting to kill it. That’s the realistic picture. Why they did it, I don’t know, because they are some of the people who were in support of this effort in the past.”

As I reported yesterday, blogger John Morgan of the Pennsylvania Progressive threatened to out closeted gay legislators who voted in favor of the bill. You could speculate on whether or not this was a factor, but it is interesting to note that all it took was for three politicians to suddenly change their votes for the bill to be defeated. Could the threat of being outed have caused these three to out themselves? I don't think we've heard the last of this.

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Pennsylvania Blogger Threatens to Out Senators for Anti-Gay Vote

Pennsylvania takes up the issue of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage today. One blogger has decided that enough is enough and he is using his blog to fight back. The Pennsylvania Progressive's John Morgan says he knows who's in the closet in the state capital of Harrisonburg and has threatened out any closeted gays who support an anti-gay amendment to the state's constitution.

On Friday, Morgan wrote: Do you remember last year when State Sen. John Eichelberger debated Sen. Daylin Leach about marriage equality?  He said this about the gay and lesbian citizens of Pennsylvania:  "we allow them to exist."  No one "allows me to exist."  The threat implied by those words outraged Pennsylvanians everywhere. ...He wants to make discrimination in Pennsylvania legal and his actions doing so will encourage violence against GLBT persons.  After all, if these people are second class citizens under the law isn't it OK to bash them, assault them or even kill them?  Isn't that what Sen. Eichelberger meant when he said "we allow them to exist?" 

Morgan says he's serious about fighting the homophobes in the Keystone State, "I spend a fair amount of time in Harrisburg.  I know who is closeted.  Any closeted Senator who votes for Eichelberger's bill will be outed.  I also know a State Senator who is wildly homophobic and is also an alcoholic.  One of her rants will also be made public depending on her vote.  This is fair warning."

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