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U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) insists he’s not gay and that his actions in a Minneapolis men’s room in June were misinterpreted by an undercover police officer on a sting operation. (Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO J COMMENTS
 
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result in stopping the problem of public sex or sexual solicitation in public places.
“Senator’s Craig’s arrest was one of thousands of these arrests that take place across the country each year,” Kosfsky said.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, criticized Republican leaders for reacting more harshly toward Craig’s situation, which involved a gay angle, than toward U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana, whose telephone number turned up in the records of the owner of a female escort service known as the Washington Madam.
“Let’s see, one Republican senator is involved in soliciting sex from a man and the Republican leadership calls for a Senate investigation and yanks the rug from underneath him,” Foreman said. “Another Republican senator admits to soliciting the services of a female prostitute and there’s not only no investigation, but the senator is greeted with a standing ovation by his Republican peers. What explains the starkly different responses? I’d say rank and homophobic hypocrisy.”
Kristina Oseth, acting clinical coordinator of the Lambda Center, a mental health facility for gays associated with the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, D.C., said engaging in or attempting to engage in sex in public places often is a symptom of a condition known as internalized homophobia.
“They may have sexual impulses and don’t feel comfortable going to a more appropriate place to meet other men,” Oseth said. “If someone is not ready or capable of coming face to face with the idea they may be gay, they will go to great lengths to hide it. Sometimes they risk going to a less-appropriate place.”
Craig’s encounter with police and the courts surfaced Monday when the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call published a story reporting that Craig had been arrested June 11 in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by an uncover police officer investigating complaints about sexual activity in the restroom.
Court records show that Craig pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Hennepin County District Court after waiving his right to a trial and after signing an affidavit affirming that he was guilty of committing the offense.
The “offense,” as described by the undercover officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia of the airport’s police department, was interfering with the “privacy” of another person by making gestures and giving hand signals from one bathroom stall to another indicating an interest in engaging in “lewd conduct.”
In a two-page police report, Karsnia said he had been assigned to patrol t
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