"Equally, the news about Mark Foley has a kind of grim inevitability to it. I don't know Foley, although, like any other gay man in D.C., I was told he was gay, closeted, afraid and therefore also screwed up. What the closet does to people - the hypocrisies it fosters, the pathologies it breeds - is brutal. There are many still-closeted gay men in D.C., many of them working for a Republican party that has sadly deeply hostile to gay dignity. How they live with themselves I do not fully understand. But I have learned you cannot judge someone's soul from outside. That I leave to them and their God, and some I count as good friends and good people."

Republicans were aghast at Clinton's behavior, with many saying it showed he had lied and abused his power.

"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

Under Florida law, if Negron gets the nod from Florida GOP leaders, Foley's name would remain on the ballot, and any votes to Foley would go to the GOP-designated replacement -- i.e., Negron.

''He was a homophobe who needed to be exposed,'' said journalist Michael Rogers, whose website, http://www.blogactive.com/, reported on Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach for three years.

''I first started to report on Foley in March 2003 [2005],'' said Rogers, who is gay. 'The reason why -- he's antigay. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and has not renounced that vote. He refused to acknowledge that he supported the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell.' He would not sign on as a co-sponsor. He should be held accountable for not supporting that or co-sponsoring.

"No community is expected to harbor their own enemies from within. He is an enemy of our community, yet he wants to step into our community and put us at risk. He puts every one of us in a bad light.''

In 1996, The Advocate, a gay newsmagazine, outed Foley. During his 2003 run for U.S. Senate, several Florida newspapers reported the old Advocate story. Foley has never publicly said that he is gay. On May 23, 2003, he called a news conference and said that the innuendo about his life was ''revolting and and unforgivable'' and that he would not discuss his sexual orientation.
....

''I do believe that he had unhealthy sexual advances to these guys because he was living his life as a closeted gay man,'' Rogers said. ``Healthy gay men who are mature and dealing with their sexuality in a mature way don't hit on kids who are 16 years old. What's his signature issue? You don't know whether to laugh or cry.''

Because you support a political platform which defines homosexuals such as Charlie Crist as belonging to a dangerous 'lifestyle' and a threat to children. And you support a Party which is currently trying to add anti-gay discrimination into the Constitution of the United States of America. Hello.

When the institution of marriage was under attack, Attorney General Charlie Crist successfully defended Florida's Defense of Marriage Act.

Charlie strongly supports Second Amendment rights and advocates policies that strengthen Florida families.

According to a Syracuse University study, Republicans are having nearly 50% more children than Democrats.

Here's the kind of mail Jasymne has to put up with after she wrote about this victory. Feel free to write the author and let him know what you think.

From: hrndn8rx@msn.com
To: Jasmynne Cannick
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 10:47 AM
Subject: and you're black?

Oh MY GOd, AND YOU"RE BLACK TOO?
OH my God,let me put it to you this way, Have you ever met any racist gays? You need to go sit your ass down somewhere, and shut down your lil [sic] funky-assed website.
As a black man I know you know how messed up your ass is.
And I wonder how many Fags participated in those lynchings. BEtcha never thought about that. And since the fag is such a friend of the black man, they never molested any young slave children back then, did they. Gonna sit up here and fight for some gay assed rights and trivialize our stuggles?
If lynching were still going on do you think any brothas would risk anything to help you. No.
Your mother probabaly doesn't even talk to you anymore.
GAYS ARE FREAKS
Rob.
You're not worth using spell check

Good As You: It's a bird, it's plane, it's...Patrick Guerriero?

Once publicly opposed to gay marriage, former New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey now says he spoke out against the idea as a way to keep his homosexuality hidden.

I did not want to be identified as being gay, and it was the safe place to be,' McGreevey said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. 'I wanted to embrace the antagonist. I wanted to be against it. That's the absurdity.

"I haven't completely ruled out running for president again in the future but I don't expect to."

-- Al Gore, quoted by the AP, with a statement sure to increase speculation he might be a candidate again.

Bishop quoted from the NGLCC mission statement in a phone interview with PageOneQ. "The mission statement says it is committed 'to forming a broad-based coalition of LGBT owned and friendly businesses.' We're not exactly sure how Wal-Mart fits into the LGBT friendly business category," he said. "In fact, We're not sure how Wal-Mart fits into anything worker friendly. (PageOneQ, 8/21)

"The mission statement says it is committed 'to forming a broad-based coalition of LGBT-owned and -friendly businesses,'" Bishop told PageOneQ.com, referring to the gay and lesbian chamber's own description of its agenda.

"We're not exactly sure how Wal-Mart fits into the LGBT-friendly business category," Bishop said. "In fact, we're not sure how Wal-Mart fits into anything worker-friendly." (emphasis added) (Gay.com, 08/21)

Jeremy Bishop, program director of Pride at Work, a constituency group within the AFL-CIO labor confederation, said Wal-Mart should not expect the support of gay shoppers when it does not offer domestic partnership benefits for its gay workers.

"This community is really social justice-minded," Bishop said. "It won't be fooled by this. (AJC,

Ultimately, the story, including Pride At Work's angle was run in the Los Angeles Times:

"Our community is a smart community, and we can see a shameless marketing opportunity when it comes," said Jeremy Bishop, program director of Pride at Work, a group within the AFL-CIO that represents gay and lesbian workers.

"For us it's a matter of social and economic justice, and Wal-Mart has a long record of not treating its employees — gay or straight — with equity and dignity."