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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2009)
3ZÀ Ml?!1 «lyCTBMWga Breeding Love in the Bathroom A simple restroom kiss is historically accurate but dangerous for Mayor Adams ‘ ha! So I’m not the only gay man get ting busy with hot dudes in public rest- rooms. Turns out Sam Adams is doing it, too. As the entire free world probably knows by now, Portland Mayor Sam Adams— whose name these days is most usually preceded by the word “embattled”—has admitted to lying about having sexual relations with an 18-year-old legislative intern named Beau Breedlove, coach ing him to lie publicly about it, then covering it up by claiming their relationship was strictly a “mentoring” one, which Adams also now admits was a fabrication. Reaction on all sides was boiling hot, but af ter a few days of brutal media mayhem, Adams decided to return to work Jan. 26. That’s the old news. But then, in a recent Oregonian interview with Breedlove, came a shocking new develop ment in the story. There was smooching between Adams and Breedlove. In the second flexor City Hall restnxMn. When Breedlove was 17. A minute-long smooching session between two gay men in a public restroom! The mind reels. It’s a titillating new bit of detail (especially be cause Adams’ lawyer, Robert Weaver, claims the kiss was absolutely not sexual!) to add to the frame, but also a potentially devastating one. Because Adams, in his little bathroom kiss with Breedlove, however innocent or slight, might have helped graced former U.S. Sen. drag ancient gay male stereotypes and skeletons Larry Craig?) and, now back from the graves of the 1950s and '60s and anyway, for history. thrown them back into full, shining view. And for me, it was a You know the stereotypes I’m talking about, place of my first sexual and Adams does too, because he worked so hard encounter with another initially to defy and denounce them: the lecherous man. 1 was 14 or 15, older gay man who pries on younger men; the gay already openly gay in school. He was 18 or politician who seduces younger interns (shades of Mark Foley and the teenage congressional pages); 19. We were in a com munity theater pnxJuc- the bathroom-trolling queen hungry for some old- schix)! tearoom trade. tion of some Gilbert BY STEPHEN To be clear, none of those stereotypes fit and Sullivan schlock, Adams. Bur his simple action in that City Hall and he took a shine to restroom brings up just these type of uncomfort me during the rehearsal process, and I to him. able resonances for many people, including a A few fervent phone calls and one long, anxious reader over at The Oregonian’s Web site who iden- j car ride with my mom later, 1 was lip-locked with tified herself as “thelunchlady” and offered this this gorgeous guy in a little bathroom at some poignant remark: community college corner rnxrk. Did that bath “Gay or straight, a man of that age should not ; room smooching transform me forever after as a be making out with an underage kid! I think of gay person finally coming into my own? You bet, myself as very progressive, but the idea of a 42- and for the better, I would say. From Breedlove’s year-old making out with a 17-year-old in a men’s account, his City Hall kiss with Adams was just as room is disgusting!” wanted and valuable. “Disgusting” is open to interpretation, but at But there’s something else, very painful for many gay men, that Adams’ actions have evoked least the Adams/Breedlove kiss was, in some way, historically accurate. The public restroom has long in some circles: the question of older man- been a place of covert sexual activity for gay men, younger man relations. Take this comment, from for as long as restrooms have been public, it seems. “gbdavey,” posted to a local Web site: They’ve been a place for scandal (remember dis “Defending a man-boy love predator mayor just because he’s gay is absolutely senseless, and will dilute sup port for accepting the gay lifestyle as a legitimate, ‘normal’ one we should all ac cept. Portland’s gay community seems to be bordering on defense of the North American Man-Boy MARC BEAUDOIN Love Association (NAM BL A) by de I fending Mayor Sam’s prxir choices." ! Now that’s one hell of a damning statement, and sadly, “gbdavey” isn’t alone in raising the specter of man-boy love in his condemnation of Adams, who has earned an unfortunate new mon iker online, “SAMBLA,” from this whole ordeal. However you feel about Adams and his ability to move forward as Portland’s mayor after the drama of ; these past few weeks, I think this image might stick around to haunt him for some time: that furtive and fateful bathr<x)m kiss with the 17-year-old. © Corner View News Editor S tephen M arc B eaudoin writes about Portland arts and queer culture at fromeverycomer. blogspot.com. He welcomes feedback at stephen© justout.com. FLOWERS & GIFT BASKETS 252 DOZEN ROSES IF ORDERED BY FEB. 9TH www.jacobsens.com (503)464-1234 M2DURNE FINE FURNISHINGS & FUNKTIONAL INTERIORS : d -50% Storewide ¿kr tAe âetecti&i JOHN'S LANDING • 5210 SW Corbett Ave, Suite M • Portland, OR 97239 Mon-Sat 10-6 • Sun 12-5 • 503-595-7770 • info@modurne.biz Your #1 choice 24/7/365 Cascade Women’s Health, PC. 1040 NW 22nd, Suite 330 Portland, OR 97210 ^cwtbLL Cascade Women's Healfh, P.C. Physicians and Surgeons 503.274.9936 • www.CascadeWomensHealth.org LYDIA H. 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