In the Philippines, jailed individuals get to become senators…or would become congressmen for that matter. But in America, a senator was actually arrested, handcuffed and according to Idaho Senator Larry Craig, he “was dragged down” by authorities for suspicion of undertaking lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport restroom.
I’ve already seen boxing and barking legislators of the Taiwanese kind on TV, or a nude woman lawmaker somewhere in Italy—-but in America, they have a senator that had been arrested and handcuffed for a misdemeanor just like any other citizen who had committed or under suspicion of having committed a malefaction.
In the Philippines, the whole Senate would be up in arms in defense of their comrade, invoking immunity from arrest, whether right or wrong. Nothing happens like that in America. In the Philippines, lawmakers are even trying to free a detained elect-senator. But in America, nothing sort of that happens for they even get arrested in the first place. In the Philippines, only opposition leaning congressman or congresswoman get arrested in the most upsetting manner. In America, nothing like that happens. They get arrested notwithstanding their political leaning. Nobody says “You are under arrest! By the way? Are you a Democrat or a Republican?”
Enough of that “walang ganyan sa America” thing going on in the above-written paragraph.
Senator Craig was arrested for suspicion of soliciting a sexual engagement (of the homosexual kind) in an airport restroom in Minneapolis. The complainant had declared how the senator made veiled gestures to signal a sexual request, particularly that of tapping one of his feet under the door of a toilet stall. Was this enough evidence to pin him down for lewd conduct? Ordinarily, if would have been just an harmless gesture, a meaningless incidental movement of the feet. But apparently, police undercovers were actually monitoring the whole restroom area in the airport where the incident had happened and this particular area had in fact became a featured area in a website that features locations and areas where gay men could link up with each other or solicit sexual engagements. You could say, it was just bad luck that the senator had happened to be there and had made that particular body movement that was known there generally to be one that would signal a request for sexual encounter.
This airport incident had happened about two months ago and was largely hidden from media due to the largely embarrassing nature of the circumstances, especially when it involves a US senator. Senator Larry Craig had already pleaded to a lesser offense just to “do away with it” as he says, and had declared unambiguously how he is not a gay as claimed by a complainant. Note that it is not homosexuality per se that had got him under arrest, but for public lewdness, or suspicion thereof.
All’s well that ends well—-But somehow, it opens up once again heated debate on homosexuality in these times where as an issue, it had become a well-discussed topic ever since same-sex marriages were finally allowed in some part of America, Europe and Canada. It is an issue that burns headlines once in a while and somehow had already become part of the psyche of the modern individual.
As an issue, it barrages out of the closet and into our mindset in the past decade or so. Is homosexuality going the way of women’s right libertinism? Gaining credence after a long drawn struggle for equality and social recognition? Just as womanhood had celebrated the day they had finally gained the right to suffrage and election? With the rate of progress on the homosexuality issue, it seems that this would be the way to go and one day—-just maybe one day—-same-sex marriage and relationship would be as universal as a man-woman union.
In the movie “The Dead Poet’s Society”, a character there was lamenting to the main protagonists (Ethan Hawke) how when he was a child, “gay” was such a happy word. But when he had grown up and found out the other meaning of the word—and him being one—it had become a word that had meant ultimate misery for him, of days and days of hiding in the closet, not being able to show his real self and real worth. This is pure misery according to him as he cried away his frustration.
Maybe it is such a difficult feeling; of being gay and not being able to forward such truth of one’s self.
I have no inkling about this sentiment whatsoever for I am not one and mostly, I wouldn’t be able to fathom such emotional quandary as well as possibly. What is really about gayness that becomes unusual to the eyes and understanding of many, even as society often deems it peculiar and to a certain the extent bizarre.
The bible speaks of “confusion of men” as one wicked incident in an Old Testament era.
But homosexuality as an issue is so part of our modern ways now that everyday, we brush elbows with it, as we let groom our selves in beauty parlors, in the movies and television shows that we watch, in schools, in the neighborhood, in the streets we walk on to—-it had become so ordinary like night and day. And yet, homosexuality remains a controversial subject, not easily taken lightly.
To be frank with you, I have no clear mind on this issue. But I recognize it as one significant phenomenon in our modern world, thru same sex marriages and gay right activism—-and it couldn’t be help that we think about it so often.
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