What was Portland Mayor Sam Adams thinking?!??!

[hulklogan]

Portland mayor acknowledges sexual relationship with young man he mentored
by Anna Griffin, The Oregonian

Portland Mayor Sam Adams acknowledged Monday that he had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old in summer 2005 and, on the eve of his campaign for the city's highest office, lied about it and urged the young man to lie as well.

Adams said he made a mistake in not admitting the relationship when reporters first asked about it in September 2007. He did not describe the relationship itself as a mistake.

"I should have been honest about what happened, but I was not," he told The Oregonian from Washington, D.C., where he is attending a national mayor's conference and the presidential inauguration. "I apologize."

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/mayor_sam_adams_on_monday.html">More from The Oregonian


I'm not making any judgments about the relationship, as is was apparently between two consenting adults. But how could Mr. Adams have possibly thought lying about it until after the election was a good idea?

Furthermore, I think there are some interesting issues that this story brings up with regard to gay elected officials. When we have an openly gay presidential candidate, will she or he have to be Orientationally Transcendent? I remember one of the common talking points during the election was that President Obama had to be very careful not to come across as Angry Black Man during the debates. Will a gay male candidate have to be completely nonsexual and utterly unstereotypical in order to get past this idea that all older gay men are sex-obsessed daddies?

I hope this revelation doesn't affect Mayor Adams's ability to lead Portland, and doesn't get used as ammunition against us in our ongoing battles against the freeper freak Prop H8ers.

[cliffordu]

1. I get tired of people being criticized for the human act of having sex.

[luv_mykatz]

2. Agreed!

I wish he had just told them it was none of their business, because that is exactly the truth. :mad:

[Starry Messenger]

3. 18 is legal. What's the issue?

Sam Adams will be a fine mayor. Gavin Newsom weathered a scandal with his buddy's wife. SF is still here. :hug:

[davidinalameda]

5. the guy's wife wasn't 18 at the time

[Jamastiene]

6. 18 IS legal.

It's nobody's business but theirs. :shrug:

[IndianaGreen]

4. He's a man. Men are all alike!

It doesn't matter what their sexual orientation is. Men are prone to follow their lower head.

Luv you guys! Be good! :-)

[Beregond2]

7. He was an idiot.

Anyone who wants a political career in this country should have the brains not to fuck around with 18 year old interns. No matter the technicalities of it, he has reaffirmed every negative stereotype about gay men the nutjobs love, and probably wrecked any chance he had to be an effective mayor. But then, Adams has alway been an arrogant ass, so he probably thought he could get away with it.

[donco6]

8. Gay president? What are you smoking?

Judging by the posts here, I'm thinking that's not something anyone will have to worry about. Ever.

[dsc]

9. This is profoundly disappointing

I know this isn't going to be a popular postion but Adams was just plain, flat out wrong. This isn't any different than what Foley did. He was mentoring the kid and was supposed to be helping him become a well adjusted adult. This was a power relationship which he abused. I feel very sorry for Beau who feels he can't say anything for fear of sounding like a scumbag according to the article.

[Christian30]

10. My thought

is that this guy has a thing for younger guys. I googled his current partner, Peter Zuckerman, who is 28, but looks significantly younger. Now, this is an issue I'm conflicted about. When I was in my early 20s, I tended to date men who were 10-20 years older than me. So, I have a history here.

However, the longer I spend in the gay male community, the more I see middle aged guys obsessed with younger guys. I see nothing wrong with any (legal) age combination, but I do feel that a lot of older guys are focused on youth in an unhealthy way. So, they keep trying for these younger guys (who mostly want guys there own age) and they keep getting disappointed. And thy seem to be unable or unwilling to entertain dating someone their own age or older.

It seems to me that gay men are just as obsessed with youth as straight men are. It's the culture that we're all participating in that treats 40 year olds like dried up prunes. I think we'd all be better off if we focused on the beauty of all ages and chose people (whether as sex partners or lovers or husbands) based on who they are than an arbitrary age.

[xchrom]

11. since the greeks.

youth and beauty is a corner stone in gay male culture.

has been for over 5,ooo years.

[Christian30]

13. The Greeks...

Did not have a sexual identity of "gay" as we understand it in contemporary Western Culture. It's a straw man argument because of the vast difference between the cultural mores between then and now. On the one hand, I agree that "youth" and "beauty" have been considered primary for millennia, but that is based on a hard wired idea of "beauty" representing good breeding stock. That really has no place in a discussion of contemporary gay culture. Further, the Greeks sexual relationships were based on an endemic power structure that favored citizens. And since citizens were only adult males, it's really not comparable.

[xchrom]

14. horse shit -- most everything you understand about 'beauty' is derived from

the greeks if you live in the western world.

the fact is -- the greeks like the brits and other cultures after them had a thing for youthful male beauty.

you should better acquaint yourself with gay history.

[Christian30]

21. I am very well acquainted with "gay" history...

In fact, I studied it extensively in college and continue to do so today. The fact of the matter is that you cannot equate the culture of pre-Christian Greece with contemporary American gay culture. There are too many differences. Yes, the Greeks revered young male beauty, but that is a huge stretch to rationalizing the fact that a significant percentage of gay men only want to date, hook up, etc. with twinks in the 20s. As a minor example, the age of consent was much younger, as did the age when most people married. Simply, we live about 30 years longer than the Greeks did.

Gay men's obsession with youth is nearly pathological, as is the similar obsession with Britney Spears in a Catholic girls uniform among straight men. Since we now live into our 80s, but the ideal is 18-25, that leaves 55 years of your life in which you're written off as a beauty.

[bluedawg12]

26. I don't think it's "near pathological" it is however the focus of modern culture

for society.

The idealized male or female is the youthful form. That may no longer be tied into chronoloigcal age, as people do strive to maintain those aesthetic qualities through exercise, diet and plastic surgery.

That being said, people hold the ideal which equates roughly to the young form, lean, muscular, devoid of excess body fat, clear smooth skin, white teeth and a healthy head of hair.

That goes back to being hardwired for selection of healthy mates, but culture takes that which is hardwired and embelishes upon it.

Yes, that does leave 55 years of our lives to look like sh*t, so the old saying: "Age and craftiness always trump youth and beauty." :evilgrin:

[Toasterlad]

18. Yes, Because Straight Guys Don't Have a Thing for Teenage Girls at ALL.

I just fucking LOVE it when people get all hysterical about a 30 or 40 year old gay guy caught boning some 18 or 19 year old kid. Suddenly, all gay men are pedophiles and sexual predators. Never mind that straight men get caught nailing teenage girls ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Does anyone go around saying that all straight guys are pedophiles?

In any case, the boy was 18, and legal. It's nobody's fucking business but the Mayor, the boy, and the Mayor's partner what they did or didn't do. And spare me the song and dance about how the boy was "used" by the creepy older gay man. I was an 18 year old homo at one time, and I would have LOVED to have been "used" like that. The only reason for the kid to feel used or ashamed is if a bunch of purdish holier-than-though types TELL him he was "used" and "shamed".

This country has SERIOUS sexual hang-ups.

[Raster]

20. Thank you!

:evilgrin:

[bluedawg12]

27. Like all of those "Girls Gone Wild" videos showing 47 year old shot put

competitors? :evilgrin:

I am still waiting for the "Portly gals in cover-alls, Hot, hot, hot!" Video to come out. But that just me. :sarcasm:

BTW- it wasn't a "boy" it was a man. Legal age, adult male.

However, the attraction to youthful beauty seems to cut across all lines of sexuality.

[Zuiderelle]

28. It is NO different with straight men and younger women. I think you would find the same ratios.

[xchrom]

12. don't care about this -- every one was an adult -- and it was consensual. nt

[insleeforprez]

15. The lying is unfortunate...

...and so is the potential abuse of a position of power (something that may not be an issue here, but could be).

[xchrom]

17. we need to stop asking people about their fucking habits -- as if it's OUR business.

[bluedawg12]

24. Or we just need to stop answering those questions. Agree.

What consenting adults do is private.

It's when pols start dissembling that they get into trouble.

[Zuiderelle]

29. I agree. Maybe he shouldn't have lied, but he also shouldn't have been asked.

[bluedawg12]

32. Agree, however, we cannot control the media and their questions

and if they get a whiff of a story they will ask. Right or wrong, they will ask.

So, if there is some controversy in the life of a public official, better to get out in front of the story and either do like dumbya who simply refused to asnwer any questions about snow flakes on his proboscis, or get it out yourself and give an interview with a friendly source who can ask about it, or if you are going to answer then at least tell it truthfully: " I have never sought or engaged in any romanitc liasons with anyone other than a consenting adult."

However, there is another fly in the ointment. The man was an "intern" which conjurs up work related relationships between superior and inferior status worker and abuse of a position of power at work.

http://www.queerty.com/
Portland Gays Hurt and Angered By Sam Adams Intern Relationship
"It's not the sex, so much as the lying" is the general consensus from gays and lesbians in Portland, who reacted with shock and anger that, on a day that should have inspired hope, they found themselves defending the lies and cover-ups of their newly-elected mayor, Sam Adams. Adams is the first openly gay person to run a city the size of Portland and while he's apologized for his relationship with then-18-year-old legislative intern Beau Breedlove, many in Portland worry that the story will cause setbacks for gays and lesbians seeking social justice. Adams says he will not resign and will hold a press conference this afternoon to speak more about the issue after speaking at length to the Oregonian editorial board yesterday Video after the jump. Continued »

[Zuiderelle]

34. True.

[bluedawg12]

36. Knock. Knock. Is that you in there?

PF? You've morphed. :think:

:hi:

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. To quote the great gay music duo, Romanovski and Phillips....

"Don't use your penis for a brain."

I don't think the mayor was thinking. At least, not with the right head.

[bluedawg12]

22. I thought it was

"Don't use your penis for a pen."

:evilgrin:

[TechBear_Seattle]

25. Ron Romanovski is still preforming. Here is a YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy7iYEK3qD8

[MNBrewer]

19. If people insist on treating 18 year olds as though they were defenseless childeren

then let's make the legal age 19, or 20, or 45....

[xchrom]

30. WOOPS! -- there it is. nt

[bluedawg12]

33. An 18 year old heterosexual man has the legal right to get married in Portland?

I believe that is so.

So, the age issue is a canard.

[bluedawg12]

23. The cover up is usually worse than the deed.

[GodlessBiker]

31. So true.

[freestyle]

35. He should have said it was no one's business, and left it there.

Not every question deserves an answer, and lying is a mistake. Any politician should have learned this from Clinton. As long as all involved are consenting adults, it is a matter for the people involved and their spouses if there are any. No one else has a right to know.

I don't think that the first honestly GLBT candidate or President will have to be a saint, or someone with no past, but they will have to be married for a long time with no evidence of any affairs. They will have to be "cleaner" than their straight counterparts, as being subject to a higher level of scrutiny is true of anyone running for, or holding, office who is not a rich, straight, white, christian male.

[nightrain]

37. guess Adams was embarassed and scared. Poor impulse control?