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November 09, 2006
StopPartisanPredatorPeddlers.com
Posted by: Chris
Lou Chibbaro at my old alma mater the Blade scored an exclusive interview this week with the gay blogger who first posted questionable e-mails sent by Mark Foley to teenage males he met as pages. Lane Hudson stays on the defensive for most of the conversation, swatting away Net-inspired conspiracy theories that he was working surreptitiously for HRC or Democratic candidates when posted the e-mails on his anonymous blog, StopSexPredators.com, for purely partisan reasons:
Hudson said he started the Stop Sex Predators blog about two months before he began work in September as a Michigan field organizer for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political organization.
He said he learned of Foley’s interaction with pages and his frequent e-mail exchanges with them through sources and contacts he declined to disclose.
"I heard more stories about it and just the stories that I heard made it clear to me that it was a long history of his behavior and that it wasn’t isolated incidents," he said. …
He said HRC and the gay-supportive Democratic Party candidates that he campaigned for in Michigan as an HRC field organizer knew nothing about his Stop Sex Predators blog, which Hudson said he created and operated anonymously.
I can't imagine HRC being in on Hudson's scheming. For one thing, the e-mails "out" Foley as a gay man and in a very unflattering light. HRC has always opposed outing, and would never want to see a gay member of Congress forcibly outed by accusations of pedophilia, whatever his party affiliation.
Hudson, now 29, says he actually met Foley back when Hudson worked as a White House intern in the mid-'90s, and gave the Florida congressman his e-mail address after he asked for it. There was "nothing explicit, nothing very salacious," about their subsequent communications, he said.
Hudson admits he's a Democratic partisan and very active politically, but he nonetheless swears there was no partisan motive to his activities:
"The criticism is moot," he said. "It only serves to distract from the real issue here. And the real issue is that there was a predator in Congress who, over the course of his 12 years of service, was continuously seeking out pages with unethical, immoral and inappropriate intentions. And now he’s not there," Hudson said.
"And anyone who wants to say anything different is endorsing the idea that these activities should have continued."
Errrr, riiiiight. As much as I believe that HRC and the Democrats had no advance knowledge of Hudson's plan to hatch Foley-gate, I don't buy for a second his protestation to have acted to protect the pages. If that were really his goal, he would have taken the communications to law enforcement authorities or the House ethics committee.
Hudson would be better off following the lead of Denver call-boy Mike Jones, who at least admitted his political motive in outing evangelist Ted Haggard as a philandering, meth-abusing "john."
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Comments
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There are many opinions out there on "outing". While I believe all of us are entitled to whatever privacies we desire----as coming out is difficult for many----I have an incredibly hard time sympathizing with the idea of "outing suppression" of those in the public sector----or of the (gay) individuals in their employ......who work, on a daily basis; against us, and thus, themselves. Most Log-Cabinites are comfortably "out"....and don't seem to share the same degree of self-loathement. Foley, Haggard----and the dam is just beginnning to burst----deserve whatever shame comes to them by whatever means necessary.
Standard cable in RJ, Chris, usually includes CNN INTL----and Larry King is usually repeated a few times a day until next live-broadcast. In case anyone missed Bill Maher on Larry King last night....he "outed" Ken Mehlman on the program to the millions watching; and will be devoting this FRI night's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO on that subject. He says there are scores of gays in senior positions on GOP staffs throughout Congress and will be outing a few on the program. I'm looking forward for quite an interesting show. These people should be known (to all) within their local gay community; at the local restaurants, bars, and gyms especially. And be forced to explain themselves to "their own".
The comments to this entry are closed.
Alan on Nov 9, 2006 10:03:25 AM:
As a gay South Florida Democrat from the district just south of Mark Foley's former one, we have all known the truth about him forever because he was in a glass closet being protected by the people and politicians around him. There is no reason to not assume that both law enforcement and the good folks on the House Ethics committee were not aware of that even if they didn't know about his online activities. If I had been the first to get the incriminating info I also would not have gone to them on the assumption they would continue to bury the info as they (apparently) had been doing for over a decade.
Please explain to me why Mr. Foley has not been subpoenaed by the House Ethics Committee to testify. If anyone knows who knew what when it would be him.
Finally, our state has now elected the first Gayvernor in the US. He denies it but the evidence is mounting. The same people who told us in print about Mr. Foley over 3 years ago are on the case. They were right then and are right now.