GOP 'Family Values' Mayor Greg Davis of Southaven, MS Forced Out of Closet by Receipts from Gay Sex Shop
Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, Mississippi, "who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008 on a conservative, family-values platform" according to the Commercial Appeal, has been forced out of the closet over receipts uncovered in a criminal investigation over misused expenses. The receipts included "thousands of dollars worth of liquor, expensive dinners at a local restaurant and a visit to an adult store catering to gay men":
As details emerged Thursday from the receipts, provided by state auditors to Southaven aldermen and subsequently obtained by The Commercial Appeal, Davis conceded publicly for the first time in an interview with The CA that he is gay and has struggled to keep the issue from affecting his public life as mayor of Mississippi's third-largest city.
"At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case," Davis said Thursday afternoon at his Southaven home. "While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual -- and still continue to be a very conservative individual -- I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay."
Davis doesn't recall what he bought at the Priape sex shop:
The receipts were provided to state auditors in hopes of decreasing the approximately $170,000 they have demanded Davis repay the city for improper charges to both his city-issued and personal credit cards. Auditors asked city aldermen, who approved the expenses, to review the receipts before making a decision on accepting them to reduce Davis' payments...
...a review by The CA shows that Davis spent thousands of dollars at the Mesquite Chop House in Southaven and thousands more at local liquor stores. Also included in the receipts is a charge for $67 at Priape, a store in Toronto that is described by its website as "Canada's premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop."
Davis said he didn't remember what he bought at the store, which he visited on a recruitment trip with Mid-South warehouse developers.
Apparently he was worried about being blackmailed.
Posted by: anon | Dec 16, 2011 12:58:18 PM
This is so textbook it's not even surprising. And as much as I look at him and the "pressures" on him in life....he brought this on himself.
So many young LGBT people live each day with targets on their backs. They're born into ultra-conservative families. They're born into ultra-religions communities. They're born into anti-gay worlds.
And yet....they still defy it and Come Out and work for change, and demand to live their life on their own terms, no matter how hateful the world is to them. And they do it at very young ages. So Im continually confused as to why these grown-ass MEN, not children, are so unwilling or unable to do the same.
I guess that goes to show how powerful anti-gay sentiment really is - it's so strong in America that a gay man will waste decades of his life lying, create a false image and a sham marriage and bring children into it, all to convince the people who are SUPPOSED to love him that he's "not gay" .
it's a sad statement of where our worldwide culture still is.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Dec 16, 2011 1:06:39 PM
"So, given that his choice in such a place is either to live in the closet--and become a conservative Republican as is expected of anyone "in society" in such a place, as much as being a liberal Democrat is expected of someone in a place like San Francisco--"
That's flat-out farcical. Yes, there are particular geographic locales that lean one way or another - and sometimes very strongly - but there's a sizable conservative segment in San Francisco, and there's a sizable liberal population in the deepest, darkest place of the south.
And while we might talk about the tragedy of living in the closet, I don't think that alone raised hackles. It was the fact that another one of our own was working against us through the same 'family values' framework. No one forced him to be a conservative Republican. And no one forced him to hate on gays.
"Oh, and one other thing--"feeling sorry for the family". Good God Almighty!--as though his wife is not likely to be a total right-wing homophobe herself"
Perhaps. I still feel sorry for her, and the family. It's terrible how we let ourselves be warped by absolute belief.
"but I guess because she has a vagina, she gets sympathy anyway......"
She gets sympathy because she's a human being who's in a particularly difficult moment. That sympathy might increase or decrease, depending on any additional information that comes out. But being affected by the sadness of the human condition isn't a bad thing.
And I would feel just as sorry if a conservative Republican woman turned out to be a lesbian and left a heterosexual marriage in tatters.
Posted by: Nat | Dec 16, 2011 1:07:44 PM
Rick, I am from South Carolina, so I know all about life in small Southern towns. I do not live in the Castro, WeHo or Chelsea; I live in Mexico, where young male couples can be seen cuddling in the parks. It is a new world, thanks to the half-century work of millions of gay people being brave enough to live openly, to the gay pride parades, and to pro-gay activists and politicians around the world.
To your question of what should he have done, he should have had some dignity and integrity. I know all about lockstep conservative politics in the South, but I believe many of those voters know this "family values" stuff is bull, and that voting against gay people is really voting against their own families.
Posted by: Dastius Krazitauc | Dec 16, 2011 1:14:19 PM
And RICK, I know so many openly-gay people, of all ages in ALL professions.
Just because your own father hated having you for a son and demanded that you Hide your gayness (badly, no doubt) in public and at work doesn't mean that other LGBT do, or have to.
It just means that you're a wimp and you're resentful of all LGBT people who have more courage to live openly than you do. You're a grown-adult Closet Case. You complain about the gay community from the confines of your closet. That makes you about as useful as tits on a fish.
I know it's hard for you to imagine that any Out lgbt people could maintain jobs and respect and admiration - namely because your own father wishes you committed suicide in your teens, and is ashamed to be related to you, but that's not justfiication to insist that everyone else is, or needs to be, Closeted.
We get it. You're not able to be Out because you're still ashamed of being gay because your dad didn't love you.
There are tonnes of brave open gays in small towns all across America, even in the Deep South. Don't assume that none exist merely because you still dont' have the balls to be Out.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Dec 16, 2011 1:19:39 PM
@Nat I tell you what, Nat. You give me ONE SINGLE example of an openly gay man in Mississippi or Alabama who holds a position of significance of any kind in the public sphere, other than perhaps as an ACLU attorney. Go ahead, give me just one.
As for "hating on gay people", while I will grant that the "family values" mantra is often just a euphemism for homophobia, it is not always that, for all people. The loss of the family structure in this country is very real--and it has had enormously negative consequences, so there are individuals who see it that way.
Is there any evidence that this guy went out of his way to harm gay people? None that I know of. And trust me, if he were not a conservative Republican, he would not have been able to have a viable political career in that community--or dozens of others like it.
So many of you people are such political animals that you lose sight of what the purpose of the gay movement is supposed to be in the first place--it is supposed to be about freeing people like this man from the societal circumstances that forced him to make the decisions he did.....and just because we may be close to achieving that in Manhattan or a handful of other urban precincts on the East and West coasts and in a few college towns does not mean that we are anywhere near achieving it in places like Southaven, Mississippi.
So please, spare me all the self-righteousness....the fact that most of you pounced on another gay man in tragic circumstances while defending the straight (and no doubt homophobic) woman he is married to just speaks volumes.......volumes and volumes about what you really are all about.....and it is a very ugly picture, indeed.
Posted by: Rick | Dec 16, 2011 1:22:40 PM
Rick what do you think he should have done?
I think if he knew at all he had feelings for guy before he was with her he had a responsibility to not take that step. If they developed after he needed to do something about it, be upfront with her, again easier from the outside I know. But he made the bed...
Posted by: George M | Dec 16, 2011 1:26:00 PM
RICK, what's your excuse for continuing to be a pathetic Closet Case?
Post the URL to your own page/video so we can all see the shining example of a masculine gay male role model that you continually claim to be.
Those with nothing to hide hide nothing...... I call your bluff.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Dec 16, 2011 1:26:36 PM
c'mon, RICK, post the URL to your own page/video so we can all see the Great Masculine Gay Role Model you claim to be.
What's the URL, RICK? Surely you're Out, representing Strong Gay Men, right?
PROVE IT. I call your bluff.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Dec 16, 2011 1:38:06 PM
Rick I hear you the movement but do you hear you're self? You speak with anger towards woman, really what is your back ground, maybe it would be easier to understand where your coming from. Can you just explain the woman/ gay man dynamic, maybe I just can't see it, help me with that
Posted by: George M | Dec 16, 2011 1:38:18 PM
I’m sorry, But this jackass deserves it, I’m sick and tired of these phony d-bags hiding in the closet.
It forces us to Out these hypocrites, when the others in his party are constantly bashing us, and want to take away our rights as citizens.
This is when I’m all for outing these pathetic losers
Posted by: Keke | Dec 16, 2011 2:21:55 PM
Seriously, what the hell is a "very conservative, progressive individual"? I realize leading a double life can f*ck with your brain, but Jesus.
Posted by: Glenn | Dec 16, 2011 3:06:46 PM
"Can you just explain the woman/ gay man dynamic, maybe I just can't see it, help me with that"
Really, George. Just go to a Lady Gaga or Madonna concert and that should answer all your questions. Hint: Your observation of the audience would be totally different from what you would observe at the concert of any male performer, including openly gay ones like Ricky Martin or Elton John
Posted by: Rick | Dec 16, 2011 3:08:39 PM
RICK, are you a 15 year old boy in rural Alabama? No? Then why aren't YOU Out?
Lady Gaga? Madonna? Yeah. You're gonna see openly gay people there. What's your point? You hate Gaga and Madonna, and are still Closeted.
You hating Lady Gaga hasn't helped you Come Out - it's driven you further IN.
So, what are YOU doing to help rural gay teens in the Deep South, RICK?
How about you post the URL to your own page/video so we can see what a great masculine gay male role model you are?
URL, please.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Dec 16, 2011 3:13:33 PM
Stop feeding trolls people. We all know Rick/Jason/etc. is the same misogynistic racist troll. He gets off on the attention.
Posted by: sugarrhill | Dec 16, 2011 3:27:37 PM
I was hoping you could tell me why that matters? There has to be something more to it. Dude I wish you lived here, this would be a good conversation over 4 pitchers of coors light!!
Posted by: George M | Dec 16, 2011 3:31:22 PM
girl shoulda paid in cash
Posted by: h | Dec 16, 2011 5:04:25 PM
You answered on the other one Rick thanks
Posted by: George M | Dec 16, 2011 5:17:26 PM
What's funny is the assumption by many that it was a dildo that he purchased. Anyone who's been to the Priape store in Toronto knows that a dildo would be one of the tamer purchases there. I'm guessing he spent a lot of time in the back perusing the leather ball gags, sounding rods and electro-stim equipment. If he was looking for a dildo, there are plenty of stores in the vicinity of Priape that are cheaper and less gay-oriented.
Posted by: Bear | Dec 16, 2011 5:21:46 PM
add 'im to the LONG list of GOP hypocrites
Posted by: ACe | Dec 16, 2011 5:32:08 PM
Why people still going to sex shops? You can get and see anything online. Those in the US are almost extinct. Or there is a backroom he was visiting?
Posted by: simon | Dec 16, 2011 5:34:27 PM
Let the heterosexual people have him.
Posted by: Mel Smith | Dec 16, 2011 6:25:33 PM
"as a very conservative, progressive individual"
I dunno... where I come from, those are polar opposites...
Posted by: DrRandy | Dec 16, 2011 6:31:40 PM
cool
Posted by: Larry | Dec 16, 2011 6:43:45 PM
Oh how conservative, republican of him to live a hypocritical lifestyle. Typical of the family values freaks.
Posted by: NY2.0 | Dec 16, 2011 7:58:40 PM