Idaho Paper Out to Disprove Larry Craig's "I'm not gay" Claims

Not content to let Senator Larry Craig's now famous statement — "I am not gay, I never have been gay" — stand, the Idaho Statesman has continued to ferociously pursue claims by four men that they had sex with Craig. Yesterday they published a blistering exposé which collected the five men willing to come forward and discuss their intimate relations with the Senator, complete with audio recordings:

"David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington, D.C., who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex. Mike Jones is a former prostitute who told the world he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard last year. The former Colorado Springs evangelist at first denied it but eventually confessed. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in late 2004 or early 2005. Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d'Alene. Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s. A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, offered a recent and telling account: He was in a men's restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho."

The Statesman, which gives each man's story in extensive detail, says, "As with [our] August report, the new evidence is not definitive. There are no videos, no love letters, no voice messages. Like last August, they are he-said, he-said allegations about a man seeking discreet sex from partners whom he counted on to never tell. But the Statesman's investigation, which included reviews of travel and property records and background checks on all five men, found nothing to disprove the five new accounts. The men offer telling and sometimes similar details about what happened, or the senator's travel records place him in the city where sex is alleged to have occurred, or his accusers told credible witnesses at the time of the incident."

Listen to David Phillips here, here, and here. Listen to Mike Jones here, here, here, and here. Listen to Greg Ruth here. Listen to Tom Russell here, here, and here. WARNING: Some of the audio recordings may contain graphic language.

Larry Craig released a statement responding to the Statesman's claims. Said Craig: "Like its previous coverage, these latest allegations are completely false and have no basis in reality. In fact, the paper itself states that these baseless accusations contain no definitive evidence, yet they still decided to print them anyway. Despite the fact the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won't let this paper's attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho"

Good luck with that.

More gay men describe sexual encounters with U.S. Sen. Craig [idaho statesman]
Craig: Statement's Completely False [idaho statesman]

(image via daily dish)

Virginia DMV: Poofter Can Remain on the Road

Former Larry Craig trick-turned license plate activist David Phillips wrote to Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend with the news that he has been allowed to hold on to his "POOFTER" license plates.

Wrote Phillips: "This morning the Virginia DMV notified me by phone that I can keep my POOFTER plates. This after I returned directly to the head of the DMV the generic plates supplied with their hate letter, along with correspondence indicating my dedication to my First Amendment rights to self-identify in terms that meets no reasonable test for obscenity. I look forward to receiving the DMV's written apology for this incident."

Previously
Gay Man Battles State of Virginia to Keep "Poofter" License Plate [tr]

Gay Man Battles State of Virginia to Keep "Poofter" License Plate

Towleroad readers may be acquainted with the face of David Phillips. He's the Washington D.C. bear who two weeks ago came forward claiming he had some messy sex two decades ago with Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

Phillips is making headlines again, this time for his refusal to hand over license plates issued by the state of Virginia which he has had on his car for 11 years. The plates say "Poofter" which most here probably know is slang, sometimes derogatory, for a gay man.

Phillips tells the Washington Post that "it's just an amusing word that I self-identify with."

Writes the paper: "The commonwealth of Virginia is not amused. It gave Phillips his vanity plates in error, Carolyn Easley, coordinator of the special license plates office, wrote in a recent letter. 'You may have grown fond of your personalized plates,' but they are 'socially, racially or ethnically offensive or disparaging' and 'you must return them.' There was no explanation for why it took Virginia 11 years to figure out what 'poofter' means."

According to the WaPo, "hundreds of battles over personalized plates have used up untold government resources in a strange corner of the law that has some of the nation's top courts issuing contradictory rulings" and the ruling often comes down to personal viewpoints vs. obscenity: "One federal appeals court ordered Missouri to approve 'ARYAN-1,' saying the state 'may not censor a license plate because its message might make people angry.' In Vermont, however, a federal appeals court said the state could ban scatological terms because that doesn't involve quashing any viewpoint. In Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit prohibited the state from banning a Confederate flag logo on a special license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans because that would be viewpoint discrimination."

Phillips, who is scheduled to appear at a hearing over the plates in Richmond, says he has no intention of returning the "poofter" plates.

A Vehicle for Self-Expression? Not on These Roads. [washington post]

Washington D.C. Man Claims He Had Sex with Senator Larry Craig

David Phillips, a man Wonkette describes as "a local IT geek and bear-about-town" has come forward claiming he had sex with Idaho Senator Larry Craig. It's perhaps the dirtiest story I've ever read on Wonkette:

"I followed [Craig] from The Follies [bar] to a Capitol Hill neighborhood, parking on the street no telling how far from his house. We walked up the alley and through the back door of a house, with him repeating several times, ‘You were never here. You don’t know me. Right?’ and me responding, ‘Right!’ in boyish submission. As we tiptoed from the back door to the stairs to the upper floor, as if somebody else was home, he turned to grope my crotch and brush my face with his hand."

And there it begins...