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Loading ...Portland gay mayor hangs tough, won’t resign
01.26.2009 11:30am EST
(Portland, Oregon) The mayor of Portland, Ore., has decided not to resign despite calls for him to do so after he admitted he lied and asked a teenager to lie about their sexual relationship.
“Tomorrow, I go back (to) work as your mayor. I know I have let you down and made mistakes. I ask your forgiveness,” Mayor Sam Adams said in a statement. “I believe I have a lot to offer the city I love during this time of important challenges.”Adams, who was just sworn in on Jan. 1, publicly apologized this past week for lying early in his campaign about the relationship with an 18-year-old man in 2005.
The scandal has resulted in an investigation by the Oregon attorney general and has divided the city and its gay and lesbian community. The police union and four Portland newspapers have called for his resignation, but Adams has found strong support to remain, including a Friday rally on his behalf at City Hall that drew more than 400 people.
In his statement, Adams said he would “work harder than I ever have in my life” to help see the city through the tough economic times.
Two of the leading business associations in Portland had taken a wait-and-see stance.
Steve Holwerda, Chairman of the Portland Business Alliance, said in a statement the board had differing views on whether Adams should resign but they agreed it was a critical time for the city and some of its major development projects.
“Whether or not he stays in office should be based on whether he can lead our city effectively and with the integrity that all our citizens deserve,” Holwerda said.
But the board of the Portland Area Business Association went further and said Adams should remain in office, but added, “pending the outcome of official investigation.”
The teenager, Beau Breedlove, was a legislative intern when he met the mayor at age 17. He and the mayor both say their sexual relationship started after his 18th birthday, in June 2005.
Breedlove, now 21, told The Oregonian on Saturday that the relationship was consensual.
“I do not see any relationship that I ever had with Sam as me being taken advantage of,” Breedlove told the newspaper. “I do not feel like I was ever a victim.”
When Adams confirmed the relationship this past week, he said it was inappropriate because of the age difference; Adams is now 45.
He also said he lied early in his mayoral campaign and asked Breedlove to lie as well because rumors at the time falsely suggested the relationship involved a minor.
The mayor has really poor judgement and is not very savvy. It’s a good idea to leave sexual liasons that even have an aura of being inappropriate alone. Not that it was illegal, but it is bad PR.
In any event, the mayor should have released a statement that at no time did he “have any sexual relationship with a minor”. This would be a true statement, and the young man in question could have affirmed that “the mayor’s statement is true”. No lies, no scandle for the press to pounce on.
Sure, the press is going to have a field day with the story, but you don’t have to spoon feed them lies, which ooze out a juicy “gay sex scandle”.
The mayor did not do anything wrong in bed, but he lied. The public has and should have a problem with dishonestly from people in positions of public trust.
Good for him! Nobody thinks ANYTHING about it when “breeder” Rethuglicriminals divorce their first wives and trade them in for one or more blond “trophy” wives twenty or thirty years their junior. They’re regarded as (UGH!) “studs.”
One of my lovers was twenty years my senior; another was twenty years my junior; what’s the problem?
In the above cases, as with Adams and Breedlove, it was mutual, consensual, and Breedlove was 18.
NEXT!
Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA
Nobody should have to explain a private relationship to nobody.
I agree 100% with Bud. He was in a consensual legal relationship and I still do not see what the big deal is.
The “big deal” is that he is gay. You can bet gays are going to be held to a different standard for a long time to come. It’s been the same for women and blacks in high profile positions.
The mayor did nothing illegal. So what if the young man was more than twenty years younger. I see that in hetro relationships, and…so what? It was a private matter and should be left a private matter.
Sam Adams you should hang tough and do your job for the people in your city. I do not consider what you have done as being wrong. God loves us just the way we are.