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Loading ...Sex scandal divides Portland gay community
01.23.2009 8:52am EST
(Portland, Oregon) — A confession by Portland’s first openly gay mayor that he lied about having sex with a teenager is dividing this famously progressive city, as well as its gay community.
Just three weeks after Sam Adams was sworn in, many gays are questioning whether he is the man they want as their trailblazer.“Sam has been our guy forever, which makes this even harder,” said Marty Davis, publisher of the newspaper Just Out, which has called for his resignation. “It’s completely dividing and tearing our community right down the middle.”
Portland’s progressive reputation is based on its dedication to eco-friendly buildings, its large network of bike paths, an expanding mass transit system and the city’s welcoming attitude toward gays and lesbians, which was reflected in Adams’ easy victory in last year’s election.
Adams took office on Jan. 1, making Portland the largest U.S. city with an openly gay mayor. But the community’s image is taking a beating over the sex scandal.
It started earlier this week when the 45-year-old Adams admitted to an alternative newspaper, Willamette Week, that he lied during his election campaign when he denied having sex in 2005 with a teenage male who was a legislative intern.
The newspaper said it had evidence showing otherwise, although it never reported details. After being confronted about the relationship, Adams insisted he did not have sex with the young man until after he turned 18.
At a Tuesday news conference, Adams apologized for lying – and for asking the young man to lie – and left open the possibility that he could resign if doing so would be in the city’s best interests.
Since then, pressure has mounted on the Democrat to do just that.
Four newspapers have called for Adams to step down, including Just Out and the city’s major daily, The Oregonian. Willamette Week said Thursday that it has not taken a stand.
Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who defended Adams when the rumor first surfaced last year, said Thursday that a “large volume” of e-mail to his office was in favor of Adams’ resignation.
The Q Center, a Portland gay and lesbian community center that Adams helped found, on Thursday changed the name of an upcoming fundraiser from the “Mayor’s Winter Gala” to the “Winter Gala” to avoid attention to the controversy facing the mayor.
The sex scandal is stirring debate in Portland’s gay and lesbian community among those who believe Adams should be given a chance and others who insist he must resign.
Davis of Just Out said she is not as concerned about Adams’ relationship with the young man as she is about the lying. She said his actions have eroded the public’s trust in her publication.
Also hurting Adams are revelations that he hired a newspaper reporter who had earlier been looking into rumors that he had had sex with a minor. She now works for Adams as a planning and sustainability policy adviser.
Adams insists he did not hire Amy Ruiz to keep her from looking into his past. And Ruiz says she was hired because of her experience in communications, which, she added, makes up most of her job.
“The allegations or insinuations that my reporting had anything to do with my hiring” are untrue, she told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Ruiz said she made a round of phone calls about the story in May but did not turn up any evidence of Adams’ relationship with a young man named Beau Breedlove. Her editor decided against running a story.
Adams has gone into seclusion, and he did not return phone calls from the AP.
Oregon Attorney General John Kroger agreed to conduct an investigation into whether Adams committed a crime. City commissioners, the police chief and the local district attorney asked for the probe.
City Commissioner Nick Fish said the commissioners as a body are not taking a stand on the matter until the investigation is complete.
“This is clearly a distraction, but people need to know we are getting work done,” Fish said.
Another commissioner, Dan Saltzman, said Adams “deserves a shot at redemption.”
Oregon is no stranger to sex scandals involving public officials.
In 2004, the reputation of highly respected former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt was shattered by revelations in Willamette Week that he had sex with an underage girl in the 1970s, when he was Portland mayor.
In 2006, Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth was demoted over revelations that he had a sexual relationship with a police department clerk. The clerk released X-rated e-mails written by the chief.
Although the mayor is probably correct that the affair was ‘legal’, the problem is the optics of the situation. The fact is he lied. The fact is, legal or not, it was a teenager. The fact is, the boy was an intern. These thre facts make it clear. Further, and let’s be honest, if this were a straight man and a young girl, there’d be howls as well although I doubt as loud or as self-righteous.
It is not whether impropriety has occured, it is merely the perceiption thereof.
Sadly, fair or not, the mayor must fall on his sword lest this affair become a flashpoint which could burn out of control and hinder GLBT rights and, more importantly, how we are perceived by society in general.
As I said, it’s not fair but it is the proper thing to do.
I don’t know that the howls of protest would be so loud were this issue involved a heterosexual man and a teenage female. But because it is involving a gay man and a teenage male, it seems the villagers are ready to throw him to the lions. While I disagree personally with such a age variance in any relationship – straight or gay, I believe the big issue here that should be addressed is the fact, that unfortunately Mayor Adams has lied to his constituents. And that is the issue in itself that should be investigated. In the meantime, Mayor Adams needs to do the honourable thing not only for his great City but the Gay Community as well, and that is to step down from his position and let justice take it’s course.
These attacks on Sam Adams are 100% anti-gay.
Beau Breedlove was an ADULT. Breedlove worked for the Oregon state legislator in congress and Adams worked at the Portland mayor’s office, 60 miles away. There was no abuse of power. What they did was ok. The reason Sam and Beau mislead was because of reaction just like this. Adams and Breedlove should have never been asked about their relationship. It’s none of the public’s business. If honesty was a qualifier for public office or anything people would not have jobs.
SUPPORT SAM ADAMS NOW!
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I personally believe we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Of course the right wing is going to yell religious banter, and epithets will be thrown over this. But, we as the LGBT community need to meet a standard or moral and rise above that. If we are ever going to have equal rights we need to be better. These two maybe have been adults, but a 45 year old man to an 18 year old man still should know a little better than the 18 year old, what is right and what is wrong. And he should have had a little more respect for his community. I don’t care what straight people have done that compares to this. We need to be better than that. A 45 year old man looking at an 18 year old for sex, I don’t care if its straight or gay is pathetic. And slightly sick.
NO ONE should resign from political office over consenting adult sex. He lied about it? Who wouldn’t- considering how moralistically stupid this world still is OVER SEX.
Yes indeed, Portland is one of Oregons most progressive cities, however, it is no secret that our major newspaper/s are not.
For ANY person and/or entity to be demanding Adams resignation, speaks loudly as to why and how this one molehill of a story has been sensationalized into a huge mountain of a scandal, and certainly brings to question where ANY person and/or entity has found the LEGAL authority not only to state such ‘claims’ as FACT, but to do so before a CRIMINAL ACT has been CHARGED, and then PROVEN in a Court of Law by a Jury of his peers.
Contrary to how this issue is being ‘reported’, morphing a LEGAL ‘private’ consentual sex act into a tantalizing ‘public’ sexpose’ that attempts to argue that Adams is ‘guilty until proven innocent’ outside of a Court of Law, the LAW clearly dictates that Adams is ‘innocent until proven guilty’inside a Court of Law.
For anyone, or any entity, to be asking for, let alone demanding that Adams ‘resign’, not only is a blatant attempt to thwart and/or overthrow the Democratic process, whereby Adams was elected by a substantial majority of voters, it does so by slandering and fraudulently misrepresenting the ‘act of lying’ used to conceal a completely legal private act, into the illegal ‘crime of lying’, whether while ‘under oath’ or an issue that is pertinant/material to a legal contract.
Additionally, it is to be duly noted that Adams may have committed a sexual indiscretion that the conservative/religious right objects to, but that in no way makes it illegal, nor does it override or replace the amazing accomplishments that Adams not only believes and supports, but follows through to accomplish the many achievements that have made ALL ‘we the people’ better for his honorable works and deeds.
Remember Bill Clinton? In the end,nothing happened and he is more popular now than ever. So, what’s the big deal with Portland’s Mayor? Two adults had a consenting relationship. It is really none of anyone else’s business. WHY is the news media so hung up on sex instead of reporting on things that matter? Get a life, people–food pantries need stocking, the Red Cross needs blood, nursing homes need volunteers, many seniors need help, soldiers in Iraq could use goodie bags, and the press and some of the public titter over someone’s private life. Good grief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Because Sam is Gay, he should not be held to a higher standard than anyone else who has had sex with a consenting adult. Different story if it is proven the other person was under 18, but unless that’s proven, he should not resign. Because he lied to cover up or protect the other person is not of a level to justify firing this effective Mayor. He’s the victim of a political witch hunt and the gays shouln’t be feeing into it. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and forever shut up.
He hasn’t committed any crime! The young man was 18, and he didn’t lie under oath or anything like that.
I’d like to REMIND the LGBTQI community in Portland that the ENTIRE NATION is now watching this stupid scandal unfold, and you’re only giving fodder to those that HATE OUR GUTS.
What the mayor was doing was grooming his paramour when the guy was underage so he could get in his pants when he turned 18. Then the mayor has the chutzpah to lie about it during the election campaign. Instead of a guiding light for the community, Mr. Adams is a sleazy politico.
What is it with politicians these days? Can’t we have one scandal free person in office in this century? Although some may disagree, one must be judged by a higher standard when running for office. I personally don’t care unless there was some law was broken. To all of my gay brothers out there, it’s time to take responsibility for ourselves and our behavior. Yes, straight America just doesn’t get it when it comes to our equality but I will NOT stoop to their level of hypocrisy when it comes “sex scandals”. However, let me be clear in saying the mayor needs to go.
Yes,,,, I agree we should be holding ourselves to a higher standard. A 45 year old man should have known that the press was going to catch wind of this. And yes at some point it was possibly 2 consenting adults. That is one thing still at question. But the 45 year old man was 27 years older than the 18 year and should have had 27 years more worth of maturity. Who cares what “Bill Clinton” did. Bill was wrong and so was this man. He was in a position he should have been conducting himself a little more professionally. This is the type of thing the gay community keeps getting recognized for. Drag Queens shoving ice cream cones up each others bums on the float parades, leather men walking around with their bums hanging out, when all we can show is our bums and focus on shoving things up our bums then what is everyone going to think. That we are just a bunch of “asses” acting like “asses’. I was so disgusted at the Baltimore parade. A man in the parade with a his ass hanging out and a pretend horse tail of some sort fixed to look like it was stuffed in his rear end. In fact it may have been. I thought this is perfect for the children of those are trying to understand us. We don’t want to be different or considered different but act like circus side show freaks when given any attention. And of course there are starving people all over the world and soldiers in the Middle East. To bad we can’t help the soldier by joining the military. But, yet why should they treat us like we’re equal. We keep doing stupid crap like this.
The age of consent is 16. He’s fine. Stop being so sex phobic people.
The man had a relationship with another consenting adult and mistakenly denied it. He has since admitted that he made a mistake and apologized It is time to move on There are bigger issues of concern. Iraq, Healthcare, The Economy
mark snyder Said: January 23rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
The age of consent is 16. He’s fine. Stop being so sex phobic people.
Oregon Law
163.445 Sexual misconduct. (1) A person commits the crime of sexual misconduct if the person engages in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with an unmarried person under 18 years of age.
There is another Law which precedes this law which states that a person is incapable of giving their consent to sexual activity if they have not reached the age of 18. The age of consent may be 16 in the state or country in which you reside, but it appears that is not true in the State of Oregon.
I will say that if both parties are within legal limits of the law, and they wish to bump peepees, then it is not anyone else’s business and you are correct that some people need to get over their “sex phobia” and “ageism”. If the kid is into “silver daddies” and since no one has heard anything derogatory from him about the relationship, that appears to be the case and so then it should be their business. Some people like fresh steak, served rare, and some like aged beef served well done. There is no accounting for taste. One mans meat is another man’s poison. No one is forcing any one to eat at a particular restaurant or dine on anything that they don’t want to eat. I will simply say that I am much older than either of these gentlemen, and if a young man of legal age offers, I am probably going to very graciously and appreciatively accept the offer of friendship with benefits. Stop stirring this “tempest in a teapot” and get on with something which has some real meaning. Don’t destroy the good works and futures of these people because they chose to show affection for one another. We need to stop throwing out the “baby with the bath water” and stop making “sex” such a political hatchet for destroying the lives of individuals.