We were pretty giddy about the Larry Craig scandal yesterday. Then we started watching the coverage, which has rapidly degenerated into a smug homophobia-fest. The worst so far: on MSNBC, Tucker Carlson bragged that when a man hit on him in a bathroom in Georgetown, he went back with a friend and "grabbed him . . . and hit him against the stall with his head."
Then Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough laughed.
The gleeful back-slapping over Tucker's attack starts at 2:47. The relevant part of the above YouTube clip is also excerpted here on Gawker.
Last time we checked, beating up a gay man for propositioning you was a crime -- a hate crime, even.
Don Imus got in trouble for letting his disdain for black women slip out. Shouldn't Carlson get in at least as much trouble for revealing (with glee!) his past violence against a gay man?
UPDATE: Carlson has released the following statement:
"Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.
"Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me."
UPDATE UPDATE: GLADD is asking for an apology from Carlson and MSNBC
Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 7)
61. This is political correctness gone mad.
If a woman is confronted by a man in a crude or offensive manner she may choose to slap his face.
Is she now a Heterophobe ? Should she be charged with a hate crime ?
It seems that many gays are actually Heterophobic.
In a state of Hetero paranoia some gay's will take a heterosexuals statement and twist it to suit their worst baseless fears.
I know it's old news but, I think that the big deal Rosie O' made about the "I don't know where your hand has been" statement is a prime example of this type of fear mongering.
If anyone - gay,or straight is soliciting for sex in a public restroom they need to be punished for this behaviour, and maybe a punch in the nose is a less costly and embarrasing cure for them than being publicly hauled off to jail.
Don't forget - what we are talking about is sexual harrasment.
Some people seem to be confused as to who the victim is here.
Johnski at 12:57PM on Aug 30th 2007
62. Doesn't GLADD have other things to worry about. With all the real gay bashing and discrimination of gays do they have to waste their time with this.
This column from Ada is nothing more than an attempt to embarrass and harass someone that she doesn't like. Its actually childish. You would think that someone that has this platform would show some sense of understanding of certain issues, like what real gay-bashing, Tucker did not go after a man he thought might be gay and came back and stomped on his head, that is gay bashing, even if the man turns out not to be gay. In this case, a high school kid, and apparently conservative high school kids are not allowed to behave like...high school kids, got harassed by a creep in a public bathroom and he did what I thought was a normal thing to do, tell your friends that there is a creepy guy in the bathroom that needs to get his ass kick so he could stop bothering people.
I wonder what Ada would have done if placed in the same situation, of course as a high school teen, Ada would had exhibited an uncanny understanding and sensitivity to her would be attacker and would had just walked away thinking of how much better her life is now because of the colorful character she just met.
Its almost as if everyone here who think this was gay-bashing are not living in the real world. Get over yourself people, gay or straight, you do something like that and sooner or later you are getting your ass kick.
Jose at 12:40PM on Aug 30th 2007
63. Give me a break. This does not need to be even being discussed. What Tucker did and what Imus did are totally different things. Don't try to make something out of nothing. Tucker was making a point that a public bathroom is not for sex pleasure. If you know the definiton of bathrooms, then you get the point. The thought of people having sex in bathrooms makes me sick. Hope the police officers will continue to remove those who use those bathrooms for their sexual pleasure. I will never use any public bathrooms or I will caryy disinfectant wipes with me. How disgusting. Stop the nonsense.
Faye at 1:02PM on Aug 30th 2007
64. TUCKER DID THE RIGHT THING, REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOUR CHILDREN USE PUBLIC RESTROOMS
C. L. WOODS at 12:53PM on Aug 30th 2007
65. If that guy hit Tucker with his bag and Tucker hit him back, would that still be a hate crime? To me, anytime a person hit or attack another person, it's about hate toward that person regardless. Stop making somethong out of nothing. I would do the same thing as Tucker did whether I'm gay or not. There is a place for everything and the public bathrooms are one one of them. It's still dusgusting if it were a man and a woman having sex in the bathrooms. Have some dignity.
Faye at 12:55PM on Aug 30th 2007
66. Ya' know, if being gay was ok, wouldnt gay people be able to have children, as nature intended? Wouldnt you be able to have gay sex with your husband without worrying about AIDS? Wouldnt you be able to do all the things that two straight people can do, without all the worry? Just throwing it out there, but if it's natural, wouldnt it come with all the benifits of a natural relationship? ya' know, reproduction, no sexually transmitted diseases after you're married and what not.. but seeing as two women cant make a baby, and two men cant make a baby.. i'm pretty sure that's clear enough proof that there's something wrong with it.. seeing as there's animal's who can lay egg's without a partner, but no animal can lay egg's with a partner of the same sex.. just common sence to me.. but then again, I tend to think for myself instead of following the herd.
josh at 1:08PM on Aug 30th 2007
67. Why should Carlson apologize to GLADD I could cleary hear him say this happaned in high school. If my high school age son came home and told me that an adult male made a pass at him in a men's restroom you better believe I would want to do more than just shove his face against a wall. What is wrong with you people who say that Carlson was gay bashing? And if this so called gay man was hitting on high school kids chances are he wasn't gay...he was a PEDOPHILE!
MsOblvious at 1:19PM on Aug 30th 2007
68. So marta, if someone rapes your daughter, you're just gonna call teh law? Ifsomeone corner's you in a bathroom and rapes you, are you just gonna lay there and think "boy when he's done i'm callin the law and teh police will get him"? If so, your parents did a poor job raising you.. because the chance sin a rapist getting caught and actually unished are slim to none because everybodies sow orried about drug's, that a rapist gets off lighter.. and i'll tell you now if anybody ever laid a hand on me that was unwanted in that manner, i'd beat the dog sh*t from 'em.. because thats my right as a human being, to react in anyway that I see fit when approached and handled in such a way as to make me uncomfortable. If a stranger broke into your house, would you defend your family and wait until they did what they wanted and then call the police? Call the police is a anice fantasy, but the fact of the matter is we live in the REAL WORLD.. and things dont work out like in the movies here in the REAL WORLD.. maybe you'd like to pull your head from your ass and try joining teh rets of us.
josh at 1:22PM on Aug 30th 2007
69. Ada
It's funny that you excuse the man and his inappropriate, and illegal behavior if Tucker was a minor, just because someone finally beat on him. I think we can assume that since he remained in that bathroom there were plenty of others that decided to walk away in a non-violent way.
Common sense should tell him the bathroom is not the place to hit on guys for sex.
Please remember that his actions caused the entire series of events that followed.
Please be honest and thoughtful going forward.
Regards
AK
Andrew at 1:32PM on Aug 30th 2007
70. Why does anyone have to apologize to GLAAD for anything?
Anyone?
Andrew at 1:34PM on Aug 30th 2007
71. Ada
There is no connection between this and Imus. You are not thinking clearly.
AK
Andrew at 1:34PM on Aug 30th 2007
72. The DSM-TR gives the following as its "Diagnostic criteria for 302.2 Pedophilia":
• A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger);
• B. The person has acted on these sexual urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty;
• C. The person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A.
Sooo..unless Tucker was prepubescent in high school, the guy propositioning him for sex wasn't a pedophile. He very well might have looked prepubescent. After thinking about all this, was Tucker insinuating he was propositioned by a US Senator? How was his comment even relevant?
rivercelt at 1:50PM on Aug 30th 2007
73. The DSM-TR gives the following as its "Diagnostic criteria for 302.2 Pedophilia":
A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children generally age 13 years or younger;
B. The person has acted on these sexual urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty;
C. The person is at least age 16 years and at least 5 years older than the child or children in Criterion A.
What Tucker is describing is a rapist, not a pedophile as there is no indication this fellow preferred children to adolescent males and, if what he describes is accurate, it was a crime of violence, not sexual solicitation. He deviated from topic, from the all-too-well-known foot-tapping to an incident of violence and intimidation that happened in his youth. I don’t know if Senator Craig is a pedophile. I haven’t heard anything like that. I think leering into another person’s stall, male or female, is vastly creepy.
rivercelt at 2:06PM on Aug 30th 2007
74. IF A MAN HITS ON ANOTHER MAN, HE IS A SISSY IN MY BOOK. LOOK THE WORD UP IN THE DICTIONARY.
bRENT at 2:20PM on Aug 30th 2007
75. PIRO Demands Apology from Carlson and MSNBC:
by Mia Freak
Tye D. Bowl-Mann, spokesman for PIRO (Pedophiles In Restrooms Organization) has demanded that both Tucker Carlson and MSNBC apologize to Carlson's victim 20 years ago or PIRO will picket the studio's.
Juan A Youngin who was arrested 20 years ago for attacking Carlson in a restroom suffered contusions to his head when his two assailants rammed him into a shower stall.
"I was going about my daily business and never dreamed that a guy wearing a bow tie would only be a teenager. Doesn't really matter what I was doing a guy has a right to use a public restroom. Perfectly normal to be there for hours. It's a free country ain't it."
Since the advent of the internet PIRO has seen a steady decline in membership as splinter group MOW (Molesters on the WEB) has raped PIRO of most of its group.
"We thank dedicated journalists like Ada Calhoun, Aol, and GLAAD in defending our right to exist in society without persecution. We welcome Ada to be our Grand Marshall in this years Pedophiles on Parade which takes in most public restrooms on %th Ave in Manhatten" Responded Tye D. "Gays have come out of the closet and thats great, we just want to stay inside but that dream has been stalled"
Yurin Null legal counsel for PIRO has set up a defense fund for Juan A Youngin, and is spearheading his drive to get rest-itution.
Contributions can be sent to:
PIRO
411 Fielding Ofers Highway
Flushing NY.
KTerceira at 2:36PM on Aug 30th 2007