Okay, this article is kind of fun. I think everyone already knows how I feel about homosexuality, homophobia and the religious right, so I won't bore you by reiterating it. But I just have to share this article. I am not sure whether it is more about being in total denial about your sexuality, or the out-of-control sex hormones and general lust inherent in middle-aged men trying to be celibate until they are married, but it is a twisted cautionary tale about something absurd, for sure. I guess we can all wait and see how the trial comes out. I guess the hypocrisy part goes almost without saying!!!!!!!
Of course everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty by a court of law. But the fact that the defendant was not able to get his suit dismissed indicates there is something of substance here. And gee, I had no idea that thirty percent of gay parents had had sex with their children, either. What rot!!!!!
Lott Interviewer Faces Sex Harass Suit
Ex-employee claims gay advances
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Thursday, June 18, 1998
The talk show host who provided a forum for
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to condemn
homosexuality, and then strongly endorsed his
views, is the target of a sexual harassment suit -- by
a man.
Armstrong Williams, host of a show on the
America's Voice network and a prominent pundit in
Washington's conservative circles, is accused by
former employee Stephen Gregory of more than 50
incidents of sexual harassment.
Gregory alleges in a suit filed a year ago that
Williams repeatedly kissed him on the mouth,
grabbed his buttocks and genitals, and climbed into
bed with him on business trips. After rebuffing
Williams, Gregory charges, the talk- show host
retaliated by docking his pay and ultimately firing
him.
Gregory is asking for $200,000 in damages, and
now that Williams has failed in an attempt to have
the suit dismissed, the case is expected to go to a
jury trial late this year.
Williams said through a spokesman that he had no
comment on the case because it is pending in
Superior Court in Washington. When the case was
originally filed, Williams called the allegations lies,
adding that it would be ''stupid'' to engage in such
conduct given his public position.
'WE DENY ALL OF IT'
''The whole thing is an attempt to embarrass and
humiliate Mr. Williams,'' said his attorney, Peter
Axelrad. ''We deny it. We deny all of it. We have
full confidence that my client will be vindicated.''
Both men say they are heterosexual.
Gregory's attorney, Mickey Wheatley, a former
lawyer with the Lamda Legal Defense Fund, a gay
civil rights group, called it ''ironic for Trent Lott to
be making these offensive pronouncements when
he's sitting across from somebody who's been
accused of the most abusive kind of conduct of a
homosexual nature.''
Wheatley added that Williams ''believes that
(homosexuality) to be a sin, and so he must be in
great pain over it, but he's inflicting pain on others
with his pronouncements. The way he treated my
client would be indicative of what happens when
you try to repress something as basic about
yourself as your sexuality. My advice to him would
be to get a boyfriend and leave his employees
alone.''
The controversy emerged Monday, when Lott's
comments were first made public. In a taped
interview for Williams' show, Lott compared
homosexuals to alcoholics, sex addicts and
kleptomaniacs. White House press secretary Mike
McCurry called Lott's statements ''backward
thinking'' and ''an indicator of how difficult it is to
do rational work in Washington.''
ARMEY REFERS TO BIBLE
Lott's press secretary shot back that the Clinton
White House is in no position to comment on
morality, and House Majority Leader Dick Armey
had Bible passages at hand condemning
homosexuality.
Williams vigorously defended Lott's statements on
several television programs. He told CNN's Inside
Politics, ''We all have challenges that we need to
wrestle with, that we need to pray about. . . .
Senator Lott also said during the interview that we
must love, embrace, show tolerance.''
On CNN's Talk Back Live yesterday, Williams
asserted that 30 percent of the parents of gay
children have slept with their children.
David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights
Campaign, a gay lobbying group, called the
statement ''the most disgusting, vile, reckless lie
I've heard on television in quite some time.''
Williams, raised as a Pentecostal, is believed to be
about 40 years old -- his office could not confirm
his exact age -- and is unmarried. He first gained
prominence in 1991 as one of Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas' most vocal defenders
against charges raised during Thomas' confirmation
hearing that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill.
WILLIAMS AND JUSTICE THOMAS
Williams compared his own travails with Thomas' in
a USA Today article in March: ''I know what it's
like to work closely with someone, bring him into
your confidence, help him develop professionally,
then watch him turn on you. I know how it feels to
see those actions twisted into something just short
of slander . . . to have people smile and say 'hello'
while their eyes look a little too deeply into yours
for clues as to your guilt or innocence.''
Gregory, a former trainer at the local YMCA,
charges in his suit that Williams hired him as his
personal trainer in late 1994. Shortly afterward,
Gregory said, Williams engaged him as a volunteer
and then as an employee at his talk show, and less
than a year later promoted him to executive
producer.
Gregory says Williams forced him to ''spend
almost all his waking hours with him,'' driving him to
the studio and accompanying him on business trips.
Gregory charges that Williams would force them to
share a room to save costs, and then attempt to get
into bed with him.
The complaint says Williams told Gregory that he
loved him, repeatedly tried to kiss him on the lips,
insisted that he was not homosexual, but ''just
needed some 'affection' from Gregory because he
wanted to remain celibate with women until he
married.''
sfgate.com |
