Hate and Self Loathing in Spokane

Jim West, the mayor of Spokane, Washington has admitted he is gay. He did so reluctantly, saying that he was the target of "sex nazis" who want to regulate personal sexual behavior, and of malicious opponents who wanted to "out" him just to smear his reputation. Now what is really funny about that is, Jim West had the reputation of being a "sex nazi" out to not just regulate the personal sexual behaviors of gays and lesbians, but to make them targets of hate, prejudice and discrimination. Some highlights from his career as a Washington state legislator and mayor of Spokane (www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest):

• In January 1986, Jim West and 14 other Washington State Republicans introduced a bill that would have barred gay men and lesbians from working in schools, day-care centers and some state agencies. The bill called for screening prospective employees for sexual orientation and firing state workers whose sexual identities became known. The bill failed.
• Later that year, West voted to bar the state from distributing pamphlets telling people how to protect themselves from AIDS during sex.
• West opposed gay rights bills introduced in 1985 and 1987.
• In 1990, as part of a bill on AIDS education, West proposed that teen sex be criminalized. The bill, written by the abstinence group Teen Aid, would have made sexual contact a misdemeanor for unmarried teenagers under 18. Sexual contact was defined as "any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person" for sexual gratification.
• West voted in 1998 for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The Governor vetoed the bill, but the Legislature overrode his veto.
• As Senate majority leader, West and other Republicans in 2003 bottled up the gay-rights bill in committee and it died.
• As Spokane's incoming mayor in November 2003, West said he opposed to extending City Hall benefits to domestic partners. In April 2005, the City Council approved domestic partner benefits anyway and by a majority large enough to withstand a mayoral veto.

Well, you've really got to feel sorry for a guy who has such a sterling record of tolerance and acceptance FOR HIS OWN PEOPLE when he then gets maliciously outed by "sex nazis."

But it's a viscious, self-continuing cycle that is at work in this country. We live in a society that teaches its children to hate gays and lesbians. So what happens to a gay child? If he is indoctrinated properly, as clearly Jim West was, he learns to hate himself, and this self hatred may then be manifested as a venemous hatred for all others like himself. It also is evidenced by his self destructive behaviors. Turns out West was cruising the internet for "young men" and apparently offering them goverment jobs in exchange for sex. But although he admitted to cruising the net, he said he couldn't explain why he was doing it.

I can explain it, you self-loathing hypocrit.