Are they? And who cares? (Florida AG Charlie Crist)(gay) (projectile vomiting alert)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | February 6, 2005 | ERIC DEGGANS

[eartotheground]

He has tackled the question in public twice now, with more politeness and directness than such an invasive query deserves.

Still, there is a lesson in watching Republican Gubernatorial Candidate and Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist deal openly with an issue that has dogged him covertly for years:

Is he gay?

It's an oddly uncomfortable episode that reflects Florida's own contradictory relationship with gay people, gay rights and the question of whether an openly gay person can, as a practical matter, hold a major office in this state.

Crist first faced The Question publicly Jan. 15 during a meeting of the Tampa Tiger Bay Club in which a woman asked, "I have heard that you were gay, sir, and I wanted to know if that was true." The second time he faced The Question, it was in response to a request from Tampa radio personality Dave McKay, who had asked Crist on his show Jan. 18 to pop the query, "Are you a homo?"

Both times, Crist denied being gay. With McKay, he expressed wonderment that anyone would ask.

But anyone who remembers how Florida's newest U.S. senator, Mel Martinez, criticized his straight-arrow Republican primary opponent Bill McCollum as "pandering to gays" knows Crist likely had to address the speculation before his expected candidacy for governor could begin in earnest.

And with a record percentage of hate crime attacks connected to victims' sexual orientation last year in Florida, Sunshine State Republicans can still get a lot of mileage from accusing candidates of getting too close to gay people.

[sofaman]

I watch both of those shows. We, the missus and I, have very good friends who are gay, 2 male couples and 2 female couples, who we have been friends with for years.

We have been married for 23 years with 2 terrific kids and I am adamantly against gay marriage as is my wife.

I honestly don't know what the hullabaloo is about.

[Oniolover]

I completely agree. What is people’s fascination with this crap. I'm sick and tired of my tax payer money funding research to find the "gay gene" or people's sex “habits” and the press wasting their time try to "out" politicians.
I couldn’t care less about other people’s sexuality/sex lives.

[opbuzz]

It's only important to the press if he's Republican.

[FloridianBushFan]

He might not have a gay agenda at all. If he came out and said he was gay people would automatically not vote for him even though he has no homosexual agenda. They would not listen to any of his stands on the issues even though they might find out they agree with him on most everything. Just because someone is gay does not mean they have a gay agenda. Some believe their personal life is personal and keep it at home.

[God-fearer]

If he has taken money from Gays to run for office, then he is gay ... PERIOD.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Liberal St. Pete Times are desperate. Crist is going to win in a landslide and Harris may defeat Nelson. Negron is going to beat Mahoney. FL is solidly red.

[CFC__VRWC]

This is the St. Petersburg Times, far and away the most far left paper in the state of Florida. We don't call it the Pravda West for nothing. All this is is their latest attempt to destroy Crist by means of the "the GOP won't vote for a fag" ploy. Crist is cruising over his Dim opponent down here with double-digit leads in all the polls, so Pravda West feels they have to do something to change that.