Gay against West

A mother with an
inquisitive 9-year-old boy has forced me and the city of
Spokane, Wash., to look deep into society’s treatment
of homosexuality. I am an openly gay attorney in this
extremely conservative town. Our mayor, James West, is
a Republican homophobe who admitted to secretly cruising
gay chat rooms while publicly opposing equality for gay
citizens. He now stands accused of luring young gay
men into sexual activities in exchange for jobs at
City Hall.

My client is
Shannon Sullivan, a divorced mother who said her young son
couldn’t understand why West wasn’t being
fired for what he did. So she decided to launch a
recall effort and was challenged in court. As a gay
man I was hesitant about taking her case, which would
eventually be won in the state supreme court. West
tried to paint the recall effort as antigay, but
it’s not.

It’s
because of his hypocrisy that good people—gay and
straight—are calling for him to step down. As a
state legislator West introduced or endorsed numerous
hateful bills aimed at gay people. He attempted to deny
benefits, to deny employment, and to deny equal rights to
those he should have been protecting.

Still, I have
received a lot of criticism from gay people for taking this
case. I have also been asked to hide my sexual identity
while pursing it. But I would like to think that it is
not just coincidence that an openly gay attorney,
along with a divorced mother, is leading the effort to
topple this self-loathing gay leader.

West has always
run on a platform of being a social conservative, and the
closet door that protected him was kept shut by his
Republican colleagues, many of whom probably knew he
was having gay sex on the sly.

As I thought
about what drives a person to behave this way, I began to
see West in a different light. I realize now that society
has a tremendous amount of responsibility to bear. To
this day gay people are forced to hide their identity
in order to be accepted. When West decided to be a
politician 30 years ago the only route was to hide and
repress his sexuality. For many that’s still
true today, and society should be ashamed.

It is time for
everyone to understand and realize that when you make
someone lie to pursue a career (the U.S. military, please
take note) you begin to kill that person. And a person
who is not true to himself cannot represent others. In
West’s case 30 years of repression drove him to acts
that boggle the mind. He had it all: He is the mayor of a
major city; he is the ultimate politician. However, he
made juvenile decisions that stem from never being
able to be himself.

Don’t get
me wrong—I am very angry at West for the damage he
has done to the gay community. But I do feel bad that
he never had the chance to have what we all deserve:
the right to be happy in our personal and private
lives.

GOP take note:
The next time you fail to accept a young gay person
attempting to enter your “tent,” you may be
fostering the next Jim West.