Antigay Spokane
mayor has Gay.com alias

Spokane, Wash., mayor James E. West--a vocal opponent of gay equality, abortion rights, and teenage sex--has said he had had online relationships in the past year through Gay.com and considers them private, according to a copyrighted story published Thursday in The Spokesman-Review. The newspaper also reported accusations of sexual molestation from two men who said West abused them in the 1970s when the two were children. "My private life is my private life and always has been," West, 54, told the paper about his Gay.com forays. Concerning his sexual orientation, "I wouldn't characterize me as gay," West said. He made no similar assertion about bisexuality when asked about his online aliases, "Cobra82nd" and "RightBi-Guy." "The Gay.com thing has only been, I can't recall, but it hasn't been very long," he said. "I can't tell you why I go there, to tell you the truth...curiosity, confused, whatever, I don't know." West, who was majority leader of the Washington state senate before he was elected mayor of Spokane in 2003, confirmed that he offered gifts, favors, and a City Hall internship over the Web site Gay.com to someone he believed was 18 but who was actually a forensic computer expert working for The Spokesman-Review, according to the report. West was in a meeting with city officials Thursday morning and not immediately available for comment, his office told the Associated Press. He denied that his offers to the forensic expert posing as an 18-year-old constituted "enticements to teenagers" or abuse of his public office. "Any kid in this town who walked into my office and filled out an application and could come to work, dressed properly and clean, could be an intern in my office," the mayor said. West, a third-generation resident of the area, spent two decades in the legislature, cultivating an image as a fiscally and socially conservative Republican, well-regarded for his lawmaking and budgetary skills but abrasive in style with a fierce temper. He made headlines in February 1990 when he proposed marriage from the floor of the senate to Ginger Marshall while she was visiting the capitol with the Junior League of Spokane. Their marriage ended five years later. The Spokesman-Review said she could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. West revealed he had colon cancer in April 2003, returned to work as majority leader a month later after undergoing surgery, and four months later announced he was running for mayor to fulfill a "lifetime dream." The molestation accusations against West, dating from his years as a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout troop leader, were made in a deposition for a lawsuit against Spokane County by Galliher. The lawsuit seeks damages for Robert J. Galliher, 36; his older brother, Brett; and two other men, who claim they were molested by another deputy at the time, David Hahn. West is not named as a defendant and said he was unaware of the deposition or similar claims against him that were made in a letter Galliher wrote from prison early last year. In an interview Wednesday night with two reporters and a photographer at the Spokane newspaper, West said the accounts given in court documents by Robert Galliher of Seattle, a craftsman and tile worker, and in interviews by Galliher and Michael G. Grant Jr., 31, were "flat lies." Both accusers acknowledged in interviews that they had struggled with drug addiction and served time behind bars. Grant is currently incarcerated in central Washington following his seventh felony drug conviction. "I didn't abuse them. I don't know these people. I didn't abuse anybody, and I didn't have sex with anybody under 18, ever, woman or man," the mayor said. (AP)