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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Rex on Larry

posted by on August 30 at 12:41 PM

Gay journalist, occasional Stranger contributer, and self-confessed toilet cruiser Rex Wockner has a great post up on his blog about Sen. Larry “Wide Stance” Craig.

When I was a college student in Champaign-Urbana—perhaps when you were still in diapers—there weren’t too many places to meet other gay people.

There was one gay cha-cha palace full of cologne queens and drag queens.

There were four or five adult bookstores around town with glory holes drilled between the video booths.

There was the sauna at the University of Illinois Intramural-Physical Education Building.

There was the campus gay group, where none of the guys was attractive to me.

And then there were the 15 or so campus “tearooms” (or, if we follow Associated Press Stylebook hints, then “T-rooms”)—men’s rooms where people like U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (according to a police report) meet for sex.

Or, sometimes, simply just meet.

I met my boyfriend of those years in the T-room in the southeast corner of the basement of the student union. We actually never had sex there; it’s just where we met, given the limited options for meeting other gay guys that existed in 1985 in Champaign-Urbana.

But it took me a while to meet Rick—a year or so during which I spent enough time in University of Illinois T-rooms to learn precisely how T-rooms work….

Now, to U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho…

The police report says Larry Craig peered through the crack (the one that allows the bathroom-stall door to swing) into the undercover police officer’s stall for two minutes. This is what cruisers do in T-rooms. They look through cracks.

Larry Craig sat down on a toilet and subtly tapped his foot several times and waited to see if the guy on the other side of the partition subtly tapped his foot in return. This is precisely how T-room cruisers communicate to each other that they’re there to hook up rather than to take a dump.

Larry Craig then took his hand, palm upward, and ran it along the bottom of the stall divider so that the individual on the other side of the partition could see Larry’s fingers making an inviting “come hither” gesture.

This gesture has a precise meaning and is universally understood in the men’s-room cruising scene. It translates, “Get down on your knees and place your penis underneath the partition so I can touch or fellate it.”

Larry Craig has said he’s not gay. Perhaps he’s not. Maybe he’s bisexual. Or maybe he’s a straight guy who has sex with other men. It happens.

Larry Craig has said he didn’t do anything inappropriate in the Minneapolis airport bathroom in which he was arrested.

From this we have no choice but to conclude that Larry Craig doesn’t think T-room cruising is inappropriate.

Because cruising the T-room is exactly what he was doing, unless the police officer made up all those very precise, on-the-mark details.

There are about 10 million other gay guys in America who, like me, are perfectly fluent in the language that Larry Craig was speaking in that Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport men’s room—and millions more around the globe, because it’s truly an international language.

I couldn’t care less if Larry Craig comes out of the closet.

But I will not let him tell me he wasn’t cruising. He could teach a Cruising 101 course. Unless, of course, the officer made it all up.

RSS icon Comments

1

Oh, my god, I went to college with Rex Wockner. How cool. I graduated in 85. I never had a problem meeting gay guys. Of course, I was trying to find straight ones.

Posted by angel | August 30, 2007 1:33 PM
2

(scrolled down to see the CNN clip w/ Dan) Bravo, Dan, for being such an articulate voice in the face of the sensationalism and the tired, tired media sterotypes and assumptions. Keep educating, Dan! Decent, straight, confused America needs you!!

Posted by patricia in PDX | August 30, 2007 1:40 PM
3

They have courses for this?

Posted by left coast | August 30, 2007 2:29 PM
4

Wide Stance. I just tried to have a wide stance while in the washroom, but I couldnt get very far, as my underwear at ankle level restricted how far apart my legs could go. Maybe the senator was going commando, or gasp, he was lying!

Posted by Greg B | August 30, 2007 2:30 PM
5


I never had a problem meeting gay guys. Of course, I was trying to find straight ones.

@1 - My college experience as well :-)

Posted by Mariana | August 30, 2007 4:17 PM
6

Most of us Idahoans just want Larry to come clean about the whole incident. Yeah, we were stupid enough to keep you in Washington DC for nearly 30 years, but damn - come up with a better story.

Show some tears, say it was an isolated incident and you were tested by Satan. Re-affirm your love of your wife and Jesus and check into rehab with the Colorado mega-church meth and bj guy.

Dummies in this state would forgive him in two weeks tops.

Posted by spud | August 30, 2007 4:57 PM
7

Dan I agree with you that gay toilet sex is gross. I don't mind gay S&M because those urges are perfectly normal. But any normal gay man would not get turned on in a bathroom.

The Seattle Police might want to send one of those entrampent officers into that club PONY. My boyfriend and I like to go to gay clubs sometimes - there's a lot of them close to our new condo. Anyway my boyfriend told me that the toilet in PONY has sex holes in the stalls and when he was in there a guy exposed his erection to my shocked boyfriend.

If they sent some undercover cops into PONY they could arrest lots of guys. As long as one or two are Republicans everyone will be happy. I just want my (straight) boyfriend to be able to go to the toilet in Pony without guys hitting on him.

Police entrapment is the only way to force the gays to give up toilet sex. So like you Dan I'm all for undercover officers and entrapment.


I love you Dan and you were really cute on CNN. My boyfriend and I read your column all the time and it helps our marriage a lot.

Posted by Aliyah | August 30, 2007 8:20 PM
8

i know your secret aliyah. stop trolling.

Posted by frequency ass bandit | August 31, 2007 1:02 AM
9

Keith Olberman played the police interrogation tape on his show last night... it was very entertaining. He also reported that Larry Craig is now claiming entrapment, which of course requires admitting that he was propositioning the police officer for sex.

This just gets better and better.

Posted by Greg | August 31, 2007 7:38 AM
10

Aliyah..what your boyfriend didnt tell you was that he went down on me at Pony...and he was pretty good actually...I got to give him credit for swallowing...that showed real character. Save a dance for me!

Posted by Alex | August 31, 2007 8:14 AM

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