Attorney General Mike Cox
On Nov. 9, Attorney General Mike Cox held a press conference to announce that he had cheated on his wife.
He said, in essence, that it was stupid, all his fault, he regrets it and he and his wife got counseling and worked hard to save their marriage and things are cool now.
The affair, in itself, does not make him a Creep. In fact, I feel bad for the guy. His marital transgression was no doubt very painful for his family and in a perfect world should have remained a private matter. It's between Cox, his wife and whomever he was screwing (I was going to write "whatever chick he was screwing," but who am I to presume someone else's sexual orientation?).
But Cox is a public figure and in America public figures sacrifice their private lives whether that's appropriate or not.
However, so do gays. And folks like Cox have made a career out of poking around in our lives and actively working against our families. I'd like to believe that this experience will make Cox rethink his battle against LGBT families in Michigan. Perhaps this will humble him.
In the same perfect world where Cox doesn't have to hold a press conference to announce where his penis has been, neither will gays have to keep jumping up and down to announce, "We're here, we're queer, get used to it… Oh, and can I have my health insurance back, please?"
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for gays coming out. It's absolutely necessary. But it's exhausting. And often painful. It's also not the same as having an affair. Coming out as gay isn't admitting you did something wrong (like cheating on your spouse), but it does put you at risk of losing your job, being rejected by your family and being attacked by the right-wing "family values" crowd. Which is what Cox is getting a taste of now.
So when folks like Cox are trying to take away the health insurance of gay families, LGBT folks have to holler about it or who will? It's precisely because of people like Cox that LGBT folks have to come out in the first place. People who fight back are harder to beat up. And LGBT people are awfully tired of being beat up.
We sadly don't live in a world where being gay is a non-issue, as many Log Cabin Republicans would like to think. Granted, it should be a non-issue, just like the Republican Party should be all-inclusive. Unfortunately, the "big tent" seems to be found mostly in the pants of Republican politicians who decry "gay marriage" while having affairs.
Don't believe me? Check out "The Sanctity of Marriage Handbook" by Bryan Harris. In it Harris takes on "defenders" of marriage who haven't exactly lived up to the ideals of the institution themselves. Take Bob Barr (R-Georgia, retired) who wrote the Defense of Marriage Act. He's been married three times, has been sued for child support, and once "licked whipped cream from the chests of two busty women at a charity event," according to Harris.
What's that saying about glass houses? Those who live in them should really wear pants. Or maybe it was about throwing stones… In any case, it's time for Cox to put the rocks down and mind his own chinos.
