Is it any surprise that gay and lesbians working for anti-gay members of Congress see nothing wrong with what they're doing when the guy running the gay and lesbian Senate staff association is just as screwed up as they are.
Get a load of this interview he did in today's Gay City News. In it, the staffer, Lynden Armstrong, who works for Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), WHO SUPPORTS THE AMENDMENT, justifies how he can, with a good conscience, help keep a legislative gay-basher in office. The quotes are classic closet case, but what's particularly galling, of course, is that Armstrong isn't a closet case at all. He's out and he's proud, yet still he says things that would make a closeted self-loathing homosexual proud. To wit:
- My boss doesn't really hate me, it's the voters who want him to throw me into a concentration camp, he's just doing it to make them happy - so no hard feelings, okay?
- I don't always agree with my boss about whether I'm 3/5ths a man, but that's okay, we just agree to disagree.
- It's just my opinion that I'm not a second-class citizen, I don't have a right to impose that view on my office.
- My job is to support the senator, and I'll be a good little German.
Earth to Armstrong: Why the hell do you CHOOSE to work for this man at all?
Gay City News: "Although Armstrong has not been subjected to this tactic - he came out to Domenici and colleagues in 1997 - he's in the position of being a gay man who works for a senator supporting the FMA, and said he understands the pressure some gay staffers, including himself, feel as the measure nears a vote in the Senate next week.Call me crazy, Lynden, but I'll bet there are a more than a few gay and lesbian New Mexicans who don't think your boss' vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment is a "good thing."
"I have to keep in mind [Domenici] isn't personally against me or gay people," Armstrong said. "I don't always agree with him, but he has to answer to his constituents. He has to do what he was elected to do which is represent his constituents in New Mexico. If you look at the polls, overwhelmingly in New Mexico they are in support of FMA."....
“My office knows how I feel about these issues, but it’s how I feel personally and it’s not my opinion as a professional on the Hill, “ said Armstrong. “My job is to support the Senator as he represents New Mexico.”
Armstrong said that despite the national importance of the amendment proposal, much of his work is about addressing the more mundane issues of constituent services.
“We are doing a lot of good things for the people of New Mexico,” said Armstrong, who expressed a strong loyalty to his boss. “Running the office helps the senator further his goals for New Mexico residents.”
