While many in the Democratic Party have reveled at the scandalous exit of Sen. With rampant calls for a primary opponent to challenge Graham next year, it likely won’t be the Dems that Graham has to be concerned about with the gay-baiting. “I believe Lindsey Graham is widely respected by South Carolina voters as an independent voice who stands up for what he believes in.” “I believe South Carolina voters are far more interested in the performance of elected politicians than in issues of personal privacy,” Bass says. The renewed movement to question Graham’s sexuality won’t chink his armor in front of South Carolina voters, says Jack Bass, a political science professor at the College of Charleston and co-author of Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond. Is that South Carolina values? I don’t think so.” “(Giuliani’s) wife kicked him out, and he moved in with two gay men and a Shih Tzu. Apparently he didn’t know what too thick in the head meant either.ĭuring a debate, Democratic candidate Alex Sanders also seemed to frame a question about Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement as an indictment on Graham’s personal life. Early in the campaign, state Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian said Graham was “a little too light in the loafers to fill Strom Thurmond’s shoes.” He later said he didn’t know what “too light in the loafers” meant. The comments about Graham are not new, but they haven’t seen this kind of prominence since Graham’s 2002 election to the U.S. While other names are omitted from this story because they aren’t at the center of national speculation (thank your lucky chinos, boys) they’ve reached some of the most influential seats in state politics. Graham isn’t the first South Carolina politician to face such questions. “Like Larry Craig, Graham has voted antigay - including for the federal marriage amendment - while people in South Carolina and Washington have discussed what some say is an open secret for a long, long time.” “Let’s have a real investigation of the rumors about South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who … has been rumored to be gay for years,” Signorile says. In a post on who’s next out of the closet following Craig’s arrest, blogger Michael Signorile (first points a questioning finger at Graham.
But that denial isn’t stalling renewed interest in the question. When GQ asked last year, Graham wasn’t mean, just dismissive. And even though they held the story until after Craig’s arrest was made public, some still accused the paper of orchestrating a witch hunt. restrooms that The Idaho Statesmen put a reporter on the story. While there were rumors dating back 25 years, it wasn’t until blog reports about Craig trolling cruisy D.C.
Mainstream media often avoids asking older, single politicians what they do in their free time. Is it the latest grasp for the light switch in South Carolina’s powerful political closet? Or the inevitable labeling of “closet-clinging self-hater” that befalls any content bachelor? Larry Craig, R-Idaho - the anti-gay politician who pled guilty to disorderly conduct after allegedly soliciting sex in an airport men’s room - the internet is abuzz over who’s next, and they’re dying to know what’s going on in Graham’s bedroom. At 52, the life-long bachelor has been fodder for such rumors for years, but with the resignation of Sen.