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When Adams first denied the whole thing & he said it was the worst kind of attack because it reinforces stereotypes of gay men as predators. At the time I thought Ball was the worst kind of queer, willing to throw members of his own community under the bus to promote his own career. Now, of course, we know it was Adams doing the throwing. He showed his true colors in his initial response to these accusations. For his own political gain (the mayoral race) he accused a fellow member of the queer community of trying to scare people by playing on fears & stereotypes held by some people. I expected more from Adams. Especially with things of this nature. He should know better. He DOES know better, as shown by his initial response! I think when one chooses a career as a public official, that you sacrifice some things, it comes with the job. I don't think elected officials should be "just like the rest of us" they have control & access to public funds & public policy, I need the person in charge of that to hold themselves to higher standards.
--With great power comes great responsibility--
I do not think the comparisons to Goldschmidt are fair. I think it takes away from the crime that Goldschmidt committed & puts it on the level of a consensual relationship that happened between two adults. What Goldschmidt did was NOT consensual. I myself have dated people many years my senior, but dating them did nothing for my career, I did not stand to make any gains from it, nor did they hold any sort of real or assumed power/influence over me. The fact that Breedlove worked with Adams, calls into Adams own awareness or abuse of the power/influence he might have over Breedlove. The fact that he though it was a good decision to peruse a relationship with an 18 yr old while running for office, is just short sited & stupid on Adam?s part. I?m not judging him for dating someone younger than himself, I am judging him for not recognizing his own privilege & ultimately having such a big ego that even though he KNEW the potential stereotypes that were out there, that he knew the potential damage it could cause to not only his career, to his reputation, not to mention Beau?s life. All of this & he couldn?t make the decision to just walk away from the situation. He could not resist the temptation. And for THAT, I think Adams might not have the perspective, the self control, the temperance, and the judgment to be the mayor of Portland.
If Adams believes there is/was nothing wrong with a person over 40 sleeping with an 18 year old, he should have come out & said so when the charges were originally made. This might have cost him the election, but I kind of doubt it. Considering the other options we had, I think he still would have had a great shot (didn?t he win like 58 % to 33%???). Instead he chose to lie to the public his friends & family & throw his fellow gay candidate under the bus. It also deserves to be said that this is not a story we haven?t heard before. Straight or gay it seems white men with power have a lot in common. All that being said, I don?t think Adams should resign. I think we should give him the 6 mo until a recall could happen as a trial period. If he could accomplish things & show that his office will operate in an open & transparent way, then maybe Portland won?t recall him. But ultimately, he showed poor judgment & was irresponsible & will have to face the consequences.

posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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