Mike Mchaney. Uh Oh.

By now, I'm sure that you have all read about James Michael McHaney, Sen. Maria Cantwell's scheduling aide who was busted on Friday for exchanging kiddie porn and attempting to exploit (do) a minor. Considering how small the D.C gay community is, I'm guessing that a lot of you knew him personally. He and I actually share an Alma Mater, which provided one more way for me to find out about what happened. This story is troubling to me for so many reasons.

The most salacious details come from The Smoking Gun, which reports that McHaney was under the impression that he was going to sleep with a 13 year-old boy and thought it was "hot" that said 13 year-old boy had no pubes. But pedophiles get busted all the time- why is this story getting so big?

Beside the government connection, which I'm sure is giving boners to all kinds of Republican opportunists, this pedophile happens to be gay. This is not good.

The past couple high-profile gay sex scandals worked more towards our cause than against it. Mark Foley's indiscretions had a big hand in turning last November's elections and Larry Craig's toilet solicitation just did more to expose the hypocrisy of a closeted (or cock-thirsty) senator with an anti-gay voting record. But what is Mike? A 28 year-old blonde guy that you could often see out at Cobalt. When people picture a young gay guy, they picture someone like him.

Wonkette has already turned his arrest into a gay issue. They put in two days of legitimate coverage on the story, but today it has already devolved into a thinly-veiled, and not at all germane, reinforcements of gay stereotypes. It seems like Mike and his friends had formed a social group called "the Axis of Fun" which participated in appalling acts like kickball and throwing Christmas parties with lame invitiations. Wonkette says:

"The group, which lists alleged kiddie sex predator and former Senate staffer Mike McHaney among its members, is an exclusive, catty, gay social group that apparently gets together to quote Mean Girls..."

What the fuck does that mean? Mike McHaney allegedly tried to have sex with a 13 year-old boy. AOF gossips and watches movies. Why Wonkette is making such a point of linking them is completely beyond me. They're going out of their way to link stereotypical gay behavior to Mike's infractions, even quoting one source as saying:

"when they go to the beach, they all sit together and have monogram beach chairs. It’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen. They totally deserve to be associated with this bullshit.”

Pardon me? A group of friends is overly cliquey (ok, maybe even douchey) and now they are in the same ilk as pedophiles? No one deserves to be associated with this case beside those being charged with crimes against minors. When a 45 year-old, straight rural pedophile is busted, do people sit around and talk shit on his bridge club? If this kind of commentary is already coming out of a purpotedly "irrepressibly giddy" gossip blog, then imagine how is this going to be spun by the rest of the media.

Watch out, everybody. Even if you don't view yourself as someone who is as "catty" or bitchy as the AOF, something that goes to cast one gay person in a bad light is going to have a negative effect on all of us.