Gay Men Have Little Recourse If Gay Chat Mayor's Emails Made Public

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/10/101305spokane.htm

An unknown number of gay men could be outed if correspondence, including pictures, found on Spokane mayor James West's computer is made public.

West is in court trying to block the release of 1800 files found on his computer. West, who has a long history of fighting LGBT civil rights was himself outed earlier this year in a series of articles by the Spokesman-Review newspaper. It was claimed that West had offered city hall jobs to gay men he met in chat rooms in return for dates.

In September, Assistant City Attorney Milt Rowland said the city would release three CDs containing files copied from West's computer disc in response to a May public-records request from the Spokesman-Review.



couldn't they block the real names of people and not release pictures without notifying the people first

hello!

[MuseRider]

1. They do not need to do this.

It is the mayor who is in trouble. Why call the others out?

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Public records requests are tricky

The fact is, the files themselves, in their entirety, are public property. Any effort to censor them, no matter how justified, would lead to questions about the integrity of the material that was turned over. Unless there is a vitally sensitive reason, as defined by law, not to release names and photos, the data will be released. Sure, someone could step forward and demand that his info not be include -- and easily get it -- but that creates a catch 22: by stepping forward, he must file public documents and thus lose his right to privacy.

[Diane R]

3. I think it will be okay

A deal was reached yesterday allowing the judge to preview the files and decide what could be be released to news organizations. Meanwhile, and investigator for the city has access to the files and will prepare a report for the city council. At that point, West will have 10 days to appeal the release of the report before it is made public.

I hope all sides are trying to balance the people's right to know what their mayor did on his city owned computer, and how he used his office to lure young men...and the right of those other people to their privacy. We are in the process of having a recall election on this mayor, and my belief is that he is using the 'other people's privacy' issue to hide behind so he can run out the clock and the election can be held without the public knowing details of what he did.

[mestup]

5. That's exactly what he's doing! Why can't he just go away?

He's turning this thing into a circus. Begging for donations one minute, endangering the privacy of others the next.

Loser.

[mitchtv]

4. one recourse

Pound the shit out of the reporter. Fair game.