Tucker's Traumatic Bathroom Experience: "Yeah, I Beat Up a Gay Guy for Hitting on Me"

[kpete]

Tucker's Traumatic Bathroom Experience (Steve Clemons)
29 Aug 2007 02:54 pm

I will avoid today discussion of the reasons why so many men chose to look for sex partners in public bathrooms, gyms, and the like over the last few decades. Most engaged in this kind of sex would probably have preferred socially supported venues for relationship and sexual development -- in the clubs, restaurants, public places galore that the heterosexual world has to walk together, to talk, to hug, to kiss, and to 'do it.'

Andrew Sullivan has much better dexterity with this subject than I do -- but it is disgusting that while so many are now cringing at the thought of gay man having tearoom sex that they are at the same time so obsessive about trying to stop same sex marriage between committed individuals.

Tucker Carlson brought this home in an interview he did yesterday in which he got "bothered" in a public restroom when he was in high school and then got a buddy and went back to beat up the guy before he was arrested. To be fair to Carlson, we haven't yet heard whether the "botherer" grabbed Tucker's crotch or just tapped his foot under the stall.

But Carlson's comment that he chose to beat up the trespasser "after the fact" in a vigilante action says much.

This from Media Matters:

On the August 28 edition of MSBNC Live, hosted by MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams, Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC's Tucker, asserted, "Having sex in a public men's room is outrageous.

It's also really common. I've been bothered in men's rooms." Carlson continued, "I've been bothered in Georgetown Park," in Washington, D.C., "when I was in high school."

When Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being "bothered," Carlson asserted, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head, actually."

Read the full transcript http://mediamatters.org/items/200708290003 (or watch the video clip) which is pretty disgusting, not just because Tucker Carlson, self-described as "the least anti-gay right-winger you'll ever meet", admits to beating up someone trolling for sex in a public bathroom -- but because Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough just laugh.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/08/tuckers-traumat.html

[gratuitous]

1. Raise your hand if you believe a word of Tucker's little story

Every last word is a lie, including "the" and "and."

[underpants]

15. LOL Tucker tries to milk some "street cred"

:rofl:

[Bucky]

21. What really exposes this lie is Tucker's claim that he had a friend in high school

Sorry, Tuck, "daddy's body guard" does not constitute a friend.

[burythehatchet]

2. The only thing Tucker has ever manhandled is his little bowtied pecker. n/t

[lpbk2713]

11. ..... and it scared him so bad that he ran and told his Mommy all about it.

That was last Tuesday I believe.

[truebrit71]

3. Fucker Carlson couldn't beat up a girl scout...

...this story is bullshit...

[MiniMe]

7. Thats why he brought a friend back with him

Tucker just sat back and watched I'm sure

[Ilsa]

19. That was my initial reaction. And it stuck.

[AllegroRondo]

4. Sounds like Tucker just admitted to a crime

whats the statute of limitations on assault?

[TahitiNut]

22. Interestingly, Dan Abrams (reputed ESQUIRE) didn't even make note of that.

Clearly, it's assault and battery ... with NO ELEMENT of self-defense or any other defense rationale. Figures. Typical "law and order" neoconservative hypocrisy.

[RB TexLa]

5. I believe the part about going to get someone else

[Bluebear]

6. That never happened, Tucker, and you know it. nt

[flying_wahini]

8. hmm, I have a dear gay friend i NYC who would say Tucker is lying....

n/t

[rodeodance]

9. "grabbed the guy by the -- you know," Did Tucker grab the guys pucker??

[SteppingRazor]

10. Eh, it happened when he was in high school.

I gotta say, I wasn't exactly the enlightened fellow I am today, back then. Hell, I was a total delinquent. And if some guy had hit on me in a bathroom, my reaction might not have been very pleasant either.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. Impressive. Admitting to being stupid and criminal all in one lie.

I don't believe a word of it. What a dumb thing to say...and even dumber to laugh at.

[gatorboy]

13. I heard that last night and noticed the smell of bullshit.

Abrams and Joe were making fun of him and Tucker felt he had to pull out his "manly" card.

[TheCowsCameHome]

14. That nifty bowtie must've tickled the guy's thighs.

[MichaelHarris]

16. The bow tie guy?

He couldn't whip his way out of a wet paper bag with both ends open.

[MrSlayer]

17. Of course he had to go get someone else before he could handle the problem.

He's such a little punk.

[Ellen Forradalom]

18. Whatever became of "no thank you?"

Perhaps adding, 'It's not in good taste to accost strangers in bathrooms. May I suggest the nice gay bar down the street? It's so much more pleasant.'

[LittleClarkie]

20. What did he do, hit him with his bow tie

Sounds like he's trying to up his manly man rating.

[Johonny]

23. So

Tucker's response to being bothered in the mens room was to get a buddy and have a three way... or am I reading that wrong.

[The Great Escape]

24. Tucker Used To Appear Weekly On Shock Jock "Bubba The Love Sponge's" Show...

on Sirius Satellite Radio. He would brag about how he smoked "Marlboro Reds" and had a taste for Ole' E.

[Dukkha]

25. I could see him getting into a sissy slapfight

which resulted in him sobbing on the tile floor

[Virginia Dare]

26. So Tucker and his buddy beat up a gay guy...

after being "bothered". My guess is he and his bud were the ones trolling.

[mitchtv]

27. this is soooo sad

hahahahahahahhhhhhhhhhahahhhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahhhahahahahahahahahahahah
why Miss Thing , I didn't know you were so butch hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Catherine Vincent]

28. If that is true, then you know what that mean, right?

:evilgrin:

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

29. Tucker got a swirlie for his troubles

What a douche.

[Ellen Forradalom]

30. Oh, I wish

He so desperately needs one.

[texas1928]

31. My biggest beef with that interview he gave last night...

I think he is just trying to sound tough. He probably went back to confront the guy and got his ass kicked. But before that he said that if Craig is gay or not, it is not anybodies business. I hate their double standards. If it was a Democratic memeber they would be scream Holy Hell and wanting to investigate even deeper. Bring Ken Starr out of Mothballs to right another bedtime jack off book for them. I had to change the channel after he was on last night.

[The Gunslinger]

32. Notice he had had to get a friend to "help"

Tucker couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. That piece of crap was on the Ed Schultz show today, I don't know what he had to say because I turned it off as soon as he was announced.

[demobabe]

33. Tucker is a weenie

I watched Tucker physically shrink, his voice cracking up an octave as Symbolman confronted him after Bob Novak attacked a pedestrian in New Hampshire during the 2004 campaign. Tucker couldn't beat up a fly. He's all squeak and no bite.

[orleans]

34. UPDATE

UPDATE: Media Matters received the following statement from Tucker Carlson by email from an MSNBC spokeswoman:

Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.

Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708290003

[Pacifist Patriot]

35. Still leaves me wondering why they went back 25 minutes later rather than...

simply calling the authorities. Just doesn't smell right, even for an inexperienced high school kid.

[orleans]

36. malloy was just reading this on his show. from what he said

it was either: which was it tucker? which story is a lie?

[Missy Vixen]

37. He got a call from MSNBC's attorneys

IMHO, YMMV, but he confessed to committing a hate crime on national TV.

In the meantime, I don't believe his story in the first place.

Julie

[Disturbed]

38. Tucker is a typical RW Asshole.

He tells one BS story & when called to task on it he changes the story to make himself appear better than the first BS story. Actually, the 2nd story makes him as much of an Asshole as the 1st one.

[ourbluenation]

39. a guy wouldn't stop hitting on me once (I'm a woman). My gay sister shoved him up against a wall!!

and she's super femmy and weighs about 10 pounds.

The dude was huge.



Have we come full circle now?

:toast:

[SharonAnn]

41. I've been "hit on" by men in public places many times. Or doesn't that count since I'm a woman?

[Warren Stupidity]

40. The same sentiment has been expressed here on DU.

Search the various discussions on craig and gay men and bathrooms and you will find the attitude expressed that a foot touch justifies a beating.

One of the standard techniques for the blood sport of gay bashing is for one of the bashers to lure a gay man into making an advance. The pack then attacks to 'defend the victim' of this gay sex solicitation. See for example Matthew Shephard. The cops do something very similar: they stalk bathrooms and lure gay men into making an advance and then bust them.

I'm joining the 'DU's attitude on this is homophobic and repulsive' crowd. Craig is a hypocrite, his crime is hypocrisy. Cruising bathrooms for sex is just the sad plight of the closeted gay man, it is nothing new, it has always been the low hanging fruit for vice squad busts, and that part of this whole affair is almost beside the point.