Republican Homophobes And The Gays... The Never Ending Saga Continues

Notorious Texas closet queen Rick Perry hasn't been officially outed yet. His day will come though. Meanwhile he's using the childish tactics of covering up his self-loathing by screaming the loudest-- well, not counting deranged fag hag Michele Bachmann-- that gays are "the other" and must be feared and loathed. Too much time in front of the mirror. But Rick Perry is far from unique. That's why a month hardly goes by when some anti-gay screamer is forced out of the closet protesting just a little too much to seem authentic. And the newest member of the Republican Closet Queen Club: Southaven, Mississippi Mayor Greg Davis, a teabagger-- perhaps literally-- who ran for Congress in 2008.

Davis was charging gay porn to Southaven taxpayers on his city credit card. The 45-year-old former state rep was divorced last year after 19 years of marriage. He has 3 daughters. He had some national exposure when he ran-- twice-- against Mississippi Blue Dog Travis Childers, who beat him both times. (Childers was finally driven from office last year in the sweep of Blue Dogs.) Davis, caught red-handed, has now admitted that he's gay and is taking some time off to spend it with his family. Sound familiar?

2 anti-gay Mississippi conservatives;
Davis, on the left, turns out to be gay himself

Receipts from embattled Southaven Mayor Greg Davis reveal that he had the city pay for wide-ranging expenses including thousands of dollars worth of liquor, expensive dinners at a local restaurant and a visit to an adult store catering to gay men while on a recruitment trip to Canada.

As details emerged Thursday from the receipts, provided by state auditors to Southaven aldermen and subsequently obtained by the Commercial Appeal, Davis conceded publicly for the first time in an interview with The CA that he is gay and has struggled to keep the issue from affecting his public life as mayor of Mississippi's third-largest city.

"At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case," Davis said Thursday afternoon at his Southaven home. "While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual-- and still continue to be a very conservative individual-- I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay."

As for the receipts, Davis, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008 on a conservative, family-values platform, said he couldn't discuss specifics on the advice of his attorney.

"Because of the ongoing civil and criminal investigation ... my attorney told me not to discuss the receipts or anything about the receipts," he said.

The receipts were provided to state auditors in hopes of decreasing the approximately $170,000 they have demanded Davis repay the city for improper charges to both his city-issued and personal credit cards. Auditors asked city aldermen, who approved the expenses, to review the receipts before making a decision on accepting them to reduce Davis' payments. Davis has paid $96,000 so far.

After aldermen got the receipts, the CA obtained them under a Freedom of Information request.

Aldermen haven't yet commented on their review of the receipts, which are expected to be discussed Tuesday at the next scheduled meeting of the seven-member board. Alderman Greg Guy said Thursday that he is still reviewing the 500-plus pages of receipts.

However, a review by the CA shows that Davis spent thousands of dollars at the Mesquite Chop House in Southaven and thousands more at local liquor stores. Also included in the receipts is a charge for $67 at Priape, a store in Toronto that is described by its website as "Canada's premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop."

Davis said he didn't remember what he bought at the store, which he visited on a recruitment trip with Mid-South warehouse developers.

Despite Thursday's swirl of events, Davis said it's too early to talk about a criminal investigation involving the disputed expenses or the possibility of him stepping down from his role as mayor.

"At this point, my goal is to ensure that for the next year and a half that the city continues to grow," he said. "I will evaluate whether I will run again as mayor at a later time."

He added that he plans to take time off through the holidays starting today to spend time with his family.

"I had already planned to take off and spend time with my family over the holidays," Davis said. "Hopefully, we will wrap up the civil aspect of the state auditor's report real soon, and we have a couple of big projects we have to work on... some of them are time crucial, and we don't want this to interfere with that.

"The only apology I would make to my supporters if they are upset is the fact that I was not honest enough with myself to be honest with them. But I have lived my life in public service for 20-plus years, and in order for me to remain sane and move on, I have got to start being honest about who I am."

By the way, Blue America has a page dedicated to replacing the worst homophobes in Congress with normal people. We haven't added any closet cases yet, but we plan to early next year, perhaps Aaron Schock, David Dreier, Trent Franks, Adrian Smith... all of whom are gay and all of whom have ZERO ratings on LGBT equality issues this year in Congress.