Steve Johnson / Bill Clinton

Hi Everyone,

This is NASCAR Nut. I'm curious and looking for opinions on this whole Steve Johnson story.

For those of you who haven't heard about it, SJ posted a profile on a gay dating pornographic website. SJ is, or maybe I should say was, the Richmond School Board Chairman. A few days after posting, someone 'informed' The Times Dispatch that his profile was there. A little web surfing later and suddenly SJ is a horrible man surfing for gay porn on the web. Forgotten are all the good things he has done while on the school board. All anyone sees now is a man trying to find a man to date by looking on the web.

Where was he supposed to look? Just 'cause he is/was a public official, does that mean he can't look for love, or even a date? Where else should he have looked? A gay night club? Church? The Richmond Times Dispatch Classifieds?

And what exactly did he do wrong? He has done nothing illegal. So what is his crime? Why is it so important to many in the Richmond area for SJ to leave the school board?

In the items I heard or read, SJ should leave because he is setting a bad example for the children. As a kid, I had no clue who my school board members were, much less the head of the board. As far as I knew, I had never interacted with any of them.

Bill Clinton was involved in a much more scandlous situation. He had an affair and also denied, to a grand jury, that it happened. In the long run though, he did admit to the incident. What he did was illegal in many places and yes he came close to being impeached for it. But if America didn't see fit to remove Bill Clinton from office, then what business do any of us have trying to force SJ out of office?

Last question. How many of you feel this would have even been an issue had SJ been hetero?

A note from Nut: last week, 10 local pastors called for his resignation claiming Johnson was a danger to children because of the websites pornographic nature.

[Bishop Gerald O. Glenn of Chesterfield County's New Deliverance Evangelistic Church] said that rather than applauding Johnson, the School Board and administration could turn this time into an opportunity to instruct students on issues of Internet pornography and sexual promiscuity.

How, pray tell, does a gay dating website equate to sexual promiscuity?

Let me hear ya out there,

NASCAR Nut

(I mostly updated to include links to the story and take out the abusive use of question marks.)