Gay Irish Pol's Presidential Hopes Dashed

When David Norris, an openly gay James Joyce scholar and independent member of the Irish senate for nearly a quarter century announced last March that he would seek the Irish presidency, there was hope around the globe that he might become one of a tiny number of openly GLBT world leaders. But those aspirations came to an abrupt and disappointing end when Norris pulled out of the race following revelations that he had pled for clemency in the case of a friend, also gay, who had allegedly had sex with a minor.

Norris had survived an earlier flap that arose when it came to light he had discussed the ancient Greek tradition of older men courting teenage boys, and said that he might have benefited as a gay teen from the mentorship of an older man.

Norris' comments on "classic pedophilia" were made to Irish magazine Magill in 2002, reported British newspaper the Guardian in a May 31 article. Norris was careful to note that he has no sexual interest in children personally, but he also said that he might have benefited personally if, when he was a younger man coming into his own, an older gay man had taken an interest in him.

"I cannot understand how anybody could find children of either sex in the slightest bit attractive sexually," Norris told the magazine, "but in terms of classic pedophilia, as practiced by the Greeks, for example, where it is an older man introducing a younger man to adult life, there can be something said for it. Now, again, this is not something that appeals to me.

"Although, when I was younger, I would have greatly relished the prospect of an older, attractive, mature man taking me under his wing, lovingly introducing me to sexual realities, treating me with affection, teaching me about life," Norris went on to add.

Anti-gay activists frequently smear the GLBT equality movement and its leaders with accusations that pro-equality advocates seek to promote incest, pedophilia, bestiality, and other sexual deviance.

But Norris faced the firestorm the interview generated, stating bluntly that he "never endorsed pedophilia,... never endorsed incest," and declared that implications to that effect were the "greatest insults" that could be hurled.

Burke, who says that she has been supportive of Norris' efforts for GLBT equality in Ireland, stated that the politician should not become the next Irish president.

"Anyone who endorses sex between parents and children is not a suitable person for the presidency," Burke said. "We would be the laughing stock and the disgust of Europe" were Norris to be elected, she added.

"I was foolish to engage in an academic discussion about ancient Greece with a restaurant critic," Norris told the media. "I am devastated for my supporters and I want them to know what kind of person I am." The Guardian reported that Norris issued a statement in which he said that his remarks were part of "an academic discussion about classical Greece and sexual activity in a historical context.

"It was a hypothetical, intellectual conversation which should not have been seen as a considered representation of my views on some of the issues discussed over dinner," Norris's statement continued. "People should judge me on my record and actions as a public servant, over the last 35 years and on the causes and campaigns, for which I have fought, and not on an academic conversation with a journalist over dinner. I did not ever and would not approve of the finished article as it appeared."

The Guardian article said that the journalist in question, Helen Lucy Burke, had spoken up in defense of the interview, and claimed to have allowed Norris to suggest changes to the article prior to its publication.

Despite the furor, Norris remained strong in the polls. He had also managed to garner support from three-quarters of the 20 members of Parliament he needed in order to qualify as an independent nominee.

Then revelations hits the news that Norris had allegedly written a letter urging an Israeli court to treat his former lover, Ezra Nawi, with clemency as Nawi was awaiting trial on a statutory rape charge in 1992. Nawi admitted to having had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy; the age of consent in Israel is 16.

Key members of Norris' team left just after the news broke, and Norris himself pulled the plug on his campaign on Aug. 2.

An editorial in Irish newspaper the Herald pinned the end of Norris' presidential hopes on a series of missteps that included his team not having done their own investigation into Norris' past to see what in the politician's past might be dredged up by opponents, and then preparing counter-measures in advance so as to avoid being taken by surprise.

Had the team taken such diligence, "Norris could have come out, all guns blazing, apologizing for the letter, stating (as he did yesterday) that his former partner had committed a crime," the Herald's Aug. 2 article said. "He could have alerted supporters and potential supporters in advance of it being published."

But one of Norris' biggest mistakes lay in having said too much to the wrong people.

"This candidate's campaign was holed below the waterline 10 years before it started, when he had dinner with Helen Lucy Burke," the Herald article said. "If he had listened to the topics he now says were raised by her, he would have decided that these topics stereotyped him into a man defined by his sexuality and scholarship.

"Instead, he talked and talked."

Norris' penchant for the garrulous had been targeted by others well in advance of the fresh scandal, noted British newspaper the Guardian on Aug. 2.

"Despite the adoration on the streets," the Guardian article said, "much media coverage in Ireland was astonishingly vitriolic. 'Arrogant, a blabbermouth and ill-suited to being president' was one of the more polite opinion pieces. Critics dared not be directly homophobic but instead argued that Norris was brought down by his own lack of judgment and was too unreliable or reckless to become president."

The article also noted that the social climate in Ireland had thawed somewhat for gay politicians -- but added that there were still those who had it in for GLBT public figures.

"While ordinary people in supposedly socially conservative Ireland seemed sanguine about the idea of a clever and openly gay man becoming their president, there were clearly critics determined to root out every misjudgment in his long and highly respected career as a senator campaigning for gay rights," the article said.

The current Irish government took power in February. It includes the first two openly gay members of the D�il �ireann, or Irish Parliament, Dominic Hannigan and John Lyons. The two openly gay parliamentarians told the media that their sexuality was not much of a factor for voters.