Now we know why Spokane’s called “the lilac city.” The Spokesman-Review newspaper has forcibly outed Mayor Jim West, a onetime right-wingnut in the State Legislature, as a public homophobe but a closeted gay and, allegedly, as a long-ago child molestor. West denies the last part, but has admitted to having sex with men in the past.

It’d be sooooo easy to simply dis West as another dangeorus hypocrite, but I see something more poignant, more sad. Like most homosexuals in most of Euro/American society in most of modern history, West had to conceal his true self from the public world around him. As someone who chose the profession of politician representing conservative monied interests, he apparently felt he had to “double-closet” himself by outspokenly supporting the suppression of people such as himself.

One particularly ironic part: Spokane’s traditionally been an oasis of progressive-populist politics amid the reactionary-dominant deserts of eastern Washington and northern Idaho. It’s one of those places where gays gather to escape the bigoted attitudes once expressed in public by West. Last year, Spokane civic promoters floated the idea of creating a specific gay-nightlife district, expressly to create the lucrative urban image of a “creative hub.”

L’affaire West is a personal tragedy, irregardless of whether or not the boy-abuse part is true. I don’t go as far as the Seattle Times, which insists West resign. But I do believe he ought to pubilcly atone for his past public stances. He’s blundered himself (or rather, been shoved) into the opportunity of a lifetime. He can call, from deep inside the Republican Party’s street level, for an end to the GOP’s cynical hatemongering.