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Eric Massa May Be A Very Sick Man, And He Should Have Been Reported A Long Time Ago

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on March 11, 2010.

03/11/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
“Eric Massa is a very sick man.” That is probably true. Let me be blunt, Eric Massa appears to be very sick man, and a man who should have been reported and arrested and charged with a variety of different things including sexual assault. Had Massa behaved like this towards a woman, he would have at the very least been hit with a lawsuit. He is alleged to have groped male employees who did not report him. He appears to have harassed subordinates in the Navy and they did not report him. He may have even sexually assaulted one of his Naval subordinates and was never reported. This man appears to have abused his position and abused his power, but because our society has and even still stigmatizes homosexuality, Massa may have gotten away with it up until now. People were afraid to come forward because of a fear of what doing so would say about them.

It does not matter, as the Daily Beast is now asking, what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it, or that the Republicans are trying to make this into a scandal that would sink the Democrats. Because of the stigmatization of homosexuality, no one would have cared about it until it went to the Press. Because the tendency is to cast aspersions on the victims of harassment, rape, and sexual assault- that they did something wrong, that they were dressed wrong, that they were somehow asking for it- too many would not come forward. Couple that with the shame of being felt up by a man, and many of the men who he apparently assaulted and harassed would not have come forward. Added to this mix is this almost bizarre tendency to almost laugh off nervously the idea that this man may have committed rape!

The incident that sparks this is the fact that, at one point, former Congressman Massa apparently unzipped his roommate’s trousers while the man was asleep and appeared to be attempting to perform a sexual act called “snorkeling”. The incident has not been confirmed by either Eric Massa or the man he is alleged to have attempted to assault. It does, however, come from men that Tom Maxfield told about it.

Even going beyond that, this is a man who has, according to all the allegations, groped men on a continual basis for years.

As much as I do not like to cast aspersions of my own upon Lawrence O’Donnell and Bill Maher, but last night’s discussion about Massa’s problems seemed to border on the nervous end of the humor spectrum, if it was not full force unease. I like both men, but there is a certain seriousness to the allegation that Eric Massa was trying, as far as I can figure out, to give a blow job to a subordinate member of his ship’s crew when that man not only did not give his permission, but was incapable of doing so.

Eric Massa, in all likelihood, should be viewed as a sexual predator. This is a man who appears to, at best, have no sexual boundaries. At worst, he comes off as sociopathic and a-social. If the allegations are true, this is a man who, had he done these things to a woman, would have been investigated a long time ago.

It is time that our society treats sexual assault by men against other men, by women against men, and by women against women with the same candor and seriousness that it treats rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment of women by men.

Unfortunately for society, that means destigmatizing the good sex between loving couples even if they are of the same sex. This way, when a person is assaulted they know that they are not wrong. This way, when a person is assaulted, our society does not laugh nervously about it. This way, when a person is assaulted, our society does not assume that the victim is at fault, and compound that idea with the victim being homosexual because they were assaulted by someone of the same sex.

Eric Massa’s Navy Files