Reading Previous Quist quotes resurface in today's Mankato Free Press, Bluestem paused at this passage:
The bookstore
Quist has more than once in recent weeks called the story about his visit to Mankato’s adult bookstore a lie.
“That’s a total fabrication,” Quist said on July 15 to the hosts of a Twin Cities radio talk show, who took him at his word and moved on to other topics.
But in March of 1988, Quist wasn’t only publicly talking about his incognito visit to the “Adult Book and Cinema” store on what was then North Front Street.
Quist, a three-term state lawmaker who was well-known for leading the House Republican effort to combat the spread of AIDS, told The Free Press that he found evidence that the store was set up to promote anonymous homosexual sex and should be shut down by the Minnesota Department of Health.
From the March 30, 1988 Free Press: “Quist said he recently visited the bookstore disguised in sunglasses and grubby clothes. The store’s darkened rear area contains coin-operated film booths, he found.
“‘On the north end of these booths there’s a section marked off for homosexuals,’ Quist said. ‘If you open a door, you’ll find there are apertures in the partitions. They are there to facilitate anonymous sodomy.’
"Apertures in the partitions"? Had the genteel Representative Quist in disguise stumbled upon what common people call a "glory hole"?
And "sodomy"? This is the language of current state representative Glenn Gruenhagen.
MFP reporter Mark Fischenich concludes his look at Quist's back pages with the most repeated--and perhaps most mis-attributed of Quist's quotes:
Genetic predisposition
Quist’s thoughts on the roles of husbands and wives in family decision-making have been summarized by media, and his political opponents have created an even more abbreviated shorthand-version of what he’s said. Quist claims the original context has been completely lost.
Read the Free Press article to learn the full context, including an excerpt of the April 6, 1994 article in the Twin Cities Reader, done in a question-and-answer format by David Brauer, now of MinnPost.
The Free Press does voters a real service with the publication of Fischenich's piece.
MPR carries the full AP report that's being published around the country, Quist, Parry primary race turns bitter. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports in From a member of U.S. Congress to Spam: Happy 75th birthday!:
Who better to pay tribute to ham, or rather a form of it, than a member of Congress?
Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) was on the House floor Wednesday, declaring "Happy 75th birthday, Spam!’’
He proudly held up the familiar blue-and-yellow tin of the long-ridiculed, but iconic, blend of spiced pork shoulder and ham, manufactured by Hormel Foods Corp. in his district.
"Spam is an important part of our American history,’’ Walz said. "It played an essential role in feeding Allied troops during World War II, has worked to create local jobs and, with over 7 billion cans sold worldwide, has truly become an iconic American product.’’ . . .
Bluestem suspects that tributes to Spam are far more suited to the tastes of Southern Minnesota voters than the search for historical accuracy about Mankato's legendary apertures. Will Republican voters thank Mike Parry for bringing this up? Stay tuned for next month's primary.
Image: Allen Quist, by Ken Avidor.
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