NORM, NORM, AND NORML

Who's Smokin' Funny Cigarettes?

Lawyer and activist Norm Kent gets around. He made a flash in the news a
few weeks ago, when Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle said that he felt most
gay people were unhappy -- and that he was basing that statement on his
friend, Kent, whom he's known for years through political circles. (Not so,
Kent tells Tailpipe. He's actually gay and happy.)

Kent made even bigger headlines a month earlier -- in Minnesota, where he
was shaking up the race for U.S. Senate.

You see, in the late 1960s, Kent attended Hofstra University on Long
Island, where he became friends with a campus organizer named Norm Coleman.
While Kent moved on to Fort Lauderdale, founded the Express Gay News and
later nationalgaynews.com, hosted a radio show, and joined the board of
NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), his
friend Coleman migrated to Minnesota, became a Republican, and lost a
hard-fought governor's race to Jesse Ventura. Coleman finally struck it big
when he got elected as U.S. senator after Paul Wellstone was killed in a
plane crash.

Though the two friends drifted apart ideologically, they stayed in touch;
Kent's name is still on Sen. Coleman's mailing list. Kent recently got a
letter in which Coleman stated that he opposed the legalization of
marijuana. Such a measure would make schools and workplaces "more
dangerous," he said.

Whaaaat? Was this the same guy Kent used to burn with at Hofstra? Kent
fired off an open letter calling bullshit on Coleman's hypocrisy.

Kent named names (including Coleman's brother-in-law) and recalled specific
incidents: "Sure, we had to tape the doors shut, burn incense and open the
windows, but we got high, and yet we grew up okay, without the help of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy's advice," he wrote. "We smoked pot
when we took over Weller Hall to protest administrative abuses of students'
rights. You smoked pot as you stood on the roof of the University Senate
protesting faculty exclusivity. As the President of the Student Senate in
1969, you condemned the raid by Nassau County police on our dormitories,
busting scores of students for pot possession."

Once Kent's missive was posted publicly -- on celebstoner.com -- Minnesota
newspapers and political blogs jumped on it, cartooning and chastising
Coleman. The effect could help Coleman's opponents, including author/Air
America radio host/ Saturday Night Live alumnus Al Franken, who has
candidly admitted using cocaine, LSD, and pot.

Coleman's camp released a statement: "It is a well known fact that years
ago, as a college student, he smoked marijuana. Years later, with the
hindsight of maturity, he realizes that it was a dangerous time in his life
and could well have had seriously negative consequences on his health and
on those around him."

In the end, Kent said, he will always admire what Coleman accomplished as a
young leader, and the two remain pals. "Causes are transcendent.
Friendships are lasting. I will always be Norm Coleman's friend but will
continue to speak out against political positions he's adopted. I have his
home number. I can pick up the phone and talk to him. It's political debate
and not personal hate." He contrasted that with his take on Jim Naugle:
"Jim crossed the line by insulting so many individuals by trespassing into
their personal life."