Should Sam Go?

Our new mayor lied about a sexual relationship he had with an 18 year old boy to get elected. During the campaign allegations were made that Sam Adams had sex with a young man he was mentoring in 2005. When they met the boy was 17, which is legally troublesome as the age of consent in Oregon is 18. Mr. Adams came out in the press and denied the relationship was sexual, it went away and he was elected mayor. Now that he has taken office the issue has come back and Adams admitted that, yes, he did have sex with the young man, but that they waited until after his 18th birthday.

I voted for Adams and I did a little work for the campaign to help get him elected. I also had lunch with him a few years back and after talking to him, I thought he was a smart guy who would be a great mayor some day (or even Governor). Unfortunately we are all in a very difficult position right now. As progressive Portlanders we want to be proud of our first openly gay mayor. I want to support him, but he lied. Not only did he lie, he also reinforced a terrible stereotype of the predatory older gay male trying to pervert young men (Adams was in his 40's when he had this relationship). I also have to wonder, did he lie about the young man being 18? We know Adams convinced him to lie about the relationship.

There have been calls from all the major papers and news outlets for Adams to resign, even the major GLBT paper has called for him to leave. Yesterday there was a huge demonstration by Sam supporters at City Hall on his behalf, so there are obviously plenty of folks who want him to stay. I have to say I want him to stay too, but if he gets through this, will he be an effective leader or will this incident render him untrustworthy and powerless?