Ok, the issue of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) being gay and closeted is coming up again. He’s using the “not denial, but not talking” spin. The articles that are starting to bubble up about this often say that some worry that asking if you’re gay invades privacy (namely sexual privacy), but asking if you’re married or have kids (biologically) is more close to being a question about sex than asking/saying your gay or straight. (Another way to explain this angle to the argument is to acknowledge that somebody can be gay before and after,or having never, had sex. Thus, “are you gay?” is less about “you have homosexual sex?” and more about what community, ethos, cultural group, you see yourself as belonging to.)
Thus, when these articles hint that there are other gay US Reps and Senators, I wanna know: who?
Speculation and protests from the gay community and press has pointed to Senators Mikulski and Kohl, but what have they said on this. Who else has been asked and what did they say?
Oh, the openly gay members of the US Congress are Democratic Reps Frank (MA) and the woman from WI, name is escaping me for a moment. The Republican one is Rep. Kolbe from AZ. The men were outed once in office and sense re-elected. The woman was elected by a public knowing she’s gay.
And Tammy Baldwin, D-WI. She had a pretty impressive career in the city government of Madison, WI, before moving on, and (IIRC) was open about her sexuality the entire time. (Former resident of Madison here.)
Tammy isn’t the first gay representative from Wisconsin, either - Steve Gunderson (the representative from the ninth district who served, oh, late eighties to early-mid nineties) is also gay. He’s no longer in office, having chosen to retire from governmental life, and I believe that he was outed while in office. However, that didn’t stop him from being re-elected the last time he ran. So I suppose that last time he would’ve been openly gay and was elected.
Tammy Baldwin. So the openly gay members of Congress are Barney Frank (D-Mass), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc), and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ). In addition, former members of Congress who are/were gay include Steve Gunderson (R-Wisc), Gary Studds (D-Mass), Stewart McKinney (R-CT) and Robert Bauman (R-MD)
Senator Kohl was asked this several years ago, and he gave a plain answer: “Am I gay or lesbian? No.” (although nobody had asked him if he was a lesbian)
I guess the question here is “who (in Congress) has been asked/accused of being gay, other than those out of the closet.” I suppose that has a factual answer, but I’m troubled by speculation of individual’s sexual orientation when clearly they have decided to keep the matter private.
Comparing it to being married w/ kids isn’t apt; they could just as well refuse to talk about their family but it isn’t the kind of thing you can hide very easily.
It’s sort of sad, isn’t it, when we speak of someone “accused” of being homosexual, or someone “admitting” being homosexual, like it’s some godawful thing.
I don’t think it would be polite to name names based on hearsay, even if it’s really good hearsay, so this story stays anonymous to an extent.
Some of you may recall that back in the summer of 1997 there was a failed “coup” attempt against then-Speaker Newt Gingrich. If you go back and read the articles from that period, it was apparent that someone high-up was plotting Gingrich’s demise; nobody could be found to admit to it, however.
Well, one night about a year later I sat around the bar trading beers with an out-of-work former chief of staff for a once-rising Republican star. The Representative in question was a family man, but he was also bisexual. This staffer told me that when Gingrich finally traced the leadership challenge to this guy, Gingrich called the Rep into his office and told the guy he was going to be outed if he didn’t resign. He resigned, to the surprise of the press and his own (largely oblivious) party, “to be with his family.”
Just a little bit of inside-the-beltway dirt. No need to name names, as the fellow has long since passed into obscurity.
Well the Log Cabin Republicans ran quite an article last year about the mid-terms – you can see who supported what.
Specifically re the OP you can see, from thier partiasn point of view, whisper campaigns against congressional candidates (under the partisan headline “Gay-Baiting Democrats Across the Nation”)
Reminder: the issue isn’t “what’s your sexlife”, it’s are you more like “Are you dating men?” I mean, it there’s nothing wrong with being gay, why classify it as “private”? Plus, it would cut down on the “gay-baiting” by campaigns of candidates who aren’t gay and then have to deny it…
Without getting into my opinion of outing or self-disclosure of public figures, Andrew Sullivan (I know, currently suffering from a glass house breakage) made an interesting point on the ethics of the matter:
If a public figure uses their personal life for their benefit (such as when rock stars or politicians put forth their behind the scenes history of their personal life to feed fan hunger or to influence voters), then they should not suddenly play coy about their orientation.
IOW, if you’re a David Letterman and jealously guard your privacy, then when asked about your orientation, you have a right to say, “It’s none of your damned business.”
But if you’re a Ricky Martin who’s giving tours of your home and being photographed with every starlet, or your a candidate who’s using a video of yourself visiting your mom in a nursing home to show how much you care… then it’s a bit ingenuous to suddenly say that any further questions about one’s personal life (e.g., sex partners) is now private.
Once you publicly exploit your personal life front for personal gain, it’s now public property.
