# How many people realise the UK gov's No2 Peter Mandelson is gay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766 "2009-09-03T17:25:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/21 "2009-09-03T19:27:11Z")
**Magiver** , have you ever heard of the office of Vice President? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/22 "2009-09-03T19:55:33Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > **Magiver** , have you ever heard of the office of Vice President? Yes, and it’s included in the vote for President. Vice Presidents have little political power. Senators are the next most powerful elected position followed by Members of Congress. Keep this in context. My post was in response to the idea that Senators were not prominent politicians. They are very prominent in the Unites States. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/23 "2009-09-03T20:06:33Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > **Magiver** , have you ever heard of the office of Vice President? Yes, the consensus of this thread will come as a disappointment to Joe Biden. And how quickly we forget: [http://www.theonion.com/content/news/americas\_first\_gay\_president](http://www.theonion.com/content/news/americas_first_gay_president) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/24 "2009-09-03T20:09:41Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > It’s true they are not elected, but many of them are politicians and they get appointed based on politics in most cases. > > If you look at Obama’s cabinet 8 of them were elected to office before being appointed to the cabinet. And some could be elected again once they leave the cabinet. You’re right but in the context of what I was responding too I thought the process of election was more relevant to the concept of holding public office while openly gay. After President, the next highest office would be the 2 houses of Congress. Senators are considered having a consolidation of power because in most states there are more Congressmen. I never understood why cabinet seats are considered a powerful position but they are. It would make a good debate topic. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/25 "2009-09-03T20:13:24Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Yes, the consensus of this thread will come as a disappointment to Joe Biden. > > And how quickly we forget: [http://www.theonion.com/content/news/americas\_first\_gay\_president](http://www.theonion.com/content/news/americas_first_gay_president) Joe Biden’s job is to say as little as possible so as to avoid tripping over his tongue. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/26 "2009-09-03T20:18:30Z")
Barney Frank would be the most well known and powerful openly gay politician at this point. And in his position as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, he is pretty powerful, even though a lot of people don’t know who he is. Honestly, I doubt he would trade his senority and position in the House for any higher office. He can do a lot more where he is. There have been other openly gay members of Congress, Jim Kolbe, Steve Gunderson, Gerry Studds, Jared Polis and others who came out after they left office like Foley. Governor McGreevey probably could have come out and stayed in office. But his admission and resignation were prompted by ethics concerns over his partner’s appointment as State Homeland Security Director and subsequent sexual harrassment lawsuit. Its not unforseeable that an openly gay candidate can be elected as a governor in the near future. But we don’t have guys like Peter Mandelson who are sort of career cabinet ministers/party apparatchiks. In the States, you can’t do what he does by keeping an MPs seat warm while you go off and serve in various cabinet positions. People win a seat in the House and then stay there for many years building their power bases. They win Senate seats and try for President once then go hang out in the Senate. In most cases, if a member of Congress wants to run for higher office (other than President), they are giving up their old seat. So if they lose for higher office, they are out of politics until they find something else to run for. So there is a bit of a disincentive to continuously moving around to different positions. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/27 "2009-09-03T20:53:42Z")
> [@Neptunian\_Slug](#): > > Its not unforseeable that an openly gay candidate can be elected as a governor in the near future. There’s a possibility that David Cicilline, the mayor of Providence, will run for Governor of New Hampshire in 2010. I think he’s denied it, but it’s still a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/28 "2009-09-03T20:59:34Z")
To correct myself, David Cicilline might run for governor of Rhode Island, not New Hampshire. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/29 "2009-09-03T21:24:34Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > J. Edgar Hoover was very powerful for a non-elected guy. I think there is real doubt whether Hoover was gay e.g see wikis discussion > **[J. Edgar Hoover](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover)** > > John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). President Calvin Coolidge first appointed Hoover as director of the BOI, the predecessor to the FBI, in 1924. After 11 years in the post, Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 yea... put into not proven basket ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/30 "2009-09-04T00:11:33Z")
> [@Sri\_Theo](#): > > …I am wondering about the position of gay politicians in other countries. Thanks if you’ve got any insight. NZ: gay politician = big _meh_ here. 🙂 I think we currently have 6 or so openly gay members of parliament (out of 120 total)… and have had a fair few over the years, along with the world’s first openly transsexual Member of Parliament, [Georgina Beyer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgina_Beyer). I’m not sure who the first NZ MP known to be gay was; [Marilyn Waring](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Waring) got “outed” by a local rag back in 1976, but didn’t come out until '85 – but even back then it was more felt to be a private issue and not something to make political fodder out of. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/31 "2009-09-04T01:47:33Z")
The next governor of South Carolina may be gay. Then again, maybe not: [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/03/sanford-accused-of-smear-campaign-against-bauer/#more-67194](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/03/sanford-accused-of-smear-campaign-against-bauer/#more-67194) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/32 "2009-09-04T02:09:14Z")
There were a lot of rumors the Florida governor is gay, last year he married a trophy type wife. Some say that was his way of shutting down those rumors. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/33 "2009-09-04T03:33:47Z")
There are three openly homosexual members of Congress at the moment: Barney Frank (D-MA) Jared Polis (D-CO) Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) They appear to be the highest-level openly homosexual politicians in the U.S. at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/34 "2009-09-04T04:43:18Z")
FWIW, the Head of the Office of Personnel Management is the highest-ranked gay official in the Executive Branch (both currently and I believe, ever). Has there ever been an openly gay Senator? None come to mind, and I haven’t seen any mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/35 "2009-09-04T06:51:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The next governor of South Carolina may be gay. Then again, maybe not: [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/03/sanford-accused-of-smear-campaign-against-bauer/#more-67194](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/03/sanford-accused-of-smear-campaign-against-bauer/#more-67194) My gaydar goes way off the chart for the \*\*\*current \*\*\*governor of SC. ---
**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/36 "2009-09-04T09:35:11Z")
How many people knew Peter Mandleson was the UK gov’s No2? Ok, so maybe ‘behind the scenes’. x ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/37 "2009-09-04T10:25:16Z")
I suspect very few people in the US have even heard of Peter Mandelson. Hell I live in London and try to follow politics and even though he is clearly the second most powerful politician in the country, I still couldn’t tell you what his job is (read his [entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mandelson) and try to tell me what it is). In terms of him being gay, it’s not that high in the public consciousness even over here, he keeps it fairly quiet and the media generally avoids mentioning it. There was a famous [incident](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mandelson#Personal_life) back in 1998 where a gay journalist outed Mandelson for the first time live on TV. Mandelson somehow managed to get the head of the BBC to ban any mention of his homosexuality on their service. So that week there was a hilarious episode of a comedy news quiz show on the BBC called Have I Got News For You where the big story of the day was clearly Peter Mandelson’s sexuality, but since they’d been banned from mentioning it, the panellists instead skirted around the issue with clear references to it. It kind of fell apart when Ian Hislop said, “Peter Mandelson? Isn’t he a hom…owner?” and Paul Merton replied, “well what’s wrong with gay people owning homes?”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/38 "2009-09-04T11:50:15Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > FWIW, the Head of the Office of Personnel Management is the highest-ranked gay official in the Executive Branch (both currently and I believe, ever). > > Has there ever been an openly gay Senator? None come to mind, and I haven’t seen any mentioned. “Openly” is probably the key word here. Although her office has refused to comment, [this article](http://www.washblade.com/2004/7-9/news/localnews/outed.cfm) from 2004 details efforts to “out” Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski. According to several people I know on Capitol Hill, it’s a widely discussed, bordering-on-fact article of faith that Senator Mikulski is gay. But she’s never said it publicly, so far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/39 "2009-09-04T11:51:54Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My gaydar goes way off the chart for the \*\*\*current \*\*\*governor of SC. Mark “Hiking The Appalachian Trail” Sanford ?!? Really? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766/40 "2009-09-04T12:18:29Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Mark “Hiking The Appalachian Trail” Sanford ?!? > > Really? Yeah, usually that type doesn’t go off and have a _heterosexual_ affair. They get caught in bathrooms tapping feet or their emails to their hustler date get sent to the wrong person. I mean, it’s POSSIBLE that Sanford set up an elaborate hoax involving people in two different and widely separated countries in order to throw people off the scent of his REAL scandal, but it’s VERY unlikely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-realise-the-uk-govs-no2-peter-mandelson-is-gay/508766.md?page=3)