# When will a closeted, gay-bashing LESBIAN politician mistakenly out herself? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 7, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519 "2007-11-07T06:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/21 "2007-11-07T18:20:52Z")
[QUOTE=Malodorous] Also it seems like it’s a lot easier to keep being a lesbian on the downlow [/QUOTE] Sure. All they do is grow their hair out a couple of inches, and it’s like Superman putting on his Clark Kent glasses. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/22 "2007-11-07T18:45:14Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] Is this about Condie Rice? [/QUOTE] My second thought was Condi Rice, my first thought was Janet Reno. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/23 "2007-11-07T19:35:32Z")
[QUOTE=lalenin] … my first thought was Janet Reno. [/QUOTE] I don’t think she had much of a reputation as a gay basher either. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/24 "2007-11-07T20:04:52Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] I’ve never heard of such a thing as a closeted, gay-bashing lesbian. I think men are typically more into gay-bashing than women. I have no reason to think that, i just do. [/QUOTE] [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Garrison) lesbian has done some gay-bashing in her time . . . ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/25 "2007-11-07T21:01:20Z")
Janet Reno: when she was with the Florida State Attorney’s office in Dade County during the child-molestation witch hunts of the early 1980’s, she was swept up in the spirit of the times in persecuting accused pedophiles with more zeal than justice. When she went into the Branch Davidian complex with guns blazing, her justification before Congress was that she’d acted (reacted) to reports of the children there being beaten. (these were the same children who burned to death, much like the Police Academy movie where the cat in the tree is rescued by shooting it down). Either I’m simply homophobic, or I don’t like it when due process is subverted and look for an angle behind it, but my take on Janet Reno was that she was doing a bit of over-compensating on the family values stuff, having been outed earlier in her career by a Republican opponent, similar to George Wallace’s vow never to be “out-niggered” early in his career. If you must plays what works, then you must overplay what can be worked against you. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/26 "2007-11-08T00:24:41Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] I don’t think she had much of a reputation as a gay basher either. [/QUOTE] Didn’t she beat up Will Ferrel once? ---
**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:** [November 8, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/27 "2007-11-08T03:12:09Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] We all went “Ewwww, gross” when Senator Craig tried to get some action in the men’s room. [/QUOTE] Well, I for one went “Ewwww, gross,” not because he tried to get some action in the men’s room, but at the thought of anyone, of any gender, having sex with _ **him** _, in or out of the men’s room. Anyway, I’m thinking back at the prominent homophobic women over the years, and they seem to be either straight, or at least nobody’s outed them so far. Like Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly. ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/28 "2007-11-08T03:21:38Z")
Keep your eye on that big 'ole closeted bull dyke Marilyn Musgrave. htp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12054520/the\_10\_worst\_congressmen/10 > [@](#): > > Musgrave has made regulating the bedroom behavior of her fellow Americans the focus of her entire career. An evangelical Christian who married her Bible-camp sweetheart, Musgrave does not believe in the separation of church and state. She entered politics in 1990, running for her local school board on a crusade to end sex education as part of the curriculum. By the time her tenure was over, the schools taught “abstinence only” – and offending passages in health textbooks had been blacked out. During her eight years in the Colorado legislature, Musgrave continued her moralizing, overcoming two vetoes by the governor to pass a state ban on gay marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/29 "2007-11-08T03:32:39Z")
Not exactly what the OP asks for, but what the hay: She’s not a politician, but novelist Patricia Cornwell is a very right wing conservative Republican who’s backed both Bushes and other super-conservative politicians with her money and in editorials and other written endorsements. If not gay bashing herself (at least I haven’t read where she’s been so), she has been friendly with and supportive of gay bashing politicians and has certainly not come to the defense of gays and lesbians in spite of the acts of said politicians and her broad audience. Previously married to an English professor (whose surname she kept), she was outted as a lesbian (or bisexual) in the divorce of FBI agent Eugene Bennett, who she met while researching her novels and with whose wife she began an affair and who Bennett tried to murder. She now lives openly with her partner but doesn’t discuss her private life, though she is still supportive of anti-gay conservative politicians. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/30 "2007-11-08T05:02:31Z")
ShibbOleth writes: \> I never heard of a female teacher messing around with a male student. Check the thread that I linked to. There are lots of reports of female students having sex with male students. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/31 "2007-11-08T06:03:34Z")
One of the female teachers in my department lost her credentials because of an affair with a seventeen year old male. She was tried for molestation, but found not guilty. His independence from his family was a factor in the jury’s decision. She was in her forties. This was the same teacher who had made sure that no _female_ student with a child could receive certain honors in our school. She also had a sign up in her classroom that said, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” No grasp of professional ethics at all. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2007, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/32 "2007-11-08T06:15:07Z")
[QUOTE=D-bear] Keep your eye on that big 'ole closeted bull dyke Marilyn Musgrave. htp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12054520/the\_10\_worst\_congressmen/10 [/QUOTE] You’ll need to add a “t” to the “http” prefix to get that link. ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/33 "2007-11-08T23:34:57Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] You’ll need to add a “t” to the “http” prefix to get that link. [/QUOTE] [Sorry… My bad](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12054520/the_10_worst_congressmen/10) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/34 "2007-11-09T00:03:19Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Not exactly what the OP asks for, but what the hay: She’s not a politician, but novelist Patricia Cornwell is a very right wing conservative Republican who’s backed both Bushes and other super-conservative politicians with her money and in editorials and other written endorsements. If not gay bashing herself (at least I haven’t read where she’s been so), she has been friendly with and supportive of gay bashing politicians and has certainly not come to the defense of gays and lesbians in spite of the acts of said politicians and her broad audience. Previously married to an English professor (whose surname she kept), she was outted as a lesbian (or bisexual) in the divorce of FBI agent Eugene Bennett, who she met while researching her novels and with whose wife she began an affair and who Bennett tried to murder. She now lives openly with her partner but doesn’t discuss her private life, though she is still supportive of anti-gay conservative politicians. [/QUOTE] That actually **happened?!** I thought it was just a _Law & Order_ episode! (OK, it’s great to be topical, but those writers really need to start thinking up their own plots!) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/35 "2007-11-09T00:19:51Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Previously married to an English professor (whose surname she kept), she was outted as a lesbian (or bisexual) in the divorce of FBI agent Eugene Bennett, who she met while researching her novels and with whose wife she began an affair and who Bennett tried to murder. She now lives openly with her partner but doesn’t discuss her private life, though she is still supportive of anti-gay conservative politicians. [/QUOTE] Hey, I remember that episode of _Law and Order_! ETA: Damn you, **BrainGlutton**! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/36 "2007-11-09T00:28:13Z")
I’m having a hell of a time finding info online, and she wasn’t a politician, but I recall seeing a program about Coco Chanel that mentioned both her bisexuality and her homophobia. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/37 "2007-11-09T04:26:23Z")
Incidentally, folks, I make no claims about rates, but lesbians can be and frequently are targeted for slander, verbal harassment, discrimination, violence, rape, and murder owing to their sexual orientation, just like gay men. I point this out only because often the homophobia that lesbians face is minimized because of the stereotype that they get off easy because “we” (straight men, apparently) find “them” (rarely actual lesbians) hot. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/38 "2007-11-09T21:55:20Z")
People in this thread have been tossing around the term “gay basher” rather freely. I need to point out that in all fairness not everyone who is homophobic is a gay basher. Sure, they supply societal ammunition to the gay bashers, and without their tacit support gay bashing would surely diminish, but the two terms are not synonymous. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519/39 "2007-11-09T22:52:06Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] Incidentally, folks, I make no claims about rates, but lesbians can be and frequently are targeted for slander, verbal harassment, discrimination, violence, rape, and murder owing to their sexual orientation, just like gay men. [/QUOTE] I saw a documentary where someone gave a bunch of young college aged lesbians cameras and let them document their lives. It was subtitled and I can’t for the life of me remember which country it originated from. Norway or Finland is my best guess but maybe someone else who has seen it can give more accurate information. Anway, the problems faced by these young women seemed to be similar to the problems faced by lesbians in the United States. Some of them were afraid their peers or family would reject them, at least one fled a small town because she felt more comfortable being a lesbian in the city, and one of them filmed some of their peers making homophobic comments and included lesbians when she asked. Though at least one person said “they’re not so bad”. Let’s posit for just a moment that there are lesbians who aren’t given as hard a time as gay men. What kind of women would this be? I suspect it would be the one who otherwise conforms to expected gender standards. The kind of women that can use a bathroom in a restaurant without being kicked out. Marc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-a-closeted-gay-bashing-lesbian-politician-mistakenly-out-herself/425519.md?page=1)