Mike Rogers outs Rep. Mark Kirk

Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican Congressman long suspected by the gay community to be, well, gay – actually is, according to Mike Rogers.

The interesting thing here is that Kirk has a pretty pro-gay voting record, voting for ENDA, against a constitutional ban on gay marriage (twice) – and even voting to re-introduce the Equal Rights Amendment (not specifically gay, but lesbian feminists like myself are cheering).

So why is a gay activist – who also outed clearly anti-gay Mark Foley and Larry Craig – outing this guy?

He voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Rogers says Kirk came out to him (kinda) at a party in 2004:

“I was introduced to [Kirk] by the person I came with and at the time did not realize he was a member of the House. As my friend walked away, Kirk asked me if the man who introduced us was ’single or attached.’ When I said that he had a partner Kirk replied disappointingly, ‘Oh, well.’ At the end of that interaction I walked away and didn’t think much of it at the time.”

And after the DADT vote, two men wrote him to say they had slept with Kirk.

Kirk is running for Senate this fall – and he is in the military (he’s a Commander in the Naval Reserves).

What do you think about this, folks? Do you think his gayness will make a difference in the election? Is there actual hypocrisy here, or was this just a bill he didn’t agree with (not all gay people vote in lockstep, after all, and the House didn’t need his vote to pass the bill). Or is this anti-gay vote a bid to help his election – and so the worst kind of hypocrisy?

Weir: Skating as a “gay” sport a misconception

Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir has something to say about the gayness of men in spandex.

In a segment that airs tonight on “HBO Real Sports,” Weir is asked whether his sport’s “gay” reputation hurts its popularity. Does it have to be more “butch” to attract a wider audience?

“I know that for …

Why It Matters that Adam Lambert is (Probably) Gay

It matters that Adam Lambert, the heir apparent as the next American Idol, is apparently gay — precisely because it doesn’t matter.

First, whether Lambert is homosexual or not, he definitely is “queer,” a word many GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered) people have reclaimed from the dustbin of history as a proud self-identification. He gender-bends, he sings high notes, he wears makeup and jewelry. For a show about creating the next typical pop star, he is atypical. Simply being gay is, perhaps, no big deal — but Lambert flaunts his gender non-conformity. As he himself said, when photographs of Lambert kissing other men surfaced on the Internet, “I have nothing to hide. I am who I am.” Bravo!

This bravado stands in sharp contrast to previous generations of androgynous pop stars, who vociferously denied their gayness even as their obvious queerness was leveraged into worldwide pop success. Clay Aiken, George Michael, even Boy George all used to deny their sexualities — and Elton John hid behind “bisexuality” for many years as well. To most of us in the gay community, this was ludicrous; at the same instant these male stars were protesting the awful insinuations about their manhood, they flaunted their gender-bending and/or androgyny as part of their appeal. Not Lambert. He is who he is, and it’s fabulous.

See