Blogger Mike Rogers has gone nuclear against Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk. The politician earned Rogers’ ire because of his pro DADT vote last week—only five House Republicans voted for repeal.
“In an effort to move the base in the Illinois Senate race , Kirk decided to tack right and that means throwing the gays (like him) under the bus.”
Rogers talks about anonymous sources who insist Kirk is gay (2 of them allege they had sex with the guy). The blogger recounts his own Kirk past (no sex involved). The two met at a 2004 Washington, DC party, and the Republican outed himself in a casual conversation. Kirk apparently was into the male friend who brought Rogers to the soiree. Between 2001 and last year, the Republican was married to Kimberly Vertolli.
Rogers airs all of this because he thinks Kirk’s DADT vote stinks with hypocrisy. Fair point, but the reporter never explains why supporting DADT is problematic. He kicks open Kirk’s alleged glass closet because of pique over a vote. When the Republican was OK on gay issues, at least according to the Human Rights Campaign, there was no need to share any of this. In the world according to Rogers, vote right and you can stay on the closet. Cross him and your laundry will be made public.
I’m in the minority about this, but outing is an ineffective political strategy. It gins up our moral outrage, but where are the tangible political gains? Are we closer to the repeal of DADT? Marriage rights? An ENDA vote?
Outside of seeing someone squirm under the media glare, the freedom movement, such as it is, is not advanced by sifting through supposed closed door habits.
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?
“Outrage,” the controversial documentary that opens the closet doors of politicians including several past and present members of Congress, is now available on DVD.
The film, which screened in small art houses across the country last summer, examines the hypocrisy of legislators who vote against issues that would benefit the queer …
Of the many insinuations in “Outrage,” Kirby Dick’s sad, devastating new documentary about closeted gay politicians – OK, alleged closeted gay politicians – the one that’s most disturbing is the case made against a former Southern congressman. As a young liberal, the politician used his fraternity house “as his gay bar,” a former alleged hookup tells the filmmakers. Yet in pursuit of elected office, the politician got married, went to church, and voted Republican, never quite shaking his same-sex attraction but never doing much legislatively to acknowledge or advance the civil rights of gay people. On numerous occasions, in fact, he voted to suppress those rights. Such alleged hypocrisy is the crux of “Outrage.” Dick speculates on the homosexuality of several current and former public officials which hasn’t been corroborated by the men themselves. His charges aren’t new; they’ve certainly surfaced in the alternative press and online. But in accordance with Globe ethics poilcy, I can’t repeat those names here. While dwelling on political contradiction, the movie unfolds at a unique juncture of psychological and moral character: the perverse place where a politician’s relentless personal drive and a closeted gay man’s shameful desire may meet. In tying the purported secret gay sex lives of these putatively straight elected officials – the movie focuses almost exclusively on men – to their voting records, a caustic portrait emerges of self-deluded souls. Dick goes into scandals involving the married Idaho senator Larry Craig and the now openly gay former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, who sits down and unburdens himself for the camera (he talks about “living your truth” with an abandon that suggests either lots of therapy or lots of disco). Former Arizona congressman Jim Kolbe talks about how much happier he was after he revealed he was gay (we never hear from his ex-wife, although Mrs. McGreevey does speak). “Outrage” is armed with commentary and insights from openly gay members of Congress like Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, activists like Larry Kramer (of course) and Rodger McFarlane, who died last month, and such Washington insiders as Hilary Rosen. The movie never allows you to forget its aim. It wants to hold these men accountable – if the speculation is true – not for their conservatism but for their double standard. “Outrage” tries to put the officials on a couch and determine why so many are Republicans. Someone likens their alleged behavior to playground politics, where potential outcasts help bullies persecute kids to keep the bullies off their trail. How could I be gay?, the thinking goes, I’ve voted with my party to block the passage of so many gay-friendly bills. See Closeted politicians stir filmmaker’s ‘Outrage’ Boston Globe
By mid-afternoon, authorities reportedly had someone in custody in connection with the murder of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller at his church on Sunday morning.
So far, we know nothing about the suspect. Though the motive for the crime we can all surmise in light of the vitriolic campaign that has been waged against Tiller for more than two decades by anti-abortion groups.
And if we’re right about that, then we already know the identities of his accomplices.
They include every one who has ever called Tiller’s late term abortion clinic a murder mill.
Who ever called Tiller “Tiller the Killer.”
The groups who spent decades fomenting hate toward a man who simply believed that he was serving a purpose by being one of the few doctors in the country performing late-term abortions.
Hate. Not heated opposition. Not strong disagreement.
But blind hatred.
The kind of hate that would prompt some maniac to take a gun into a church and shoot a man to death in front of friends and family.
His accomplices know they have blood on their hands, which might explain why they were quick to issue statements today expressing disapproval of Tiller’s murder.
Among them, the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.
“Operation Rescue denounces the killing of abortionist Tiller,” read the headline of a new release posted on that group’s website.
Those words drip with hypocrisy.
After all, it was Operation Rescue that coined the nickname “Tiller the Killer.” It was Operation Rescue that was most responsible for ratcheting up the heated rhetoric toward Tiller over the past two decades.
The group issued the following statement today:
“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”
Shocked? Are any of us really shocked that it would come to this after the many years of demonizing one man?
Certainly the group’s founder, Randall Terry, didn’t seem shocked when he issued a statement that, I would suggest, provides a truer sense of how the anti-abortion movement saw today’s events:
”George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller’s killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder.
Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God. We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches.”
I’d suggest that if anyone is in need of salvation right now it’s the anti-abortion movement in Kansas and across the nation.
As Terry’s statement makes clear, the same bullet that killed George Tiller also shattered the moral underpinnings of the movement that inspired its firing.
Today’s Briefing Room MVP: Is this guy! Whoever he is, he expertly brought Jon Stewart’s satire into the briefing room, asking Gibbs how President Obama could withhold detention photos, citing the safety of Americans, whilst refusing to champion the cause of a translator discharged from his duty on the basis of being openly gay.
Ceremonial Gay Marriage with Raymond and Byron, Featured in “13 Love Stories”
A press conference announcing the expansion of the ‘Hyatt Hypocrisy’ campaign to Long Beach Hyatt Hotel is set today in Long Beach, CA. Members of the coalition will participate in a ceremonial gay marriage ceremony, calling on Hyatt management with demands regarding marriage equality.
The Reverend Sunshine Daye, Namaste Science of Mind and Spirit Center/Grand Marshall Long Beach Gay Pride Parade; Tonia Reyes Uranga, Long Beach City Councilwoman; Mike Bonin, Co-Founder of Camp Courage, Courage Campaign; Raymond and Byron, married gay activists featured in “13 Love Stories;” and Kimberlee Woods, Exec. Director Gay and Lesbian Center of Greater Long Beach are expected to attend.
LGBT rights activists, workers, and community leaders will join forces outside the Long Beach Hyatt hotel in support the ongoing fight for marriage equality. The Hyatt Hotel is owned and operated by the Hyatt Corporation, which also operates the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, owned by Doug Manchester. Manchester donated $125,000 to help put California’s Proposition 8 on the ballot last November. The Manchester Grand Hyatt has been at the forefront of the battle over same-sex marriage since leaders of San Diego’s LGBT community called a boycott of the hotel in July.
This event is co-sponsored by the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs & a Healthy Community, San Diego Equality Campaign, Courage Campaign, Equal Roots, Pride at Work and Equality California.
The coalition is not calling for a boycott of the Hyatt Hotel, but pledges to hold the Hyatt Long Beach and its owner and operator, The Hyatt Corporation, accountable for their relationship to Manchester. With this press conference and delegation, labor and gay rights activists will expand the Hyatt Hypocrisy campaign, which is in full swing in San Diego, to Hyatt’s Long Beach Hotel.
KIRBY DICK’S documentary “Outrage“, which opened nationally last week, has turned gay activists’ controversial tactic of exposing closeted public figures—in this case, closeted Republicans perceived as advancing anti-gay policies in their public lives—into a feature-length film. The movie targets an array of elected officials and prominent GOP operators, but of particular interest is its focus on Charlie Crist (pictured with wife), the governor of Florida, who has thrown his hat into the 2010 race for the US Senate, with the support of much of the party establishment.
As if to confirm the film’s thesis that the press go out of their way to help preserve this sort of charade, National Public Radio opted to edit their reviewer’s piece on the movie to remove the names of politicos identified as closeted. At this point, as several others note, this seems rather quaint—and indeed, like an endorsement of the notion that there’s something especially awful about being accused of being gay. Nor do the network’s protestations that they simply avoid traffic in gossip and rumour hold up: They are only too happy to pass along unconfirmed reports about the sex lives of entertainers.
Which is odd, when you think about it, since while the public is clearly interested in the romances of musicians and movie stars, it’s hard to claim there’s a genuine public interest served by poking into their private lives. When it comes to public servants, however, we generally accept that it’s perfectly legitimate to scrutinise their private conduct to the extent it’s relevant to assessing the sincerity of their professed beliefs or the veracity of their public personas. Usually the controversy over “outing” has to do not with elected officials, but with high-level staffers, who have not volunteered themselves for scrutiny in the same way as political candidates. In practice legislative directors and analysts too yield significant public power—legislators are important people, and can’t be bothered with writing and reading bills themselves—but “Outrage” limits itself to indisputable public figures. If the claims about them are so poorly sourced as to constitute plain slander, the film shouldn’t be rewarded with any kind of attention; if they’re at least credible, one may as well save the listeners a Google search and say what they are.
Does a politician’s right to privacy trump the wrong of hypocrisy? Documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick thinks not. He doesn’t care about the sex lives of politicians. But he cares that when a pol’s sexual orientation is secret, often shame and self-hatred color his voting record. Dick is outraged when closeted gay politicians vote against gay marriage, against the right of gays to adopt, and against funding for HIV/AIDS. He’s so outraged that he has made a movie exposing the disconnect between what these men practice and what they preach. Despite its title, Outrage is calm, riveting, and provocative, taking pride in officials who come out and and taking aim at those who remain closeted. The film saves most of its ammunition for the media’s “orchestrated conspiracy,” creating a double bind that perpetuates the double lives of these men. Yes, they are all men, and with the exception of Ed Koch, former New York mayor, all are Republicans. (Why should we care? One, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who recently married a woman, is a leading GOP candidate for president in 2012.) Dick, whose prior documentaries include This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a trenchant and amusing take on the double standard of the motion-picture ratings board, is ambivalent about his role in “outing” closeted politicians. Beltway blogger Michael Rogers, on hand to furnish color commentary on who’s in the closet and why, considers the question of whether outing is a form of sexual McCarthyism. Is it the closeted practice or the outing that perpetuates the climate of shame? Certainly, whenever a James McGreevey or Eliot Spitzer admits his hidden sexual practices, he must take the media walk of shame. Rogers’ answer to the chicken-or-egg question is that the goal of outing is to expose political hypocrisy, not sexual orientation. To this end, Dick provides each closeted politician’s voting record on gay rights; most of them show that he is voting against his own self-interest. See Taking aim at the hypocrisy of closeted politicians Philadelphia Inquirer * Tags = gay mengay newslesbian newstransgenderbisexual
“Outrage,” the biting new political documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick that opens today in Los Angeles, candidly explores the murky intersection between private lives and public conduct.Dick’s thesis is that Washington’s closeted homosexual lawmakers, most of them members of the GOP, staunchly — often stridently — oppose equal rights measures for gays because they’re anxious to conceal their own sexual orientation. He also shares a sentiment voiced by openly gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts who told the filmmakers that his Republican colleagues have “a right to privacy, but there’s no right to hypocrisy.”So in that spirit, the film does what no mainstream cinematic treatment of this issue has done before: It names names.
All the law and policymakers identified have previously been “outed” in print or online, but most either deny being gay or simply decline to comment on privacy grounds. Among those named in “Outrage” are veteran California Rep. David Dreier, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, ex-Louisiana Congressman Jim McCrery, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and ex-Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, whose notorious 2007 arrest on suspicion of lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport men’s room effectively ended his political career.
