printed originally in the washington post, this story was re-run in
today's sydney morning herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/out-of-the-closet-and-into-the-fire/2007/09/07/1188783496484.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
OUTING raises ethical questions, but the fact remains that gay and
LGBT people continue to have damaged lives because of laws supported
by some people who are gay and closeted.
kenni
--
Out of the closet and into the fire
September 8, 2007
He has the scalp of a senator and more in his sights, but critics say
Mike Rogers is harming the gay cause, writes Jose Antonio Vargas
AdvertisementAdvertisement
Soon a new name will pop up on Mike Rogers's hit list. Larry Craig
wasn't the first on my list, the gay blogger says. And the Idaho
senator, who announced his resignation last weekend, won't be the last.
Rogers, sitting on a club chair in his Washington apartment, is
basking in the attention. For three years he has been a feared one-man
machine, outing, he says, nearly three dozen senior political and
congressional staffers, White House aides and, most damagingly,
members of Congress.
On Capitol Hill, a typical phone call from Rogers - Are you gay?
he'd ask - is a call from Satan himself, says a former high-ranking
congressional staffer whose name is on the list.
Rogers reasons that there's justice behind his tactics, odious,
outrageous and over-the-line as they might seem to his detractors.
In Rogers's mind, if you're against gay rights in your public life and
you live a secret homosexual life, all bets are off.
In 2004, one of the first public officials he targeted was
then-Virginia congressman Ed Schrock, because of his voting record on
such issues as gays in the military, same-sex marriage and gay
adoption. In 2000, for instance, Schrock told the Virginian-Pilot:
You're in the showers with them, you're in the bunk room with them,
you're in staterooms with them. Schrock decided not to run for
re-election because of the rumours.
In 2005, Rogers blogged about Mark Foley, months before his
inappropriate instant-messages to male congressional pages - high
school students employed as assistants - became public and he was
forced to resign. The former Florida congressman had a varied record,
sometimes voting in favour of gay rights, but at one point voting
against adoption by same-sex couples.
And last October, Rogers says, he targeted Craig, months before an
undercover sex sting in a Minneapolis airport men's room, and before
the Idaho Statesman started its months'-long investigation. Two years
earlier, Rogers notes, the three-term senator had voted for the failed
constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Hypocrisy, Rogers sneers, plain, hate-filled hypocrisy.
In coming months, he plans to post the names of a few more closeted
Congress members on his blog, he says, all of them Republicans. There
are 33 names on his published list, most of them men, 30 from the
Republican Party. That fact reveals more about the Republicans, he
says, than about him. Although a registered Democrat, he says he is
bipartisan.
I write about closeted people whose records are anti-gay, he says.
If you're a closeted Democrat or Republican and you don't bash gays
or vote against gay rights to gain political points, I won't out you.
The Craig scandal has gripped the capital. For many gays, it harks
back to times when closeted homosexuals were arrested in the city's
cruising spots for disorderly behaviour.
We, as a society, are afraid of talking about two men having sex,
Rogers says. Lesbian sex? 'That's hot!' But gay male sex? Well,
nothing makes straight men more uncomfortable.
Look at the reaction from the right, the double standard
Take
[David] Vitter, the senator who's on the DC madam's [operator of an
escort service] list
Where were the calls for his resignation?
Yes, Craig pleaded guilty to a crime but that's not really the reason
why they're throwing him under the bus.
Here comes the other h word. Not just hypocrisy, but homophobic.
Rogers, 43, came out in his early 20s and has spent the bulk of his
life working for gay organisations. Although his blog isn't his main
source of income - he was a fund-raising consultant and runs Page One
News Media, a gay-oriented online company - the website has turned
into more than a full-time job. Since its inception, the blog has
become a must-read among certain sets in Washington.
The way Rogers tells it, his online activism began when the
Republican-controlled Senate scheduled a vote against same-sex
marriage in June 2004. The internet has been a boon for gay
socialising and organising, and one of the first things Rogers did was
post a profile on the popular site Gay.com that read: If you're
against the Federal Marriage Amendment and know someone who's
closeted, send that information to me.
Rogers investigates his tips by working the phones; on rare occasions,
he travels to meet
