Coming Out Party

Several days ago, Minnesota Republican State Senator Paul Koering came out after refusing to back a Republican-led push for an anti-gay amendment, and not only did he come out of the closet—he came out in favor of exposing closeted politicians who support anti-gay policies. (Pam also has a post about this here.)

As a proud Republican legislator who stood alone against his party to take a stand against what he sees as discrimination, Koering’s support for reporting on “hypocritical” gay politicians—including Republicans—is certain to send a shockwave through the Washington gay community.

"Somebody who is possibly in the closet and uses their bully pulpit or their position to bash gay people or to make gay people’s lives difficult...and are in essence leading a double life — people like that need to be exposed for the hypocrite that they are," Koering says.

It’s interesting that someone in Koering’s position supports the outing of anti-gay but closeted politicians, a practice that remains controversial. Of his two comments, that he’s gay and that he supports outing campaigns, it is the latter that many even on the Left will consider the most shocking. Both the Human Rights Campaign and the Log Cabin Republicans are against outing campaigns; Mike Rogers of blogACTIVE, who is leading the charge against closeted anti-gay pols, defends it thusly:

What community is expected to harbor its enemies from within when a president is squarely aiming a constitutional amendment at it during an election campaign? It's not about private lives. They are deciding to use sexual orientation as a weapon…

What community is expected to harbor its enemies from within? Excellent question. It’s utterly unreasonable to expect the LGBT community to protect (and respect) an anti-gay pol’s closeted status when hiding his/her sexual preference could be the very thing allowing him/her to cast votes against gay rights. That some liberals argue against outing shows, I believe, nothing more than an unacknowledged discomfort with homosexuality itself—that it is something to be ashamed of, in some way, and that those who want to hide it, even at the expense of others in the gay community, should be allowed to do so. Consider:

If an anti-choice crusader was discovered to have had multiple abortions, would it be fair game? If a virulent racist was discovered to have sired an illegitimate mixed-race child, would it be fair game? If a proponent of limiting individual freedoms under the cover of defending “moral values” was discovered to be an inveterate gambler, or an adulterer, would it be fair game? If a war hawk was discovered to have avoided the draft, or shirked his duty, would it be fair game?

I believe most people, on either side of the ideological aisle, would answer yes to those questions, and in some cases, we already have, because, as astute political junkies will realize, they’re not all hypothetical.

It is important to realize that in outing campaigns of any kind, whether you’re outing a moralizing philanderer or an anti-gay rights homosexual, the point is to unearth the dirty little secret, and part of some Lefties’ discomfort with outing closeted anti-gay pols is that it seems to point to homosexuality itself as the dirty little secret. That’s wrong. It’s the choice to stay closeted that’s the dirty little secret, and it’s only dirty if you’re a politician voraciously pursuing an anti-gay rights agenda. Hiding in a cozy little closet isn’t anyone’s business, until you start fireproofing it and setting fire to the rest of the house.

Koering did two brave things—he came out, and he endorsed the outing of closeted anti-gay pols.

Days later, outgoing Lawrence, Kansas mayor Mike Rundle, outed himself, too:

Before leaving office, [Rundle] announced he was gay, partly because of a statewide vote in favor of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution banning gay marriage and civil unions for gay couples.

"It is with dignity and pride that I acknowledge that I have been Lawrence mayor and in all likelihood, Lawrence's first gay mayor," Rundle said Tuesday night after finishing his one-year term. His announcement was greeted with applause from the audience and fellow commissioners.

The closet doors are being thrown wide. As gay politicians continue to out themselves, in both parties, it will become increasingly difficult to advocate the denial of equal rights to gay and lesbian constituents—and more important to hold accountable those who would seek to do so while trading in on a presumption of straightness. And, as Koering notes:

“[T]he people that you find who are hollering the loudest and who are putting people down the most are the ones that have the most to hide,” he added. “They’re so uncomfortable in their own skin that they have to tear everybody else down to make themselves feel good.”

If thou dost protest too much, thou might be next to receive an invitation to the Coming Out Party. My recommendation: RSVP with a smile. Evacuate that crappy little closet. Forget the advocacy of the anti-gay legislation your party and/or constituency demands of you. You’ll live better not selling your soul piece by piece to those who would throw you to the wolves if they knew your heart. Fuck ’em. Be free.