Larry you bad bad boy…The example set by folks like Ted Haggard, Jim McGreevey and Republican Sen. Larry Craig exemplify perfectly the reasons I think outing public figures can be necessary. Hiding behind a cloud of moral superiority makes it easier for them to deny rights to “the other.” If you haven’t heard about Craig, the most recent outed hypocrite, he was the Idaho senator caught soliciting the nasty in a men’s room at the Minneapolis airport.
The senator, who opposes gay marriage and protections against hate crimes, then tries to pretend that he only plead guilty to get it all behind him and that he’s really innocent. That’s just what Boy George said!
Another group that often displays moments of hypocrisy (in my humble opinion of course) the fiscally-concerned-and-everything-else-be-darned Log Cabin Republicans have scampered away from the issue. And though they still believe that outing distracts from “…the real work of convincing more Americans to support equality for gay and lesbian people,” they also believe living in the closet “…leads to destructive, harmful, and reckless behavior.” I rather thought that we, as Americans, try to reserve those qualities for the celebrities, attempting to elect only those who are honest and responsible, which leads me back down the hypocrisy road (wait, did you mean Craig or the LCRs?). Well, exactly, ladies and gentlemen, exactly. If you’re going to have a little bathroom fun at least admit you like it.
For a little more fun here’s a video demonstration from CBS. Nice.
