She's totally a closeted lesbian. So says my very trusted tipster who adds this about Montana state GOP Rep. Kristin Hansen: "She lives with a woman who she introduces to others as her 'friend' but has confirmed to a handful of people is her partner. The partner's ex has also been telling people what's up." Hansen was first elected to office last year with the backing of the Tea Party.
Last month Hansen failed in her attempt to issue a statewide repeal of all local LGBT rights in Montana, a law that would have only affected the small town of Missoula, the one place in the state with LGBT anti-discrimination protections. According to my source, Hansen will be outed at an upcoming meeting of University of Montana students.
Days after being released on bail for federal corruption charges, anti-gay and newly outed NY state Sen. Carl Kruger returned to Albany where his fellow lawmakers are now treating the once powerful Kruger like the steaming cesspool of a human that he is. The New York Times issues this blistering observance:
Mr. Kruger, his head down, again declined to speak to reporters. He piled into an elevator and stood, completely silent, as the elevator stopped, floor by floor, and people got on and off. Then he took an underground passageway from the Legislative Office Building to the Capitol. No one spoke to him. People stared, the way people stare when trying to seem as if they are not staring. Then another elevator — which seemed to take an afternoon to open its doors. Mr. Kruger’s every action was watched, his every embarrassment noted. On the Senate floor, he had to figure out where he was supposed to sit. The loss of his committee rank also lost him a prominent place. Mr. Kruger instead slouched in a seat in the back.
For now Kruger will remain in office while he and his wretched gynecologist boyfriend await trial on bribery and money laundering charges. He has been stripped of his post as the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, an office typically filthy with favor-seeking lobbyists as the legislature hammers out the budget. Yesterday he was to issue an apology to the Senate for the "distraction" of his arrest, but that speech was canceled after many refused to attend.
The Australian site SameSame reports that an Indian television has conducted a "sting" to out men using a gay dating site.
The report from news channel TV9 Telugu shows people searching through gay youths profiles on online dating/social networking website planetromeo.com. The men found on the website were labeled ‘deviants’ and photos of them, along with personal information such as names, were clearly displayed. Extremely private information about one user – including his penis size, fetishes, and his preferred sexual position – was shown in the report. The item continued with phone-call ‘gay-stings’ of two of the website’s users whose profiles and faces were also shown. During the calls an investigator posed as a planetromeo.com user and the men are covertly asked questions about their sexual lives and preferences. Homosexual activity in India, while legalised in 2009, still remains a cultural taboo within wider Indian society and government.
Outraged Indian activists have told the station that it will be held responsible for any reprisals or physical attacks made against the men it outed. The station has since removed the report from its official YouTube channel, but others have reposted the clip. An English translation of the video can be found at the above link.
A Ugandan court has ruled that local media may not name "suspected homosexuals" and has awarded damages to those named by Rolling Stone, a newspaper unrelated to the U.S.-based music title.
The request for the ban was filed by three people from gay rights group, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), whose pictures and towns of residence were published in a previous issue of Rolling Stone. High court judge, Vincent Musoke-Kibuuke also ruled that the petitioners' lives were threatened since the story exposed them to potential attacks from vigilantes, Onyango said. The petitioners were awarded 1.5 million Uganda shillings (about 650 dollars or 500 euros) and Rolling Stone was ordered to pay all legal fees incurred by SMUG. "We think that the compensation is on the low side, but the principles here are very important," Onyango said.
In a previous hearing, the judge suggested that Uganda's law against homosexuality, defined as "carnal knowledge against the order of nature," should be re-examined. In a series of issues last year, Rolling Stone outed more than 20 people whom its editor believed were gay. The editor, undergraduate student Giles Muhame, said he found some of the photos that were published on a gay dating website. The high court case centred on one story headlined "Hang Them", in which an unidentified Evangelical pastor called for the execution of gay rights campaigners.
Wonkette reports that outing kingpin Mike Rogers finally has the goods on Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s favorite lifelong bachelor and former military prosecutor, is always reliably against homosexuals having any basic human rights in America because Lindsey’s a Republican, y’all. Anyway, famous outer-of-self-hating-queers Mike Rogers says he’s got pictures of one of Lindsey’s boy toys leaving Lindsey’s house. This would be SHOCKING because come on, everybody knows Republicans cannot be gay because Jesus did not make gays.
Mike Rogers has a 100% track record for correctly outing anti-gay closet cases. He's never been proven wrong.
Joy Behar and her panel discuss Carrie Fisher's outing of John Travolta, who has hired a legal team to fight other recent tabloid allegations about his sexuality. Bravo's Andy Cohen calls Fischer's comments "uncool."
On SiriusOutQ at 2pm today, Michelangelo Signorile hosts a special discussion on the ethics of outing. The show will be broadcast live from the convention of the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.
Our panel includes Mike Rogers of Blogactive, who was at the forefront of reporting on Senator Larry Craig, Congressman Mark Foley, Ken Mehlman and many others; LZ Granderson, columnist for ESPN Page 2, host of the web-based ESPN360 talk show “Game Night” and a frequent commentator for CNN.com; and Michael Triplett, a contributor for the media analysis site Mediaite, assistant chief of correspondents for the Bureau of National Affairs, and a board member of NLGJA. They and other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender NLGJA members in the audience, journalists from across the country, will be participating, asking questions and commenting, as will be listeners from coast to coast calling in.
You can stream the show online for free. (Registration required.)
With yesterday's coming out of Ken Mehlman comes further validation of the important work of outing kingpin Mike Rogers, who had been telling us about Mehlman for years. Rogers prefers to call what he does reporting, rather than outing, because when any politician is secretly doing the very thing he's railing against on Capitol Hill, that's fucking news. When Rogers tipped the world yesterday that Mehlman was about to officially come out, the Atlantic was forced to rush out its story two days early. That makes one wonder if the story hadn't originally been timed for the infamous "Friday news dump" where so many damaging-to-pols stories end up. So we thank Mike for that too and give him props for his years-long unblemished 100% correct track record in exposing America's asshats.
CNN immediately edited this exchange for the west coast broadcast, removing all mention of Mehlman's gayness. Mehlman resigned the next day, but planted stories that the move had been planned for a long time.
"I should begin with an apology. I am sincerely sorry for the votes I cast and the actions I took that harmed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Just as important to me, I am sorry for not stepping forward and speaking up as an elected official on behalf of equal treatment for all people. For nearly 26 years, the voters in my area of California trusted me as their elected representative. I look back now knowing there is so much more I could have done to inform the public about LGBT people and to fight for equal rights under the law. Regrettably and selfishly, I took another path in my life and political career—I chose to conceal who I truly am and to then actually vote against the best interests of people like me. All this was done because I was afraid–terrified, really–that somehow I would be revealed as gay.
"My past actions harmed gay people. In fact, all people are harmed when there is unequal treatment of anyone under the constitution and laws of our country. I do not believe in discrimination, and yet my votes advanced unequal of treatment of gay people and promoted the suspicion and fear that limits people from being forthright and accepted in society.
"Now, from what I have lived and learned, I want to do the best that I can to advance equality and freedom for all people. Given the shame and confusion that many feel over their sexual orientation, perhaps my situation can serve as an example of both the harm that can come from denial and fear, and the opportunity to try to make things right." - Recently outed CA Sen. Roy Ashburn, continuing his campaign of apologies with a lengthy essay for Gay Politics.
"The biggest problem with concealing your sexuality is walling yourself off from the people closest to you. Keeping secrets is not fair to anyone. It denies friends and family the chance to know who you really are. I realise now that being open about your sexuality is not about pleasing the public. It is about being honest with the people who know you best and love you the most. Looking back, I wish I could have been more truthful with those closest to me, especially to my mother.
"I should have realised that leading a double life was also not practical. I thought I could protect my secret as long as I was careful about who I trusted and who I spoke to. But that was unrealistic. People guessed, people knew, and eventually it was only a matter of time before it all had to come out." - Former BP chairman John Browne, writing in the Guardian. In 2007 Browne resigned after his "kept boy" sold his story to a British tabloid. Browne now says being outed was a blessing in disguise.
After a Chicago television reporter confronted Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) about his fabricated military record, she pressed him about being outed last week by blogger Mike Rogers. And that went down in an amusing fashion.
Reporter: You said you are not gay? Why do the bloggers keep saying that?
Kirk: Because I guess I got divorced, but I hope to remarry one day.
Citing his recent vote against the repeal of DADT, noted outing blogger Mike Rogers has lowered the boom on Rep. Mark Kirk, the Illinois Republican currently running for Barack Obama's old Senate seat. Today Rogers blogs:
Within hours of the DADT repeal vote I was contacted by two people who knew Kirk from his college days. "In law school in DC everyone knew Mark was gay," the first source told me. I explained that the information was intriguing, it would not be enough to go on. He continued, "But I had sex with him a number of times." Well, now we're onto something I thought. "Could someone verify for me that you knew Kirk and went to school with him?" I asked. "Yes" was the swift reply. "Could you recall personal details about Kirk that others may not know?" "Yes," he said. And he did. The next source claimed to have gone to undergraduate school with Kirk. I asked for proof that he and Kirk were in school together and once that was shared with me, I met with the source. The source introduced me to a man whom had also been friends with Kirk college. They both shared with me their interactions with Kirk, including one sexual in nature. The source who claimed to have sex with Kirk described personal details about the House, um, er, "member." The description was the same as the first source.
Rogers goes on to recount having met Kirk personally at a 2004 party largely attended by gay men. It should be noted that Kirk has one of the more positive records on LGBT rights and recently earned an 88% score from the Human Rights Campaign. Last June he signed on as a House co-sponsor of ENDA.
Rogers has a 100% track record when it comes to these outings and played a large part in last year's feature documentary, Outrage.
RELATED: In late December, wingnut GOP Senate candidate Andy Martin also accused Kirk of being gay, but in a typically nasty fashion. Joining Martin's ugly campaign to out Kirk was arch-homophobe Peter LaBarbera.
UPDATE: Kirk had been claiming that he was the Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year for 1998. Last week the Washington Post revealed that was untrue and that a similar award had in fact been given to Kirk's entire unit. Kirk then said it was a mistake on the part of his biographer, but the below 2002 video shows him claiming such at a congressional hearing. Kirk's Democratic opponent, Alexi Giannoulias, has leapt upon the issue, accusing Kirk of "lying or embellishing his military record."
"My practice in my entire political career when it came to gay issues was to prevent any kind of spotlight from being shined my way, because I was in hiding. So casting any kind of vote might, could in some way, lead to my secret being revealed. That was terrifying to me. It was paralyzing. So I cast some votes that have denied gay people of their basic, equal treatment under the law, and I'm not proud of it. I'm not going to do that again." - California state Sen. Roy Ashburn, admitting what we know to be true of any anti-gay politician. Welcome to the light, Roy. We look forward to you making amends.
VIDEO: NBC Los Angeles talks to Ashburn about his transformation.
CA state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R), who was outed earlier this year after being arrested for DUI leaving a Sacramento gay bar, may slowly be seeing the light. Yesterday he voted for one of the two LGBT rights bills put before him and talked about being gay while doing so.
Two months after announcing he was gay, state Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield discussed his sexuality on the Senate floor and cast votes on two separate gay-rights bills. Ashburn was the only Republican senator to vote in support of allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, but he also voted against a bill that could remove a political obstacle to proposals to legalize same-sex marriage. Ashburn then took the unusual step of publicly explaining his votes on the Senate floor. "I would not have been speaking on a measure dealing with sexual orientation ever prior to the events that have transpired in my life over the last three months,’’ Ashburn told his colleagues. "However, I am no longer willing or able to remain silent on issues that affect sexual orientation and the rights of individuals. And so I am doing something that is quite different and foreign to me, and it’s highly emotional.’’
The resolution supporting the repeal of DADT passed easily. Ashburn's LGBT rights track record was previously a big fat gay goose egg. He will be term-limited out of office this year.
Activist and SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile says that it's time that the gay community stops cloaking anti-gay politicians that are known to us to be gay themselves. Writing for the Advocate, Signorile uses the recent example of California state Sen. Roy Ashburn, who was outed by West Sacramento's openly gay mayor on Facebook, although few took notice.
West Sacramento’s Mayor Cabaldon notes that unnamed gay and lesbian lobbyists and other prominent LGBT people knew Ashburn was gay and protected him. He told me that several of these individuals angrily complained to him after his Facebook update and after he criticized Ashburn in the media following the state senator’s arrest. Those who protected Ashburn were selling out the community. In that sense, they’re just as guilty as Ashburn. Every gay person who knows the truth about closeted antigay politicans has a responsibility to speak up, as Mike Rogers does so fearlessly. This is no longer an issue that is debatable. No one’s privacy deserves respect when that person is working against our rights, and none of us should be complicit in keeping the secrets of these detestable individuals. The message has to be sent loud and clear: You are either with us or you are against us.
To paraphrase NYC's MTA, if you see something, motherfucking SAY something!
Everybody's least favorite homosexual, the publicly shamed Dr. George Rekers, has resigned from the board of directors of NARTH, the nation's most repulsive "ex-gay" organization. Talking Points Memo has the story:
NARTH vice president of operations David Pruden tells TPMmuckraker that Rekers first offered his resignation last Thursday, and officially resigned today. NARTH is a group that promotes the idea that homosexuality can, and should, be cured. Pruden also denied a report in the Miami New Times that NARTH had been involved in helping Rekers respond to the media. "NARTH has never had any role in advising Dr. Rekers except to suggest that if he is innocent he needs to get a good lawyer," Pruden said in an email. "He has friends who are members of NARTH and they are free to talk with, advise, and needless to say, they are free to help him in any way they might select." "NARTH as an organization has taken no official role in this other than asking him to explain to us what has happened and in accepting his resignation," he said.
Rekers' name and photo still appears on NARTH's list of officers.
UPDATE: On his personal site, Rekers acknowledges his resignation and pledges to move forward with a defamation lawsuit.
"I am immediately resigning my membership in NARTH to allow myself the time necessary to fight the false media reports that have been made against me. With the assistance of a defamation attorney, I will fight these false reports because I have not engaged in any homosexual behavior whatsoever. I am not gay and never have been.” (May 11, 2010)
Yesterday a source told me that Rekers had decided against legal action. The above could just be blustering. Or my source could be wrong.
JMG reader Stephen wonders if the LGBT community shouldn't extend an olive branch and a rainbow flag to homophobes like Dr. George Rekers after they've been outed. He writes:
In light of this most recent outing of an anti-gay conservative, I've had some thought that I'd like to share with you. Last summer, I saw that great documentary, Outrage, that actively outed several politicians and, then, I agreed with its justification. The bigoted, but closeted gay, politicians harmed us, so we'll ruin them so they can't do it anymore. However, now, I think there's a big flaw in this: when we get one and ruin them, trash talk them, and alienate them from both us and their conservative friends, it speaks volumes to all the others. Every time we shame and express our outrage at these people, we could be inspiring fear and be pushing others further into the closet. In fact, when we assassinate the character of these people, we are doing just what they would do to us. I well understand the pain that people like Dr. Rekers have brought to our community, but vengeance only engenders more pain. Would we fuel such hatred with our own?
Ironically, I think we should take a leaf out of Jesus' (real) message: forgiveness. If we, as a community, welcomed these people and forgave their political trespasses against us, I think it will demonstrate a much better side of our community and actually help others follow in the path of coming out and repenting their old homophobic ways. Moreover, I think it would help our community demonstrate the irony that, in some ways, the "Christians" follow less of Jesus' teachings than us. I'm not saying we should excuse Dr. Rekers right now. From what I understand, he isn't as of yet knocking on our door asking for an accepting shoulder to cry on or for a rainbow flag to wave, but at the same time, I think we ought to make it clear that when he's ready, we'll have it for him.
One could make the case that an outed notorious homophobe could be a powerful ally. And certainly many survivors of the "ex-gay" movement are today advocating fiercely for LGBT causes. But could we forgive Dr. George Rekers (or someone like him) if he came to us tomorrow as a repentant homophobe and openly gay man? Should we?
She's totally a closeted lesbian. So says my very trusted tipster who adds this about Montana state GOP Rep. Kristin Hansen: "She lives with a woman who she introduces to others as her 'friend' but has confirmed to a handful of people is her partner. The partner's ex has also been telling people what's up." Hansen was first elected to office last year with the backing of the Tea Party.
