On Ed Shultz today... heard it, but can't seem to get it linked. Gay-basher Coburn has a gay political strategist. A little help?

Haven't seen this anywhere, but certainly wouldn't be surprised. Seems like just about every GOP congressman has at least one gay staffer.

here's the audio link
http://audio.wegoted.com/podcasting/102006RogersMike.mp3

here the story link
http://www.blogactive.com/

Thanks for the links, dee. Our school firewall wouldn't let me get to them.

Add to the list: Santorum's chief spokesman is gay..

OK, I'll have to admit that this revelation that a very large percentage of Republican staffers are gay throws me for a bit of a loop. I knew there were a lot of GOP gay staffers, including some very high up. But I didn't realize there were *that* many.

Now, I don't blame the Republicans necessarily for hiring them -- after all, they are a bunch of amoral creeps who will do whatever it takes.

But I'm really PO'ed that there are so many gay men who allow themselves to be totally used. They are like beaten wives with incredibly low self-esteem. Or else they are totally amoral MFs who deserve whatever they get. Either way, it is not a pretty picture.

I read somewhere that one in ten people are Gay.

So what?

One in ten are left-handed too.

So what?

It is the BASHING that is deplorable.

Okay, maybe it's only me, but this seems like the politics of personal destruction to me. Just when does this end?

I think the moral of this story is that you can't expect to be safe in the closet forever. Now, many of these gay GOP staffers are only halfway in the closet -- like Foley, they live their personal lives openly, but are in the closet professionally. But even that house of cards is going to collapse eventually.

The only way for a gay person to be safe is to be outfront and open about it. Otherwise, you are putting your life and/or career at risk.

And who really wants to live with a big secret hanging over their heads?

The sleeze of this has nothing to do with being gay; it has everything to do with Republican hypocracy. How someone can be gay and a Republican says something horrible about both.

OK - I might be missing the boat here. If so, I apologize. I believe the only difference between GLBT and "straight" people happens to be sexual orientation. So what? Doesn't that mean that GLBT individuals would be scattered all over the political board, just as we straight people are? I feel sadness for these individuals that are being "outted". It seems as is if it is fall out from the Foley mess. Individual values are just that...individual. I wouldn't want to deny a gay person the right to identify with the republican party...as much as I deplore it...then anyone else. Does anybody get what I am trying to express here?

Ideally, you would be right. But we don't live in a perfect world. These folks, and many, many, many married "straight" men, live in a dual world. On the one hand they are gay. But their persona is straight. Straight people do not and cannot understand this dichotomy, as straight people do not have to hide their orientation. These people's existence depends on preserving "the secret." It is a burden that, being of an old enough age, I understand. But I don't see how they live under it.

Frankly, in the long run, I think being outed probably is beneficial. It causes short-term pain, but may also be liberating.

BTW, let me add a thought here. I don't have a big problem (except politically, but that's a different story) with openly gay Republicans. The problems are the want-to-have-it-both-ways closet cases. Especially those who act in ways that are harmful to gay people at large. Foley, in reality, wasn't a real hard case in this regard. He had a generally pro-gay voting record (amazing for a Southern Republican), and lived his personal life as a gay man.

YOU JUST HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD! They affiliate with a party who despises them so they have to stay in the closet if they want to keep their job or get re-elected. If they are on staff, and their boss is a homophobe, they have to play the role of gay intolerant or else keep their mouth shut... kinda like Tom Hank's character in 'Philadephia'.

Me personally? I don't think it's my place to out someone- but that would only go so far. If I found out that a person known by me to be gay was harrassing or bashing another gay because of their orientation, I wouldn't hesitate outing them.

The situation, although certainly not as catastrophically severe, is in the same catagory as the 'capos' in the Nazi concentration camps: to improve their own lives marginally, these Jews would do the dirty enforcement work for their Nazi persecutors. Everyone- even the persecutors- became significantly less human for it.

I don't understand how a gay staffer in Santorum's office could sit at their desk every day knowing what Man On Dog really thinks.