Repudiation: LGBTQ Closeted Homophobes

While the current impetus for this blog entry is a particular person, the problem goes far beyond any individual and needs to be addressed on a greater scale.  I don't know if the Mayor of Medford, New Jersey is gay and really don't care about him one way or the other.  He is, sadly, in the news with an allegation of having paid for gay sex while traveling in California.  While I, personally, find prostitution distasteful, it is not my intent to get into the politics of it.

This is important because the Mayor is another in a long string of Republicans, the political party that endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and has been working to prevent equality for the LGBTQ community for ages, who turns out to be gay.  When I looked for information about the Mayor, I saw that he is pro-life, but did not find his personal stand on LGBTQ issues.  That his party opposes equality does not guarantee that he does.  As I started writing, this is the impetus for a bigger discussion.

The Gay Homophobe is a website that documents a dozen Republicans and many clergy who actively worked to harm gays and turned out to be gay.  This phenomenon did not start in 2004, but that is the starting point for that documentation.  Why?  There are many whys that should be considered.

Why are these men in the closet?  They are in the closet because it was politically necessary to appear to be heterosexual if one sought elected office.  Any human is physically capable of sexual acts that are not pleasant to them, and so it has been for these men.  Better to hold one's nose and win the coveted government position than to face the ridicule that goes with being known as a faggot.

Why do these men stay in the closet once they are successful as politicians?  Politicians never stop running for office.  The facade must stay in place or they fear that they will be looking for work.  In fact, for most Republican gay homophobes, this is true.

Why, once in office, do these men attempt to pass laws to limit the rights of gays and lesbians?  They fear being found out so much that they foolishly believe that they can more easily hide if they appear to be virulently opposed to what they really are.  The list at the Gay Homophobe gives the lie to this harmful endeavor.

So now that they have gone to so much effort to hide their sexual orientation, why would they risk throwing away their facade families, their political careers, and their public image for encounters with a rentboy?  Sexual urges, whatever one's sexual orientation, are strong.  Repressed urges are even stronger than those expressed.  I would have sympathy for these men, go through so much personal pain, if they were not inflicting harm upon others in the process.

So long as the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, and the rest (see my groups page and look under hate groups) and religions like Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism continue to create an environment of animosity and fear, I expect the list on the Gay Homophobe will continue to grow.