Lessons From the Sen. Craig Calamity

Fed up with Republican attacks on gay marriage, longtime gay activist Michael Rogers decided in 2004 to fight back.

"It was simply no longer acceptable for me to sit there and watch a political party filled with so many closeted gay men beat up on gay Americans," recalls Rogers.

So, like an Internet-age Howard Beale of "Network" fame, Rogers got "mad as hell" and urged other self-respecting gays to join him in exposing anti-gay politicians who engage in gay sex.

Rogers logged on to Internet chat rooms and set up his own Website — blogactive.com — to inquire about hypocrites. Tips flooded in, but one stood out:

"I've hooked up with Craig."

That Aug. 9, 2004, email message started Rogers on a wild trek to find men claiming to have had sex with Larry Craig, a Republican senator with a long anti-gay history.

On his Website last Oct. 17, Rogers described his gumshoe reporting efforts to confirm the original tip on Craig, concluding that his unnamed sources' "stories are valid."

That posting ignited ethical debates in mainstream print, radio and TV newsrooms, with some outlets deciding to immediately report Rogers' charges, the Idaho Statesman launching its own investigation and others only jumping in 10 months later — after Craig's arrest record surfaced.

Many lessons can be drawn from the sad spectacle of a U.S. senator protesting he's not gay at a news conference called to explain his guilty plea to a misdemeanor in an airport restroom sex sting.

Lesson 1: The political closet is dead. Debating the ethics or value of "outing" is now a waste of breath.

It's a weapon that's here to stay. And in the Internet era — with the pressures of 24-7 news coverage and bloggers often setting the pace — if politicians are gay, they're foolish not to come out before they get shoved out.

Lesson 2: The Republican Party can expect to keep waking up to the nightmare of Mark Foley-Ted Haggard-Larry Craig headlines as long as gay, bisexual or simply sexually confused Republicans, whether pastors or politicians, feel they can't succeed professionally unless they live double lives.

Lesson 3: Gay and bisexual men, many of whom are married, are swept up every day in outrageous police sex stings. Bumping shoes in a men's room stall simply signals interest — it's not actual public sex and shouldn't be treated as criminal. Countless men have had their lives ruined by overzealous cops.

Rather than scrambling to see who can most self-righteously condemn a colleague, senators ought to stop treating Craig as if he's a triple ax murderer, show some compassion and take a clear-eyed look at how little actually happened in that Minnesota airport men's room.

As for activist Rogers, he's shown how much upheaval one guy with zero traditional journalism experience but lots of passion and a computer can do.

For that, he's been dubbed the "most feared man" on Capitol Hill by The Washington Post. And a Yahoo writer remarked that his success in exposing lawmakers makes Capitol Hill "look like Brokeback Mountain."

The Craig scandal, Rogers says, has resulted in 500 new tips. Plenty of self-respecting gay Americans are in no mood to protect closeted anti-gay politicians.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.