Three Down, Many to Go?

Another GOPer outed: RNC's CFO

It's hard to fathom, but in the last month or so, three prominent Republicans have been forced out of the closet. One, Congressman Schrock, promptly dropped his bid for re-election. Another, Congressman David Dreier, Chairman of the House Rules Committee--and supporter of all manner of anti-gay legislation--appears to be riding the storm out so far, but the publicity could put a damper on his rising-star career within the party. And today, we get the news that Jay Banning, who has been directing the Republican National Committee for two decades, is also gay. Are they all so self-loathing that they can't bring themselves to speak up against the way their party is treating them?

What's more disturbing to me, however, is that the mainstream media refuses to pick these stories up and run with them. When the Drudge Report alleges that John Kerry had an affair years ago, the media pounce. People have affairs all the time. Isn't the notion that an anti-gay Congressman, or the head of fundraising for a political party that wants to put discrimination in the Constitution, is secretly gay a bigger, more interesting story? If it's fair game to report on this issue at all, and fair game to report whatever daffy thing Rick Santorum has to say, it's surely fair game to report the fact that people are talking about the fact that some of the Republicans who speak out the loudest against gay rights happen to be gay themselves.