Jun 18, 2004  |  By: ADRIAN BRUNE  | COMMENTS     

The proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage has revived a debate over the ethics of outing those closeted gay men and lesbians in a position to affect public policy.

On the day after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) reportedly told Christian leaders that the Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment in July, well-known D.C. activist John Aravosis issued a call for the names of gay congressional members, staffers and their associates to publicly out them.

“If you’re gay and you support making sexual orientation a political weapon, then your sexual orientation is fair game, and you will be outed to the rafters,” Aravosis said.

It’s a campaign predicted months ago by Steve Gunderson, the former Republican Congressman who came out a decade ago after facing outing threats, and one that other former members of the Austin 12 — the group of gay Republicans who met with President Bush during the 2000 campaign — tried to prevent.

But the current political climate and the renewed anger of gay rights advocates has once again forced open the Pandora’s box, according to Gunderson.

“I think it will get uglier than anything we saw on AIDS,” Gunderson told Newsweek magazine in March. “This country will be more polarized than we’ve been in decades.” He did not return repeated phone calls from the Blade.

Aravosis’s battle cry comes two weeks after another vocal activist, Mike Rogers, started phoning closeted gay aides at the offices of congressional members who backed the FMA. He began by urging them to come out in an effort to persuade their members to change their stance on the contentious amendment.

If they pledged to take a more personal role on gay rights, Rogers said, the conversation ended. If they didn’t, he placed calls to the chief of staff in that member’s office or to another senior aide.

“I asked them how their congressman could justify supporting the FMA knowing that his long-term aide was gay,” said Rogers, a former staff member of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. “Those in public positions who support homophobia or work for someone who supports homophobia can no longer secretly enjoy the protections the gay community has afforded them.”

Rogers said he has so far contacted six offices that he says employ gay aides on both the Senate and the House sides of Capitol Hill. As he gathers more information, he said, he will phone more.

The office of Rep. Charles Stenholm (D-Texas) took one of Roger’s first calls and reacted the most forcefully by filing a harassment report with the Capitol police, according to Rogers.

Proclaiming himself as a liberator of closeted gay staffers, Rogers says he outed one of Stenholm’s former staffers, a lesbian who worked very closely with the Texas politician. Both the aide, who left Washington several months ago, and Stenholm’s office declined to comment on Rogers’ act, but Rogers said police involvement only ensured that Stenholm discovered what he has called the ex-aide’s hypocrisy.

Stenholm, the co-chair of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats, has firmly backed the Federal Marriage Amendment.

“This isn’t a partisan issue, and it is not a witch hunt,” Rogers said. “Being outed is an empowerment tool. I’m telling the truth to save their lives.”

Rogers’ personal crusade has motivated fellow converts, including Aravosis, and they have also started their own efforts to expose gay aides. A widely circulated flier at last week’s Capital Pride festival encouraged attendees to e-mail an anonymous Hotmail account with the names of closeted senators, representatives and staff members.

“Do not protect homophobes and the people who keep them in power,” the leaflet read.

Some warn outings can backfire
On the Hill, sentiment is split over outing.

Gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he endorses the practice in limited circumstances.

“I am not inclined to do it, but I think if the congressman is rabidly anti-gay, it’s appropriate,” Frank said. “You don’t have a right to be a hypocrite; you don’t have a right to exempt yourself from the negative things you do to other people.”

Frank has said he came out voluntarily in May 1987, two years before facing a scandal involving a gay escort with whom Frank was associated while still closeted.

Some Hill aides, especially those who are gay, have taken a stronger stance against outing their ranks. Many oppose outing in all circumstances, labeling it as “ridiculous” and “ineffective.”

“Most likely you’re hurting the cause by alienating a gay staffer or potentially removing that staffer from ...