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By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG COMMENTS
 
How much privacy can a public official really expect when that person posts personal information on a gay Internet website?
It really depends on who you're talking about.
After the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an article about Stephen Johnson, a gay Board of Education member, posting an online profile on Manhunt.net, he received an outpouring of support. Many parents and school officials said his private life is irrelevant to his job as a Board of Education member.
As the Internet continues to grow and more people become web-savvy, journalists, activists and ethicists will wrestle with the question of privacy in the public domain for years to come.
Gay personal sites warn users that anyone can access their information. Gay.com's privacy policy states, "By choosing to use these areas, you understand and agree that anyone may access and forward any information about you that is contained in or that you post to those areas."
"There is a fair amount of complexity and nuance" when reporting on private lives, said Kelly McBride, an ethicist at the Poynter Institute, a media think-tank in St. Petersburg, Fla. "Newspapers should be as precise about the indiscretions as possible."
Jim West, the mayor of Spokane, Wash., was forced from office in a recall vote earlier this month after newspaper coverage about his private life that was clearly appropriate, McBride said. Earlier this year, the Spokesman-Review broke the story that West had met younger men online for sex. He had offered them trips to Washington, D.C., and internships with his office.
In the case of Mayor West, McBride said, "it was this abuse of power."
"The man lived outrightly as heterosexual, legislated against gay friendly causes," she said. "I don't think there's any question that this was newsworthy. It's in the public interest to know how he was using his power."
In the case of Stephen Johnson, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an article about a personal ad he posted on Manhunt.net, a sexually explicit online cruising site for gay men.
In December, after the article was published, Johnson stayed on the school board but stepped down as chair. A small group of ministers called for him to resign completely but later backed off from their demands. Many parents and school officials have supported Johnson, who told the Blade he never hid his sexual orientation, although it had never been reported and was not widely known.
Uncovering a person's private life is important when there's a question of hypocrisy or credibility, according to journalists and activists.
That was the case in Spokane. Mayor West tried to legislate against sex for years, even introducing a bill to criminalize sexual contact between minors. West supported a 1986 bill that would have banned gays from working in schools, day care centers and some state agencies.
Activist Keith Boykin said outing a public figure is only appropriate when they have been publicly anti-gay. Simply being conservative is not enough reason to violate a person's privacy, he said. Boykin has launched a campaign to uncover information about anti-gay preachers' private lives.
"If someone is a public figure saying or doing things that are publicly anti-gay and he happens to be gay as well, it's fair game for the media to raise the issue of their sexuality," he said. "They don't have the right to remain in the closet if their actions are hurting other people."
Michaelangelo Signorile, a gay journalist based in New York, agreed that newspapers were right to report on West because of the contradictions between his private and public life.
"I felt with him as a politician railing against gay people, publicly seeking sex with men [it was right to report it]," he said. "He's using his office to lure sex from these people, promoting them to jobs. It's a clear cut one."
However, he said, Internet activity, while not private, often is about fantasy, and the person may not be living out what they say. But because West identified himself, he forfeited his right to privacy.
"The moment he did that, he no longer retained his privacy," he said. "It no longer becomes private."
Another person who gave up his right to privacy was James Guckert, who writes under the name Jeff Gannon, Signorile and others said.
After Gannon asked White House press secretary Scott McClellan a question using inaccurate information from Rush Limbaugh, journalists and bloggers began wondering how he gained access to White House press conferences. What intrigued journalists even more was how McClellan passed over veteran White House correspondents for Gannon.
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