Oct 20, 2006  |  By: PHIL LAPADULA  | COMMENTS     

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In 1985, Max Linn participated in a three-month program called Leadership St. Petersburg that focuses on grooming future leaders in business and politics. One of his classmates in the program was Charlie Crist, who is now Florida’s attorney general and the Republican nominee for governor.

Linn, who is running against Crist on the Reform Party ticket, said there were only about 20 people in that 1985 class.

“So you got to know everybody,” he said.

According to Linn, during the course of conversations with Crist he learned that the future attorney general is gay. The two talked about “what would happen if [Crist’s sexual orientation] comes out” during a political campaign, Linn said.

Linn kept quiet about Crist’s supposed gay secret for more than 20 years until he launched his third-party bid for governor. Then, on Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, Linn outed Crist on WFTL, a South Florida radio show.

“Charlie, come out, come out from wherever you are,” Linn said on the radio show.

Crist has repeatedly denied rumors that he is gay. When Miami radio host Jim DeFede asked Crist if he is gay in July, Crist responded, “The point is, I’m not. There’s the answer. How do you like it? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as they say on Seinfeld. But I just happen not to be.”

In January 2005, Crist denied rumors that he is gay during an interview on WQYK, a country music radio station based in Tampa. During the interview, Dave McKay, co-host of WQYK’s “Randy and Dave Show,” asked Crist, “Are you a homo?”

Crist responded, “No man. No, I love women. I mean, they’re wonderful.”

Crist, 49, was married for seven months in 1979, but otherwise has lived a single life.

Repeated calls to Crist’s campaign headquarters late last week and early this week were not returned.

In an interview this week, Linn stood by the statements he made about Crist on the radio show. He said he was a registered Republican for 20 years before recently switching to become an independent. Linn said he contributed money and did volunteer fund-raising for two of Crist’s past campaigns, including his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1998.


A matter of ‘honesty’

Linn said he has no problem with gay candidates running for office, but he thinks they should be open about their sexual orientation. The recent Mark Foley affair and the scandal involving former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevy have highlighted the dangers of running in the closet, he said.

“When you lie about it, that opens you up to extortion and bribery,” Linn said. “That’s what happened with McGreevey.” He referred to McGreevey’s book, in which the former New Jersey governor detailed how his closeted life made him vulnerable to an extortion attempt.

Linn said it’s also “a matter of integrity and honesty” for a candidate to disclose their sexual orientation to voters.

Linn claimed that Crist’s sexual orientation is an open secret in Tallahassee, much like Foley’s was.

“In my opinion, it’s widely known throughout the Republican Party that Crist is gay,” Linn said.

Josh Earnest, communications director for Crist’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Jim Davis, said the Democrat has no plans to make Crist’s sexual orientation an issue.

“We believe the most important issues relate to Crist’s public record and his failure to fight for lower property taxes, lower property insurance rates and better schools,” Earnest said.

He also compared Crist’s record on gay rights against Davis’, noting that Crist supports a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage while Davis opposes such an amendment.

In the post-Foley political landscape, more people are arguing that exposing the truth about closeted gay politicians is in the best interests of the public. For example, in an Oct. 13 opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times, gay columnist Michelangelo Signorile blamed the media for not outing Foley.

“The media enabled a man overwhelmed by the destructiveness of the closet to ultimately implode in the halls of Congress,” Signorile wrote in the column.

Will the Foley fallout cause more voters to have doubts about Republican candidates who are even rumored to be gay, regardless of whether or not they are?

Andy Eddy, communications director for the Broward Log Cabin Republicans, doesn’t think so. First of all, Eddy ...