Originally Posted by pigglet

I'm closer to kutulu's position in this one. I'd really have to know a lot more about the guy - not only his voting record, but also the content of his public speeches. If his rhetoric and his voting record are consistently anti-gay, I can see some merit to outing him. I'm not saying that's the case here, but you take a public office and push a political / social agenda, then you put yourself in a position to have such hypocracy exposed.

Its not just the affect of the voting record on gay rights, its also if the content of a politician's speeches further an atmosphere of hostility towards gays. I think that under "normal" circumstances, outing someone for being homosexual is repulsive; but your "normal" person doesn't affect the prevailing attitudes of hundreds or thousands of people if they are brazenly in support of homophobic positions.

Let's say that the United States passed a law stating that all Muslims had to wear identifying arm bands, and that they could only travel on special buses, planes, and roads, couldn't gather in groups larger than 10, and would be deported for failure to follow these rules. The law is highly debated, and a politican who voted for the rule and / or publicly spoke out as anti-Muslim or in support of anti-Muslim legistlation..was found to be a closet Muslim. You don't think that's germane?