McCain's chief of staff about to be outed.

[rm]

I'll write about the politics of outing later, as it's a good topic, but for now, this:

http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2008/09/breaking-news-john-mccains-chief-of.html

It actually makes me terribly sad.

Comments

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the politics of outing, but that just makes me sad, and a little ashamed...

[sethg]

Will this actually have an effect? I remember four years ago, at one of the debates, Kerry referred to Cheney's lesbian daughter, and people criticized Kerry for violating the woman's "privacy". (She was doing gay-specific outreach for Coors, so she was about as un-closeted as you can get.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Two words: campaign manager.

Also it could give McCain an internal staffing headache if someone would bother to let the crazy fundie groups know about it.

[sethg]

The crazy fundie groups have Palin (about whom they will believe nothing negative, because she is Of Their Tribe). Given McCain's medical history, if I were a crazy fundie, I wouldn't care if McCain's campaign manager offered up sacrifices to Moloch, because I would be confident that with God's help, if Palin gets sworn in as Vice-President in 2009, she will be President before 2012.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

Isn't he McCain's Senate Chief of Staff, not campaign manager?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Jesus, I'm working through a fog today. Yeah.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

I noticed because that's what I thought at first.

[nysidra.livejournal.com]

If the comments are to be trusted, the person being outed has been working to subverts GLBT rights. While it's fucked up to attack someone's sexuality, if that person is working to take away the rights of others then, well ...

*sighs*

I look forward to reading your take on this.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I think the person in question is fair game. You work in politics, your personal life is at issue. Period. We all know this. Your personal life and what you advocate play against each other? Yeah, then you're really in for it. On the other hand, I'm rather sick of every group I'm a part of eating its own.

[timiathan.livejournal.com]

Bernie Sanders has no problem being a gay Congressman. There are plenty of constituencies out there that couldn't care less. All the matters is the hypocrisy of it, and the fact that your own supporters don't think your lifestyle has a right to exist. At first the whole political outing thing struck me as wrong, but I've completely changed my mind.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Hello, maelstrom of complicated personal and political beliefs.

As ugly as outing is, you're right. People who work in politics tend to have their lives examined very closely, and people who work to the detriment of their own demographic make themselves acceptable targets.

I'm with you on the sad thing, though. Sad that someone is going to be outed, sad that it's necessary, sad that someone would do what he's doing...

Sigh.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it anywhere but Gawker so far, so maybe it's just being ignored?