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1 Sep 2009

Gay activist outs South Carolina politician

Gay-interest blogs in the US have widely reported that blogger-activist Mike Rogers has outed South Carolina lieutenant governor Andre Bauer on his blog.

Blogger-activist Mike Rogers who appeared in Outrage, a documentary about closeted gay politicians who vote against gay rights in public, has written in his blog that South Carolina lieutenant governor Andre Bauer is gay.

Rogers wrote in the same post that he has previously outed Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) before their ‘activities’ came to light.

Bauer, who is unmarried, reportedly told The State newspaper in June that he was not gay.

"One word, two letters. 'No.' Let’s go ahead and dispel that now," he said in the interview. "Is Andre Bauer gay? That is now the story. We're a long way from where we were a week ago. We have diverted what the real topic should be here: Is the governor capable for carrying on the duties for which he was elected?"

Rogers wrote on his blog on Aug 31 that he has been told by reliable sources that Bauer has reportedly flirted with several gay men, and one source claims to have had sex with him on two separate occasions.

He had also spoken to two former employees of Bauer who served on his staff between 2004 and 2007 that Bauer had spent hours alone with men - who had no official business with the lieutenant governor - in hotel rooms on a total of three occasions.”

The 40-year-old Republican Party member has been in the spotlight having pressured Gov. Mark Sanford to resign after the latter was caught in his own sandal after he was forced to admit to having an affair with a woman Argentina. In a letter calling for Sanford’s resignation, Bauer said the “serious misconduct… with lingering questions and continuing distractions make it virtually impossible for our state to solve the serious problems we are facing without a change of leadership.”

Bauer is said to possess a lengthy antigay voting record and supported an amendment to ban gay marriage in the state.

While Outrage doesn't exactly out anyone as the politicians under fire in the film already have been written about in gay and mainstream media, the topic of forcefully outing public figures has been fiercely debated in the media.

Outrage, which was released this year and directed by Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated, 2006 and Oscar-nominated Twist of Faith, a 2004 documentary about a man who confronts the trauma of past sexual abuse as a boy by a Catholic priest), describes itself as delivering a “searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to,” “the harm they've inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media's complicity in keeping their secrets.”

"There is a right to privacy but not a right to hypocrisy," openly gay House Representative Barney Frank ( D-Mass.) says in the film.


United States

Reader's Comments

1. 2009-09-01 21:34  
I've made it a point to adhere to The (Barney) Frank Rule:

"a closeted person who uses their power, position, or notoriety to hurt LGBT people can be outed"

That's all I need.
2. 2009-09-02 00:23  
what a disgrace to the gay community (if proven true) ...shameless and lowlass ...
3. 2009-09-02 00:40  
"There is a right to privacy but not a right to hypocrisy" - House Representative Barney Frank

Can't agree with that statement more. So sad it's the closeted freakshows with issues with themselves that are dragging our community down.
4. 2009-09-02 00:40  
"There is a right to privacy but not a right to hypocrisy" - House Representative Barney Frank

Can't agree with that statement more. So sad it's the closeted freakshows with issues with themselves that are dragging our community down.
5. 2009-09-02 00:46  
Caught in between about this. It was gross of Andre Bauer. It was also gross of Mike Rogers. Still, both are justifiable - somewhat.
6. 2009-09-02 02:35  
Is he gay? Who cares? Is he a hypocrite and ashamed of being gay and by keeping that a "secret" undermining the gay human rights movement? Yes, seems so.

Of course, the SC Governor is a total crazy heterosexual nut with that Argentina stuff and the woman, the lying ect.

Now the LT Gov seems to be doing a similar thing. Lying to keep power.

I am American and proud of that, but this behavior is shameful.
7. 2009-09-02 11:16  
Despicable ! I am a gay man and I endured many personal struggles in accepting my homosexuality ( hardly a unique experience ) and to think that some arrogont self righteous prick thinks it is right to "out" another gay ( or maybe not gay) person is outrageous and despicable.

There are many reasons any person may choose to be closeted ( assuming he is gay ) including family issues, career issues or simply a basic choice to live life privately, as I do.

I choose to be out to some people, but not to all and I have no problem with a gay man or woman that is openly or privately gay and votes against the gay activisit agenda. All gay people do not support the misguided concept of gay marriage and other issues which are being co-opted by a self serving group of radical activisits.

I say boooooo to Mike Rogers. I hope someone makes an equal attempt to malign him and destroy his life!
8. 2009-09-02 14:03  
Normally, I think outing someone else is despicable. Private is just that, but in this case, I'd call it karma. Peace ;)
9. 2009-09-02 14:27  
isnt there any happy news today? I enjoyed the hubby hubby Ben and Jerry's ice cream article :)
10. 2009-09-02 17:18  
I agree with post 8 for the most part. But if, say, a politician makes a speech in parliament in favour of criminalising gay sex, but is in the meantime secretly engaging in it himself, the press in the West would say there is a public interest in exposing the hypocrisy of that public figure which overrides the right to privacy.
11. 2009-09-03 11:25  
OUT your politicians, OUT your clergymen, OUT your policemen, OUT any and everyone who uses their position of power and authority to oppress LGBT everywhere!
12. 2009-09-03 14:04  
If a public figure is seen with and known to have a same-sex partner in public but is has not said "I'm gay" publicly (or to the press), would be be ethical for the press/blogs or even Fridae to say so?

13. 2009-09-03 18:25  
Post 12, Kellen.

The question you ask is not about deliberate “outing” in any sense of a person in public office behaving without integrity. Clearly your person, who could simply be famous, is “out” publicly and is not hiding it in a closet. In the UK, there wouldn’t be anything wrong with reporting “x was there with his partner y”, it wouldn’t be thought to be indiscreet, it would just be reporting what happened, in the same way as reporting a straight public figure attended with his wife. You would have to be of a mindset, as a reporter, that there was something wrong with x being gay to even think about not mentioning it, or about not mentioning the word "gay" if it was appropriate to the context of the article. Deliberately leaving it out would be an act of censorship. What’s your opinion regarding the Singapore scenario?

As for a person who is simply famous, but the reporter knows is totally in the closet, it would probably have taken investigative journalism and an invasion of privacy to establish the facts. I don’t think it was right of the tabloid press in the UK years ago to threaten to “out” Elton John (initially he claimed to be straight, then bisexual), this was just salacious gossip for the tabloid concerned when attitudes towards gays in the UK were generally less enlightened than they are today. The paper was trying to exploit peoples’ anti-gay prejudices for profit. However Elton transformed it into something positive, giving a full and frank interview, turning the attitude of the paper concerned right around. It did his career no harm at all; it’s benefited countless other gay people, he has publicly entered a civil partnership, and has raised an enormous amount of money for HIV charities through his foundation. I doubt he has any regrets about coming out, in retrospect, even though it was under duress. But my view is that the paper did act badly in the first place.

14. 2009-09-03 18:37  
all but allegations... who would be silly enough to pay attention to some blogger any way, unless there is solid evidence of homosexual allegations of an anti gay politicians sexual presuasion like intimate photos or video I would dismiss it out right my self, if any man said he had intercourse with the pope in a closet at the vatican would you believe it even though the pope is a poncy looking sod? lets face it so many so called activists are just looking for ways to bring disrepute to their perceived enemies I think perhaps they do it with a lack of ethics my self and hurt their own cerdibility...allegations are just that unless there is substantial proof aside from he said she said...
Comment #15 was deleted by an administrator on 2009-09-04 01:26
16. 2009-09-04 13:13  
as an american, what's the fuss? just kissing some guys and a few blow jobs don't make one gay! yikes if i numerically added up the number of girls i slept with and the number of guys, mathmatically i would be straight! the gay activist reminds me a guy i knew at my company who tried to out me at work... when no one really gave a damn including me, who discusses sex at work anyway? its totally inappropriate..I never ask my secretary who she went down on over the weekend... . i bet that gay activist didn't get laid when he was straight and doesnt get laid now that he's gay by the looks of him so he must try and out others... so let straight men walk on the other side and experiment for a while, its completely OK...Americans dont care anymore if you are gay or straight and gay marriage is soon to be the norm so we don't need gay activists, let them all now be soon out of a job i hope... anyway tonight is the Premier of GLEE Watch it on FOX and realize its fun to be gay and its not all serious and people in American think its totally cool and sexual labels are so 1990's; so in summary let the South Carolina guy get laid and have fun and don't be jealous or a hippo about it, finally my little brother is flying here to Shanghai, he's blond, blue eyed and kinda a little gay too, he's gonna party with his bisexual brother who still likes a little pussy ever now and then:)
17. 2009-09-04 21:11  
Barney Frank sums it up best: "You have the right to privacy but not hypocrisy" And that goes double if you are a gay-bashing hate monger politician who courts the anti - homo vote.

If a guy wants to stay in the closet I am happy to leave him there, unless he wants to make life tough for those of us that dont.

The bloke should've grown a spine and outed himself before all this went down. Most people dont give a fkcu these days, and it seems gutless to live your life in the shadows.

18. 2009-09-09 22:42  
Post 16 sorry...what country are you living in? There's been an increase in hate crimes in the USA. And how many states have gay marriage banned just now? I must be terribly behind on my statistics. And oh yes...D'ont ask D'ont tell.

19. 2009-09-10 07:53  
Post 7...Since when is gay marriage a misguided concept? The basis is equal protection under the law and a matter of civil rights.

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