Mark Kirk Lied About Imaginary Military Awards-- And About His Sexuality

You wanna tell me this guy looks less gay than Lindsey Graham?

Yesterday most Americans were either celebrating being off from work or school or remembering their fallen heroes. However, while the burgers and tofu-franks were on the grill, or while people were leaving flowers at gravesides, a storm was gathering -- one that will break this week-- around Mark Kirk, a corporately funded Republican from the Chicago suburbs, currently running for Obama's open former Senate seat, whose career advancement was carefully built on patently false claims about winning imaginary military awards.

But now, as Kirk twists and turns in the wind attempting to spin it all as a harmless little "typo," just a few days after he voted against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, evidence has begun to surface that he didn't just lie about his "awards"; he also lied about his sexuality -- yes, another homophobic Republican closet case is about to get outed for his grotesque hypocrisy!

Mike Rogers is a friend of mine, and I will tell you he is a million times more cautious than I am about outing hypocritical Republican homosexuals who do harm to the gay community. Oh, we see eye-to-eye on doing it; he just demands a lot more proof than I do. We've both looked at the evidence that points conclusively to gay escapades by vicious homophobes like Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), for example. I routinely refer to them as closet cases. Mike never does. I warned people about Mark Foley's shenanigans for two solid years before Mike had enough evidence to satisfy the media and his own high standards for outing. Mike knew flabbergasting details about Larry Craig's grubby, closeted world long before he finally fingered him. He only does it on open-and-shut cases.

We both are very well aware of a stinking conservative Blue Dog who's in the closet. It's a Blue Dog who votes wrong on just about everything-- a regular reactionary aisle-crosser and one of Boehner's favorite pets. But the one thing Kirk doesn't vote with the GOP on is their anti-gay jihad. Believe me, I watch very closely, and the first time he does, out he comes. But I have to give the guy credit: When all his reactionary Blue Dog buddies vote against hate crimes legislation or vote against repealing DADT, he sticks with the Democrats. Conservative? Very. A hypocrite on sexuality? Nope: a straight shooter.

And Mike has felt similarly about Mark Kirk. Kirk has admitted to Mike that he's gay and living in the closet, and Mike kept it to himself because Kirk has generally voted against Boehner and the GOP leadership when they've come down against equality for gay people. Until last week.

Last week, Kirk-- eager to please homophobic Republicans who distrust him for his votes in favor of Bush's no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout on September 29 and October 3, 2008-- broke with his own record, and his own conscience, and voted against repealing DADT. The only Republicans to vote for equality were Charles Djou, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Ahn Cao in gay-friendly, solidly Democratic Honolulu, Miami and New Orleans, plus Judy Biggert and Ron Paul. Joining Kirk to tremble in fear of hate-spewing rightists and switch from pro-equality to anti-gay were Mary Bono Mack (CA), Mike Castle (DE), Charlie Dent (PA), the Diaz-Balart Brothers (FL), Leonard Lance (NJ) and Dave Reichert (WA). But none of them are gay. Kirk is-- and Mike decided to blow the whistle on him.

Why should this matter? Hypocrisy always does. But there's something else-- the very nature of what a life of living a lie-- living in the closet, making believe you're someone who you're not-- does to a human being. Last week we saw how it upended the political career of the new U.K. Treasury Secretary, David Laws, a wealthy man who now admits he cheated on his expenses not to steal from the taxpayers, which he was doing, but to prevent anyone from finding out that he's gay and living a secret, closeted life. Every outed conservative I've ever talked to has told me that he's felt more mentally healthy after he was outed. I hope Kirk will as well.

When Kirk was outed by a crazy teabagger with no credibility during the primary, no one listened except a few fellow crazy teabaggers. Mike Rogers isn't crazy, and if he's a teabagger... well, it's the other kind. Let's see if he can make the charges stick. Not that Kirk is gay; he clearly is. Let's see if Mike can help Illinois voters look into what it means to have a liar and a hypocrite as a potential senator. Read Mike's exposé here.