Gang Of Way More Than Four

The new Advocate kicks off with a throwaway profile on Rhode Island freshman Congressman David Cicilline, And Then There Were Four, a reference to the fact that with his election in November there are now four openly gay Members of Congress.

Cicilline, the 49-year-old former mayor of Providence, and before that a Rhode Island state lawmaker, is now the fourth openly gay member of the House of Representatives, joining Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, and Barney Frank. (The tally of openly gay senators holds firm at zero.)

No gays in the Senate? No-- no openly gay senators. Even ex-Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), caught in the act of trying to perform fellatio on comely young police officer Dave Karsnia-- and who even Bob Novak claims was well-known in GOP circles to be both closeted and a sexual predator-- is not, was not and will never be openly gay. So he doesn't count. Neither do other Republicans caught-- as the Dead Boys used to say-- with the meat in their mouths. Let alone Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Miss McConnell (R-KY), Mark Kirk (R-IL) or, to be fair, Barbara Milkulski (D-MD). And on the House side... well, Jesus, Dave Dreier (R-CA) barely even makes any pretenses any longer, even if gay blades like Adrian Smith (R-NE), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Adam Schock (R-IL), etc have their closet doors firmly bolted from the inside. So who cares? Why should this matter?

Former Republican Congressman Bob Bauman explained very well in his book the toll living a life of lies takes on one's soul. Political closet cases, from Lindsey Graham to Patrick McHenry are beyond clinically insane and pose a great danger to the country because of the self-loathing and deceptions around which their lives are organized It goes way beyond being easy targets for blackmail. As California Republican state Senator Roy Ashburn-- a screaming, militant homophobe, like all of them-- explained when he was outed last year, he lived in a state of constant terror that he would be found out. When asked why he took such a high-profile stand against gay people, he was refreshingly honest:

The best I can do is to say that I was hiding. I was so in terror I could not allow any attention to come my way. So any measure that had to do with the subject of sexual orientation was an automatic "no" vote. I was paralyzed by this fear, and so I voted without even looking at the content. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of people under the law, regardless of our skin color, national origin, our height, our weight, our sexual orientation. This is a nation predicated on the belief that there is no discrimination on those characteristics, and so my vote denied people equal treatment, and I'm truly sorry for that.

Back to the Advocate profile, Cicilline explains it more lucidly and more directly:

Repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” easily the biggest legislative victory in the history of gay rights, is a tough act to follow. But plenty of work on Capitol Hill remains: Federal law still fails to protect gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs and still discriminates against government employees with same-sex spouses.

“And it’s still hard to believe,” says Rhode Island representative David Cicilline (pronounced Sis-uh-LEE-nee), a member of the 112th Congress’s freshman crop and one of a record number of victors among LGBT candidates nationwide. “I’m not sure what the problem is” with equality legislation, he says. “What I do know is that the more representation we have in Congress, [the better] to put a face on this discrimination.”

...As far as representation goes, he’s right: Whether it’s Baldwin with her clinical delivery or Frank with his bombastic oratory, having gay people in a room where laws affecting gay people are decided matters. “I think [the Federal Marriage Amendment] is motivated frankly by a dislike of those of us who are gay and lesbian,” Frank said on the House floor in 2006 during debate on the proposed antigay amendment. “We’re told, ‘Don’t take things personally,’ but I take this personally. I take it personally when people decide to take political batting practice with my life.”

All the GOP closet cases oppose equality for gay men and women and their families. They're taking political batting practice with all of our lives. But Meet the Press insists on presenting Lindsey Graham on TV week after week as though he were just a normal person instead of a sociopath crying out for psychiatric intervention. I'll let you know if MTP ever invites Congressman Cicilline on their show to talk about public policy.