Is it ever OK for the media to 'out' gay and lesbian politicians?

That’s the provocative question The Times' On the Media columnist James Rainey raises today. He notes that some journalists believe it’s their duty to reveal the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian officials who support policies that many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community would oppose. Says Rainey:

I hear the reporters' righteous indignation. I understand their claims of hypocrisy. And yet a reporting experience from years ago makes me urge journalists to proceed with caution, as National Public Radio did in recent days, when reporting people's sexual orientation against their wishes.

As late as 1993, voters in Los Angeles still had not elected an openly gay candidate to the City Council. It seemed a good bet that the barrier would fall that year because a couple of gay candidates were among the front-runners in the 13th District, which includes Hollywood. The Times assigned me to cover the race, and I soon learned that those candidates, Michael Weinstein and Conrado Terrazas, had been telling other gay activists that former school board member Jackie Goldberg was less worthy because she had never made a formal public declaration that she was a lesbian.

Click here to see how things unfolded, including a rather awkward conversation Rainey had at the time with Goldberg.

Rainey also notes the release this month of “Outrage,” a documentary which argues that many office holders are in the closet. Earlier this month, Tina Daunt, our Cause Celebre columnist, called the film by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick a “biting new political documentary.” She noted that it “candidly explores the murky intersection between private lives and public conduct.” Daunt also writes:

Dick's thesis is that Washington's closeted homosexual lawmakers, most of them members of the GOP, staunchly -- often stridently -- oppose equal rights measures for gays because they're anxious to conceal their own sexual orientation. He also shares a sentiment voiced by openly gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts who told the filmmakers that his Republican colleagues have "a right to privacy, but there's no right to hypocrisy." So in that spirit, the film does what no mainstream cinematic treatment of this issue has done before: It names names.

Which names? Click here for her full column.

-- Steve Padilla

Photo: Jackie Goldberg, left, and her partner, Sharon Stricker, at their Echo Park home in 2008. Credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times

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Comments

[Steve Rhodes]

The problem with Rainey's column is from reading it you'd think that the politicians outed in Outrage supported domestic partnerships, but not gay marriage.

But that is not the case. Kirby Dick looks at the strong anti-gay voting record of each (or in the case of one, his failures in dealing with AIDS & threats against his former lover if he went public).

it is also pointed out that once many of the politicians were outed came out (sometimes because they knew they would be outed), they supported gay rights.

[tnhll]

I'd settle for journalists spending their time on a thorough discussion of what is going on in Washington and Sacramento. Government at all levels has gotten out of hand and it is having a serious impact on our economy. For my part, I think the media is doing a poor job of analyzing the good and the bad of what politicians do. An article in Pravda today glibly talks about the speed with which America is headed for Marxism. The problem is that this is a true assessment of the situation. That view, however, is not being presented by the mainstream media.

Spare me from the stories of whether someone is gay and deal with serious issues.

[Pom Pom Girl]

I am guessing its not ok if they are a liberal.
I just wish Ms. Motomayor would come out of the closet and then we could have our first OUT Supreme Court Justice.