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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (79817)	10/8/2006 7:04:29 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

so you don't have a problem with 10-14 year old boys being sold for their assholes? I knew that about you

To: American Spirit who wrote (79817)	10/8/2006 9:37:39 PM
From: tonto	Respond to of 173976

The liberals did not want Barney Frank to disclose his being gay. They wanted it to continue to be a secret. Barney knew that it was going to be disclosed, so he came out 6 years after he was first elected. Advocate, The > Nov 12, 2002 > Article Content provided in partnership with Barney Frank May 1987: U.S. representative Barney Frank remembers when he became the first congressman to come out on his own - Rebels & Pioneers Advocate, The, Nov 12, 2002 by Barney Frank Reaction to my coming-out helped me grasp two important points. First, most Americans aren't homophobic; they just think they're supposed to be. Second, concealing our sexual orientation helps keep straight people ignorant of the personal and social costs of homophobia. As word began to circulate early in 1987 that I was thinking about finally telling people the truth about my sexuality, many of the most liberal members of Congress tried to dissuade me. They were convinced that it would diminish my effectiveness. I did not disagree, but I explained that I could no longer live the semicrazed, semisecret life of the closet. Fortunately, that pessimism was wrong. Neither my colleagues nor my constituents cared much more about my sexuality than I did about theirs. The point was confirmed to me in a poll. When asked if they thought I would suffer political damage because I had been honest about my sexuality, 44% of the people in my district said yes. But to the next question--Would you personally be less likely to vote for him now that you know this?--only 22% agreed. This confirmed what many of us learned in coming out to people who assured us that they didn't care but warned us that others would. Many straight people who were not homophobic thought that most others were. Our coming-out helped inform them. Two and a half years after I voluntarily acknowledged being gay, a hustler with whom I had been involved tried to become rich, not only by publicizing our relationship but by luridly fictionalizing it. I was able to deal with the fictional parts by refuting them in front of the House Ethics Committee. As to what I had done wrong--paying him for sex--I noted that trying to live a closeted life while being publicly prominent proved to be emotionally, physically, and in every other way more difficult than I had anticipated, resulting in extreme emotional stupidity.