Blogger Hints That U.S. Congressman Will Be Outed as Gay Soon
According to US News and World Report.com Michael Rogers, a LGBTQ blogger who gained fame in the early 2000s by revealing the sexual orientation of prominent politicians, has largely been dormant since President Barack Obama took office. But Rogers tells U.S. News he's gathering evidence for what could be another big revelation.
"There's a big difference between outing and reporting. I'm a reporter, I report on hypocrisy," Rogers told U.S. News. "If I have one case that's off, I'm out of the business, [but] I will never be sued for what I do because I'm right."
The blogger said he currently knows of three "anti-gay" members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are themselves gay. Rogers refused to say when he might disclose information on these members or what might provoke such a revelation, maintaining that as a journalist he holds some cards close to the vest.
But Rogers said he's about to get his hands on concrete evidence that one "anti-gay" member of the House of Representatives engages in gay sex. "Oh, it's going to happen because it has been happening for a long time," he said.
"There's no real particular reason" for the lull, he said. "Like anybody who starts a volunteer effort, eight years is a long time ... there's no outing job at a paper where someone's going to pay you."
He started the blog when he "saw a need during the Bush administration."
"George Bush was a homophobic, anti-gay, horrible person," Rogers said. "Certainty there's less of a need without a homophobic president."
The political tide has changed significantly since Bush pushed for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, he noted.
"What Obama has been able to do is take an issue that Republicans used as a wedge for Democrats and make it into a wedge for Republicans," he said.
Nonetheless, there's a still a need to expose "anti-gay" politicians who are themselves gay, Rogers said, even if the Supreme Court decides to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
"The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is infinitely more important for me as an activist than marriage," he said. That legislation has lingered in Congress for years and is unlikely to pass the current Republican-led House.
The blogger's most high-profile triumphs include the 2004 revelation that then Rep. Ed Schrock, R-Va., was leaving voicemails on a gay hook-up service, prompting the two-term congressman to retire. In October 2006 he wrote that three men informed him they had sex with then Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, in bathrooms at Union Station. Before making his allegations against Craig public, two of his three sources signed affidavits saying they would come forward if Rogers was taken to court.
In August 2007 the political and comedic worlds went wild with news that Craig had quietly pleaded guilty to charges for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover cop in a Minnesota airport's restroom. Rogers said he was "vindicated 500 percent" after Craig's arrest was made public.
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