Ken Vogel has a thoughtful piece in today’s Tacoma News Tribune, discussing the ethics of outing closeted gay politicians who actively oppose extending civil rights legislation to the gay community. The recent controversy was sparked by a letter WA state Sen. Ken Jacobsen sent to NY Times The Ethicist columnist Randy Cohen… and I freely admit that I have intentionally fanned the flames in my posts here on HA.
I was interviewed for the article, and Vogel quotes me accurately and in context. I stand by my comments.
David Goldstein, a liberal Seattle-based blogger, disagreed. He wrote on his blog, www.horsesass.org, that he’d consider outing a specific Republican state senator who opposed the gay rights bill if it would help pass the legislation next session.
That senator “should think twice before casting another hypocritical vote in opposition,” warned Goldstein’s post, which did not name the senator.
The post prompted a spirited debate among his readers in the comments field of his blog. Some accused him of blackmail or of practicing the type of intolerance advocates say the gay rights bill would outlaw.
Others asserted that aggressive politics by Republicans, mostly at the national level, justified outing gay Republican politicians at the state level.
But in interviews, Goldstein and Jacobsen said they’d rather not be involved in an outing