SiriusXM radio host and author Michelangelo Signorile has weighed in on the recent speculation that homophobic GOP Senator Lindsey Graham is gay and hires male escorts. Graham, or ‘Lady G' as he has become known over the past few days on social media, came under scrutiny after a gay escort threatened to expose a “homophobic Republican senator,” alleging that many additional escorts he had spoken with had stories about “LG”.
Of course, there were cries that Graham's privacy was threatened by the speculation and that it wasn't appropriate.
Signorile, who literally wrote the book on “outing,” (along with several other excellent tomes) explained how former GOP Congressman Aaron Schock's recent coming out puts this all in perspective, in a new piece on Medium. As you may recall, Schock, the former GOP congressman from Illinois who cast anti-LGBTQ votes for years and years all while denying he was gay himself, recently admitted that yes, he is gay, and has still not apologized for the votes he cast.
Wrote Signorile of Schock: “He's the perfect example of a man who was deceiving the public in so many ways, and eventually the world would see it fully. The closet, for powerful politicians, becomes a sort of practice run at the art of deception on a grander scale. And when you will sell out your own kind, there's really no telling how low you will go.”
“Had journalists at mainstream outlets with vast resources, legal teams and researchers, been pursuing Schock for the hypocrisy of his anti-LGBTQ votes — and revealed that he was gay, with clear-cut evidence — it wouldn't only have likely stopped an anti-gay hypocrite,” Signorile continued, “it would likely have brought down a man who was spending campaign and taxpayer dollars to live in grand style and luxuriously travel around the world.”
“Many LGBTQ people don't get it,” Signorile added, “and many heterosexual journalists take their cues from them. Some queer people don't realize this isn't about indiscriminately ‘outing' the average person, the private citizens just trying to live their own lives. It's actually about protecting them from the corruption of those who are public figures — people who go into public life knowing their lives will be open for discussion — who want to deceive people to benefit themselves and their benefactors.”
“Senator Lindsey Graham has promoted a horrendously anti-LGBTQ agenda and now is one of the strongest defenders of a president who is the most anti-LGBTQ president in history, rolling back rights that have been won,” Signorile concludes. “Editors and reporters should be investigating Graham's hypocrisy the way they investigate public figures' hypocrisy all the time — and that means following up on reports about his sexual orientation.”
Read Signorile's excellent piece here.
