The Closetocracy? 11 Anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans Dogged by Gay Rumors

This story originally appeared on The Advocate.The Republican Party is full of politicians who actively fight to strip LGBTQ+ people of their rights and humanity. But it is often those same politicians who get caught up in gay sex scandals or have their sexualities whispered about on Capitol Hill, while proclaiming their heterosexuality and adherence to “traditional family values.”Rumors that conservatives like Lindsey Graham and Mike Johnson are secretly gay have spread for decades, while politicians like Larry Craig and Wes Goodman saw their careers implode after scandals involving other men came to light.Often, the Republicans who are the most vocal in their opposition to the queer community and the loudest when spouting anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric are the same ones who the public claims are closeted. From secretly doing drag to behaving in ways their fellow conservatives would describe as effeminate, their hatred hasn’t protected them from rumors spreading.Washington’s closeted political culture is hardly new. James Kirchick’s 2022 book, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, documents an underground world of predominantly white gay men who worked in and around presidential administrations from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton. As The Advocate reported, gay men were intensely policed, particularly by the FBI, and coming out could lead to arrest, dismissal, or the loss of a security clearance. Many officials’ sexualities were revealed only after their deaths.That history grew even more complicated during the 1980s, when the rise of the Christian right and the AIDS crisis turned homosexuality into a potent Republican political weapon. Closeted gay men continued serving in conservative administrations even as the party increasingly defined itself through opposition to LGBTQ+ equality.Regardless of their actual sexualities — most have denied the gay allegations — none of the stereotypes surrounding grooming, clothing, or gender expression