Is Charlie Crist a homosexual?

[FunkMonk]

If they make homophobia and sexuality part of their public persona then I think that the public have a right to know if they're actually indulging in private.  If that isn't part of the way they behave or are in public then there's no public interest.

I disagree utterly.  Whatever they make part of their "public persona," the public has no right to intrude into their private life.  Hell, they could support welfare and I still wouldn't think it right that they be revealed as wargamers!

[grumbler]

I actually think it should be public in both cases. If you want to represent the people of a state, district, whatever, why should you get to keep something private that would affect how a significant number of people would vote?

The argument that there should be no privacy (which is really what this is, as no one can say what would "affect how people would vote") is absurd.  If people would change their vote based on legal behavior that the candidate indulges in privately, those people deserve to have their votes cast invalidly, as they are morons.

[Valmy]

Anyway, my take on involuntary outings of politicians and other public figures is this: as long as the person in question is not trying to build a political or personal popularity on an explicitly anti-gay agenda, then their personal life is their own business and noone else's.

It is a pity having an explicitly anti-gay agenda on it's own is not all it takes to discredit a politician.

Anyway I find it funny he circulates a video of him making out with somebody else's wife to exonerate himself of being gay.  Because, you know, that would be immoral.

[ulmont]

Personally, I think dating Katherine Harris is what pushed Crist over the edge.

Back then they were just a couple of 30-somethings - unattached, attractive, snappily dressed and not yet on their way to political stardom. But what a couple: Harris and Charlie Crist.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/21/State/Harris_challenger_s_d.shtml