One of the least likely debates imaginable has now erupted: is former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert gay? It pits former Congressman Barney Frank against Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart.
Hastert, who is nobody’s idea of a pride parade pin up, is facing accusations that he engaged in sexual relations with at least two male students when he was a high school wrestling coach. The news broke when Hastert was indicted for breaking money reporting laws apparently to pay hush money to a former student whom he had abused.
Former Congressman Barney Frank, never one to shy away from a debate, has been quick to brand Hastert a hypocrite because he had gay sex.
“Dennis Hastert twice as Speaker tried to get the house to pass a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage [and], in fact, retroactively would have canceled marriages that happened in Massachusetts,” Frank told Huffington Post “So when someone who himself has engaged in same-sex activity then uses his position of great power to try to penalize other people who are doing that, that’s the kind of hypocrisy that should be penalized.”
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Ever the partisan, Frank has noted that Hastert was leading the impeachment of Bill Clinton for having sex with Monica Lewinsky, who was, as Frank notes, at least of legal age. “The fact that this man…initiated any gay activity is directly relevant because of the issue of hypocrisy,” Frank said on MSNBC.
Not so fast, says Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart. “What Hastert allegedly did has nothing to do with being gay or the push by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans to ensure that equal protection under the law applies to them,” Capehart argues in directly response to Frank. “What he allegedly did — sexually abusing a number of underage boys — was criminal.”
Part of Capehart’s problem is that he doesn’t want to equate sexually abusing teenage boys with being gay. And there is a point to that. If the allegations are true, it may have been a question of convenience on Hastert’s part–the boys were delivered to him daily as a wrestling coach. But there is some kind of same-sex attraction going on there, whether you want to call it gay or not and even though it was completely inappropriate, to put it mildly. (Repugnant might be a better word.) A lot of men would look at males, teenage or older and see nothing sexually attractive. Hastert seems not to be one of them.
A similar problem dogged the debate over abusive priests. It was convenient for the church and the right-wing to call them gay because doing so was a two-fer: it branded gay as evil and it severed the priests from the Church. But those priests weren’t gay in any sense that gay men understand.
It’s not like Hastert was cruising in restrooms, like one of his GOP colleagues. On that Capehart is right. But Hastert is a male who apparently liked to have sex with other males. The males were presumably all underage. That would make him a creep and potentially a criminal, but you can’t dismiss the underlying sexual attraction that would motivate his perverse actions. That’s definitely homosexual.
The question is: Is it gay?
Damon Robbins
It makes him a creepy pedophile!
Alex Rothwell
He’s in the closet never to come out.
William Howell
Did he swallow?
Sheldon Siegel
No. It makes him a pedophile.
Realitycheck
I see he is not Gay and he is not a gay criminal, he is just a republican criminal
that abused underage boys…..hummmm, so this is that new kind of logic, not logic but Slogic…… (rolling my eyes)
shane15235
being a criminal doesn’t mean he isn’t gay. there are gay criminals and straight ones. the fact that he likes sex with people of the same gender at least makes him bisexual–if not gay–and his political positions make him a real hypocrite. i agree with barney frank.
Jay McMinn
Why even pose a ridiculous question as this? If they had been female students, would it make him “popular with the ladies?” Colossal #FAIL @queerty
Ron Jackson
Ugh! I say he’s Not GAY! We don’t want him in the club.
Billy Budd
Here in Brazil you can fuck underage minors without any problems, as long as it is consentual and the boy is 14 or more. If the person has a position of authority towards the boy, then it is automatically considered rape. Therefore, even here this guy would go to jail. Criminal, yes. Bisexual, yes.
Giancarlo85
@Billy Budd: Oh please. Someone who is 14 or 15 cannot consent. Your country has some screwed up laws (if you are even Brazilian which I doubt).
Hastert is a criminal. End of story. Whether is bisexual or gay, I don’t care. He is indeed a hypocrite and a criminal who raped underage boys.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
He was sexually attracted to post-pubescent males, which makes him at least bisexual if not full-on homosexual; and spare me the distinction-without-a-difference “gay vs homosexual” word wank.
Just like the Catholic church, wilfully refusing to acknowledge the bad apples in one’s own barrel, perhaps out of some attempt to stave off a narcissistic injury to group ego, leads to the worst kind of contamination and harm.
Charles Schultz
Now a good sign for straighthood
Max Hyldebrandt
What kind of question is that? He is an adult and teacher abusing kids who’re supposed to trust him and follow his example. He is a sexy offender! #FAIL
Mark Alan McRoberts
NO, it makes him a predator. He is child molester/rapist…. nothing to do with gay people. The violence he used is of sex between same gendered men.
Irish Ryan
Clutching my pearls!ð??¯
James Dauria
pedophile is more like it! gay men are certainly not pedophiles!
F. Jay Ver
Um child abuse that is the important part.
David Bolton
It makes him a screwed up person.
jason smeds
Barney Frank’s position does indeed appear to be homophobic. Frank needs to watch his mouth before spouting what he did.
To me, it’s disgusting what Hastert did in a position of care and responsibility. If he was abusing females, the same criticism would apply to him.
Larry Gonzales
He is a predator.
Alan David Smith
weather he is or isn’t is irrelevant. he is a pedophile. put his ass in genpop .
Jeff Phillips
a little bit yes
Bobby French
It makes him a pedophile. Pedophiles are more likely to be heterosexual.
avesraggiana
God, I hope not.
David Mor
Seriously? Why would you pose such an idiotic question? The man is a pedophile. Way to put us into that group.
Danny Gerald Stoddard
No, it makes him a pedophile
Danny Gerald Stoddard
And predator
Ted Harris
nothing is more dangerous to the Gay cause than closet pedophile cases like this. You know this guy voted against our interests every single time he could.
Johanna Berg
Ops! XD
Robert Becker
He is a selfloathing pedophile who seeks to cover his tracks by demonizing Gay people… “Don’t look at me, THEY are the dangerous ones”
Roseann Saad Paparian
Ridiculous question.
martinbakman
@Damon Robbins: Pedophile means very young, not reaching puberty yet.
Whatever Mark Foley is, besides a hypocrite, is what Hastert is. Creepy and predatory.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
No true Scotsman fallacy group hug
Billy Budd
@Giancarlo85: Send me your phone number to [email protected] .l I will call you from my country and you will be certain that I am indeed Brazilian. It irritates me that you think I am lying. Please send me your number.
Mark Stevenson
Rape, prison assaults, and pedophilia are not about sex but about power.
Anne Conzemius
Pedophile for sure, his role as coach enabled him to groom his victims. He is a despicable excuse of a man.
polarisfashion
He is a predator/pedophile/criminal/asshole. Throw him in jail. While we’re at it, throw Josh Duggar and his parents in jail. Its only a matter of time before more victims come forward.
Christopher Dellamura
It doesn’t make him heterosexual.
1EqualityUSA
Mr. Dennis Hastert is a sexual predator who abused his power when he was a coach. Objectifying the human body need not concern gender, so only this man knows his true sexual identity. Rape is about power. LGBT should not be lumped up with pedophiles constantly. Bad eggs are everywhere. This annoys me as much as having, “abortion” co-mingled with issues of equality. The frontal lobes were not yet even fully developed on these young men, so this coach had no business interfering with their development for selfish gratification. Sociopathic.
Debbie Karley Dessoffy
The man’s a pedophile. That has nothing to do with your orientation.
tricky ricky
Dennis Hastert was in love with his college roommate who was killed in viet nam. he is gay.
Monroe Chaplin Dean
Less gay more queer
Bill Ligon
Oh no, of course not —————-!!!
Matthew Farris
I think homo, hetero or bi is what you’re born with. Gay or straight is the life you choose.
Ken VanArsdale
I don’t know what he is?
Howard Steiman
It makes him a pedophile and a nasty excuse for s human being.
Desert Boy
Dennis “Coach” Hastert is a diddler. A pedophile. He needs psychiatric care.
Sweetie Pie
He’s not gay…he’s a little closeted fag
onthemark
It’s a creepy discussion, but Capehart makes much more sense (sorry, Barney).
Since Hastert has been married to a female for decades, can’t we just call him “bi” and that’s it?
@Billy Budd: The problem is that you’re always coming on here and telling us some weird, f*cked-up thing about Brazilian life and you always seem so PROUD of it! Now you’re actually bragging about how pedophilia is legal and no big deal in Brazil? And you wonder why you get a negative reaction? Wow.
Arcamenel
I wouldn’t call him a pedophile considering the age of his partners but he’s definitely predatory. I don’t know if he’s gay or bisexual, what I do know is he’s a sick individual.
NoCagada
For those of you throwing the word “pedophile” around, look up the definition (if you know how). It does not apply here. The proper word would be “hebephile”.
Michael Martinez
It makes him a pedophile and rapist he is NOT gay. Equating the two just gives the bigots, “Christians” and the media the approval to continue to link the words gay and pedophile. Articles like this proves to the anti-gay crowd that the words have the same meaning since our own media continues to link them.
Merv
Instead of trying to reason with emotion, let’s look at it logically.
First, let’s start out with the pedophile label. Despite its popular usage, the word has a very specific clinical definition, and that involves prepubescent children. The most well known alleged victim in this case was high school age, so definitely not prepubescent. Therefore we don’t have evidence of pedophilia. Another thing to remember is that the events happened around 1967 to 1970, when Hastert was around 24 to 28, not the old man that he is now.
What about the accusation that Hastert can’t be gay because what he was doing was illegal? Illegality does not make someone not gay. In 1970, all gay sex was illegal in every state except one: Hastert’s state of Illinois. Did that mean that Illinois was the only state with gay people? As to whether Hastert did something illegal, we have to look at the statutory rape laws. The age of consent in Illinois is currently 17. Assuming it was the same in the 1960s, and if we take literally the victim’s sister’s accusation that the abuse happened all throughout high school, then it would have been illegal when it started and legal when it ended.
Now we get to the definition of gay. The term is not well defined. Sometimes, it is used as a synonym for homosexual. By this definition, and leaving aside bisexuality, then Hastert is gay. But, just as often, gay is used as a cultural term of self-identity. By this definition, Hastert is almost certainly not gay.
What is not in doubt is that Hastert was extremely inappropriate and likely predatory. He was in a position of authority over a sexually inexperienced boy who was not in a position to consent morally, legally, and probably intellectually.
So, as much as we would like to disassociate ourselves from Hastert and his misdeeds, we have to accept that, by some definitions, he is gay. By most reasonable definitions he his homosexual or bisexual.
Albert Galowitch
His public antigay stance just a cover for his depraved behavior as a teacher molesting a student. There are creepy gay men like in every other group this one is even worse.
Ladbrook
He’s a self-loathing, closeted homosexual AND an ephebophile, but not a pedophile (at least not that we know of).
Straight men are occasionally deviant. They molest children, rape women, and sometimes kill. We need to accept that a similar percentage of gay men are capable of committing the same horrors.
K Patrick McCarthy
He is a pedophile! Big difference
Tobi
I find the former student and any victim that accepts cash rather than reporting the perpetrator to the police is equally as sleazy. How many other victims need not have suffered if they’d opened their mouths rather than stuffed their wallets?
Craig Marker
No. Power thing.
Kangol
He’s an anti-gay, hom0phobia-promoting queer pedophile-ephebophile.
He’s allegedly been linked to sex with THREE BOYS. One is deceased, one is Individual A, whom he was paying off to keep quiet, and the third is Individual B.
This is a pattern. Were there others?
IJelly
Frank’s and Capehart’s statments are largely rhetorical. If Hastert had sex with men (or boys) before he came to Washington, chances are that he had sex with men or boys after he came to Washington. Now that the story has come out, you can bet that all sorts of news organizations are investigating all of his sexual/romantic history. I’m sure we’ll get the answer as to whether Hastert is gay so enough.
IJelly
soon enough
Chuck Stevenson
It makes him a pedophile and a hypocrite.
Adamw
So many of you are wrong. A pedophile is sexually aroused by prepubescent children. High school students are generally going through puberty; thus, by definition he is not a pedophile. A child abuser likely, but not a pedophile.
Jonathon Popphan
Paedophilia NEVER equals homosexuality or even heterosexuality. Paedophiles have no adult sexual orientation. Their sexual attraction is to CHILDREN, and usually they will go after ANY CHILD, regardless of gender, if they can get access to them.
Adults who identify as gay/homosexual, bisexual, straight/heterosexual have “normal” sexual orientations. Paedophiles, however, have abnormal sexual orientations and cannot have a real relationship with another adult.
Oh yes, they do often marry and have kids of their own. But, honestly, what better cover could they have but to pretend to be a devoted husband and father? How else could they convince other parents to trust them with their children.
The technical term for people like Hastert is “ephebophile” which reflects his predilection for post-pubescent teenagers vs. pre-pubescent children. While there is an important distinction to be made when speaking from a scientific, psychological, sociological or medial perspective, for the lay person there is no significant difference. In cases of paedophilia and ephebophilia there is abuse of a minor. Both are examples of predatory behavior that must not be tolerated by any civilized society.
Predators like Hastert can lead very successful public lives, but all the while in private they are raping children. They are perverting the growth and development of young people by exposing them to sexual situations before they are psychologically and physically ready for them. They also abuse the trust that young people have for authority figures, and the sheer number of broken people produced by such abuse is staggering.
The only real solution is to put men like Hastert in prison, chemically or physically castrated, for the rest of their lives. They simply cannot be allowed access to young adults or children. They are incapable of ridding themselves of their orientation, but we can as a society do everything we can do to protect our children from them.
This is harsh for me to say, but the only true cure for pedophiles and ephebophiles is death.
MacAdvisor
“Is it gay?”
Despite the AP Style Manual, homosexual and gay are not synonyms. One may have sex with someone of the same sex and not be gay. It may or may not make one a homosexual, but it certainly doesn’t make one gay. A homosexual, by definition, is someone sexually attracted to someone of the same sex. Thus, a straight man who has sex with men for pay, a porn star, for example, is not a homosexual.
A gay person is someone who has taken from society the control over their sexual identity and defined their sexual identity for themselves. They are open and proud about who and what they are. Thus, there isn’t such a thing as a closeted gay man, only a closeted homosexual. Barney Frank was a homosexual, came out, and then was gay.
Thus, the answer is “no,” Dennis Hastert is not gay.
Matthew Munson
He also allegedly was dating his chief of staff too.
Shirley White
NO! Just an asshole! Child molester!
Lawrence Gisonda
Makes him a hypocrite
VivaViejo
Gonna be an interesting trial, he pleaded not guilty:
Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty to Lying About Hush Money
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/us/politics/dennis-hastert-chicago-court-appearance-for-arraignment.html?emc=edit_na_20150609
Jim Guinnessey
Hastert, Hyde, Craig, etc. the list of hypocritical GOP persecutors of Bill Clinton grows longer.
Barb Kipper
MONSTER
tricky ricky
@VivaViejo: he must be waiting for a plea offer. he knows he’s guilty.
crowebobby
Funny how a 14-year-old who is willing to have sex with a 24-year-old is a child who is too young to know what he is doing and therefore can’t give consent, but a 14-year-old who touches his sleeping sisters out of curiosity is a sick pervert in full control of his actions and knows exactly what he is doing and therefor deserves to be sent to prison and registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. That is according to vast majority of hysterical readers of The Advocate and Queerty.
Clark35
@Giancarlo85: Exactly. I don’t believe ‘Billy Budd’ is from Brasil either.
BlueDude
And, how do YOU spell karma??? I’m hoping more & more & more of this hypocrisy surfaces, along with nutcase politicians’ insanity, and evangelical hate. The GOP Titanic is heading toward that iceberg named KARMA at collision speed.
PARKAVMAN
It makes him a trolling pedophile. That’s what the Right Wing Nuts need to understand. Gays aren’t pedophiles and pedophiles are usually not gay.
Stache99
@crowebobby: What are you talking about? This is more a case of a 14 yo being seduced by a 60 something.
Josh Duggar was actually 15 and forced himself on his sisters repeatably and then went on to attack gays for being exactly what he is.
Why don’t you go back to talking about how much fun it is to hire underage boys while traveling like you did in your last post.
NJjoe
High School students? That would make him a pedophile.
@Barb Kipper:
BINGO!
EvonCook
Think you better reexamine the “love that dare not speak its name” and Greek traditions again. Being “gay” is not a mirror/shadow image of straight lives and mores nor one more desperate faux heterosexual activity much as the apologists and promotional politically correct GLBT police would have us seem. We are not cookie-cutter heteros with a little lavender sprinkles or glaze. We have, like it or not, some real differences in monogamy, age relationships and sexual activities that do not fit so perfectly into the “we are just like them” promotions or arguments for the acceptance or assimilationist agendas. Can’t sell out who we are just to please the straights, get acceptance and deny what we may just offer the world: a more positive love mode and a higher evolution, breaking free from both love as possessive control tool to capture a partner for life as well as the sugarcoated idealistic romantic fantasy bliss of coupledom which generally leads to disappointment, discord and divorce. I know wedding cakes are impressive and wedding rings make one fee empowered (at least over one person), but let’s remember bonobo monkeys who are the happiest, most peaceful and sex loving primates. LOL. I can’t speak for lesbians and their habits and desires, but the gay community has certainly proven far more diverse than heteros might ever dream or imagine. Let’s teach them a thing or two rather than capitulating everything unique that we offer.
Curty
Queerty, John you all should know the difference between a gay person and a predator that preys on underage boys. This is a very disappointing post that makes the GLBT community look bad. Do yourself a favor and answer your own. question. Not amused at this post at all. :-/
Yelper
He’s Republican; hence not gay. Merely the victim of a minor judgmental indiscretion.
Bauhaus
@EvonCook:
Studies are already showing the the gays have it over straights in relationships and parenting. Kids are happier and healthier with gay parents, too. Could it be that gays chuck confining gender roles and do what needs to be done, economically, domestically and sexually? The gays I know have no interest in being “just like them”, but do have an interest in having the same rights and privileges as them. If anything, what I’m seeing is that WE are rubbing off on THEM. They like what they see in us, but they don’t know how to navigate it yet. We’ve been doing it since the beginning.
Steven Henderson
Pedophile would be a more accurate name.
Scott Edwards
I thought t h at is w h at the us for in our alphabet soup
Linda Piersa
OK, here’s one more hypocritical dupa hole!
Tom Belkowski
No, it makes him a pedophile.
crowebobby
@Stache99: Why don’t you get your facts straight. Hastert wasn’t 60 at the time; he was in his early to mid 20’s; and the boy continued to have sex with him all through high school according to his sister. And I don’t condone what Hastert did in any way. One because he was a teacher, and two because it was sure to fuck the kid up in our society. And if the Duggars are telling the truth at all, Josh didn’t “force himself” on his sisters, he messed with them while they were sleeping, which is creepy but not the “violent rape” you’re all so eager to turn it into. He’s a scumbag for his hypocrisy more than for the furtive touching of the only girls his uptight little Christian mind would allow him to get near. Furtive and even open sex play between young siblings is not that uncommon. And no I never experienced (or even had any desire to experience) it with my siblings. Neither of these cases warrant the hysteria of the posts on here. Sex isn’t the “fate worse than death” even when it’s not between consenting gay adults. And, yes, sex in Tangiers and Rome was lots of fun for me as well as for the young men I had it with.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
LGBTP
O_O
Paul Ydstie
No … He’s just another hypocritical Republican.
Paul Ydstie
No … He’s just another Republican hypocrite.
EvonCook
@William Howell: No, but I do if you want!
EvonCook
@Billy Budd: You all are a little more enlightened about sex than us uptight Northerners. Having started when I was five I know better than most what kids can get up to and want to do themselves. Thanks for your comment.
EvonCook
@Giancarlo85: Wow, Your experience must be pretty limited concerning youthful adventures and interest in sex. See above and please wake up to the realities of life.
EvonCook
@Merv: Thank you for the best analysis and discussion points in this whole mess. Sometimes seems that gays can be as hysterical, small minded, condemning, hate filled, ignorant and self-concerned as heteros. And that is embarrassing.
GayEGO
@Damon Robbins: Hastert was absolutely illegal in his actions and to whom he forced himself on may be as a sexual predator or a pedophile based on the age of the victim. So far, all of these perpetrators have a religious connection to their illegal acts. I have yet to see a publicly written story of an atheist or agnostic committing the same action.
My point is that perhaps the negative religious hoopla about gay men being abominations has put the fear in these religious nuts so they have to sneak to force younger, less powerful victims into sexual acts.
gskorich
if he is a transgender woman then no its not gay. its heterosexual.