  With the impending vote on gay marriage in Congress, some activists are calling for the urlLink forced outing of politicians and their staffs. This issue is tricky. On the one hand, as Barney Frank puts it, no one has "the right to hypocrisy. " On the other hand, Wonkette makes a good point: "being a gay Republican -- Wow! Your own private hell! -- must be torture enough. " I guess the heart of the issue is the right to privacy, particularly on matters that can, unfortunately, be held against an individual in very real ways. There's a grim irony to a forced outing; the closeted individual is shamed by the very people who claim he should not be ashamed.
All this seems particularly relevant after watching Law & Order:SVU last night. This week's current affairs episode dealth with "the DL," or, the practice among some black men of secretly having sex with other men while maintaining their heterosexuality. My initial reaction was, "Okay, Dick Wolf. I read that article in NYT magazine too," but then Ice-T delivered a supremely entertaining speech on modern black sexuality and gender-norms, deftly triagulating James Baldwin, Camille Paglia and every health video I ever sat through my freshman year of high school. God, I love Ice-T. Anyone who can call themself a Nietzchean superman and never be questioned for it is one cool dude. 
