February 28, 2007
Mucho Gusto, Señor Musto?
Veteran gossip columnist Michael Musto is in town today promoting his new book, La Dolce Musto, a collection from his columns of the same name (he'll be at Nage Restaurant from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.). The bespectacled provocateur has spent 20 years at the Village Voice chronicling New York City’s gay life, nightlife and sex life, sometimes in terms that would make Candace Bushnell blush. Along with the tales of club kids, politics and sex worker award shows, his weekly missives have been cattily taking down celebrities since Perez Hilton was still in diapers. Musto is also a pop culture critic and a sound bite machine, commenting on everything from Anna Nicole Smith's death to the phenomenon of “mancrush.”
However, the columnist is most (in)famous for his unrepentant outing of celebrities. One recipient of this treatment was conservative blogger and proud bear, Andrew Sullivan, when in 2001 Musto said that Sullivan had anonymously posted advertisements for bareback sex on various online dating sites. In an interview with Radar magazine, Musto defended/rationalized the practice, saying: “I mainly target closeted gay celebrities, not out gay celebrities. But I just find it so annoying that these people will parade their babies around and all kinds of other personal information, and then think it's off limits to talk about their love lives.”
Locally the stakeholders are divided on the issue. D.C. based Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest advocate for GBLT issues, has a public position against outing, while the activist web publication BlogActive has no compunction in using the tactic as a means to an end. Chris Crain, former editor of the Washington Blade, has written on both sides of the issue. In 2005 he faced a lot of flack for allegedly killing a story outing then RNC Chair Ken Melhman. (Who was later essentially outed by Bill Maher on Larry King Live).
Since then there have been two more significant outings -- former congressman Mark Foley and conservative minister Ted Haggard. The result: a new Democratic seat for Florida and combined months of material for TV late night comedians. Regardless of how you view the outcome, is this an acceptable practice? What do you think, D.C.? Is outing just another weapon in the culture wars? Would you go to bury Musto or praise him? Let us know, in the comments.
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Coming out is a very personal thing and can be exceptionally difficult for someone - having someone decide to do it for you just isn't right.
Musto's an avid cyclist as well! Only time will tell when they finally out our current and past mayors! :) j/k or am I?
If the person is actively supporting causes or organizations that are opposed to the agenda of the gay rights movement, they should absolutely be outed. Their hypocrisy should be put on display.
WTF, is that the flamboyantly gay version Al Franken, or what?
Agreed with Robert. It's no different from outing an environmentalist who drives a Hummer. It's the hypocrisy that's the problem, not the lifestyle in cases such as Haggard's.
And the issue with Foley was not that he was gay, but that he was engaged in unethical (and predatory) behavior with underage boys with whom he had a professional relationship as a mentor and superior. Totally different issue.
If some bible-thumping bigot likes the sound of a man's nuts slapping his ass, then the least he can do is stop trying to persecute those of us who are honest enough to live life out of the closet...outing them seems perfectly reasonable.
The real question here is what the hell is he wearing? Did he just get done smuggling drugs from Mexico?
More like smuggling little boys or sex show donkeys from Mexico.
I'm not so sure. I understand the logic behind outing someone for their hypocrisy, but I wonder what stands to be gained from it.
In Foley's case, d was right- the issue wasn't that he was gay, it was that he was preying on underage people who worked under him. He had to be outed as a sexual predator to prevent more young people from being hurt.
In the case of a closeted gay celebrity, who is Musto (or any of us for that matter) to decide whether someone's sexuality is any business of ours?
Even if the victim is a conservative. There are gay conservatives out there, and it's not our place to decide whether that's hypocritical. And it's certainly not our place to do such damage to their lives by outing them.
I have a hard time believing that a gossip columnist is doing anything in the interest of serving the greater good.
Someone please get Michael Musto a real job.
Musto can straddle my dong any day of the week. Especially in that poncho.
As someone who thinks the entire celebrity-worshipping, reality-watching movement is a sad sign of the times, I have to say that the concept of intentionally "outing" people based on your own standards seems a bit pompous. To feel that your assessment of someone's personal interests are trumped by your own desire to maintain your noteriety as a gossip columnist is shameful, and even if your overall intention is to help the gay cause, the sheer disagreement between the major organizations over how to handle the situation should be evidence enough that you should butt the hell out. Mind your own damn business and get a life.