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.
