From Outlet Radio Network:

"According to GayPatriot, who is also a client of mine, Michael Rogers called GayPatriot's place of employment on Friday immediately following the post above and spoke to GayPatriot's secretary and boss. GayPatriot had no idea Rogers would go to such measures and shared with me that both he and his secretary were very upset by the calls but that his boss was understanding. Later on that day, Rogers personally called me and recounted much of the same account, adding that he had also called the police and is working with the authorities on the matter. Rogers expressed feeling threatened by the post and compared it to posts by anti-abortionists who posted the names of doctors performing them. "

I received an email this morning from gaypatriot2004 containing a link to the above post. I have written on the departure of GayPatriot from the blogosphere and had wondered out loud if it had to do with a "violence threat" resulting from his gay terrorist post. It seems we were on the right track. Read the whole article that is linked above as it contains details that round out and close the loop on this story. Outing is a very controversial issue within the gay community. There are folks lined up and hard set on each side. I certainly don't believe that every Republican, simply by nature of belonging or aligning with a political party that advocates anti-gay positions, should be outed. (nor Democrat, Libertarian or whatever for that matter) That being said, I do think that any closeted gay person of any stripe who directly influences or shapes public policy and who uses that power to strip away the rights or dignity of gay Americans, loses the right to call foul when their sexual orientation is made public. When the choice is made to draft or support policy detrimental to gay people, the advocate's sexual orientation is relevant to the story. Maybe GayPatriot went too far with the gay terrorist post. But if the link posted above is correct, then Michael Rogers has more than overstepped. The press has power and certainly we in the blogosphere are seeing that the wave of new media is effecting public opinion and policy. With any power comes responsibility. To quote the article above, "Free speech isn't free of consequences." Those of us who chose to enter the fray understand that. However, vindictive attacks made with malice are not free speech nor activism. They do nothing to further the great debate going on in this country. Acts such as these are the work of a bully who has no cogent argument.

¶ 3/28/2005 07:47:00 AM

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