Shhhh

I almost threw this in with the other experiments that are escaping the Laboratories of Democracy this week, but this just smacked my gob into next Thursday. In Missouri, they're debating a bill in the legislature that essentially would outlaw any mention of gay people in the Missouri public schools. The usual arguments are being marshalled, and I won't bore you by repeating them, but, speaking in opposition to the bill, a Republican state representative named Zachary Wyatt came out as a "proud gay man" and urged his fellow GOP legislators to vote down the bill. Good on him, says I, but the gob is not smacked until we hear from the Gay And Lesbian Victory Fund that Wyatt is now somehow actually "the only openly gay Republican state legislator" serving in the United States. The only one? In 20-freaking-12?

[...]

UPDATE -- [...] Commenter Kim Casey brings us the story of Steve Vaillancourt, an openly gay Republican state rep in New Hampshire. The link's from '09, but Vaillancourt seems still to be working the job. You're not alone, Wyatt!)

  Charlie Pierce