Last Friday I asked you to weigh in on the ethics of bloggers posting details of gay newsmakers' sex lives -- in this case, photos from Manhunt that allegedly belonged to onetime CNN anchor Thomas Roberts, now reporting on entertainment for The Insider. Then Page Six picked up the story, leading to a good week of hand-wringing and finger-pointing about whether we can or should expect our own community to lead the way (or help hide the dirty laundry) when it comes to how we live on the internet.
You all seriously get an A for class participation! I promised to post the most profound and/or funny responses, so here's a sampling (you can still read them all here, if you want).
> JAPHY GRANT (who was sitting next to me on the panel at NLGJA I mentioned) made this quick-witted and edgily outraged vlog about it.
> WILL: It may be true that we have little privacy left, but why are our own fellow gays so hellbent on taking even that little bit away.... Frankly, there is nothing newsworthy here. An out gay man, has nude pics on a gay hook-up site. Sun rises in east, sets in west and your taxes are due next April.
> RAPHAEL: not sure I'd hold our blogger responsible. I mean, a gay man can't please right-wing homophobes no matter what he does. Some of them would have had the exact same reaction if he was caught on a date at a fine restaurant.
> RODNEY: Thomas Roberts DOES look for sex on the Internet. Big fucking deal -- he's young and hung and gorgeous. Good for him. Everyone who has any position in the public eye knows that you can't put naked photos online and not expect them to get out -- especially if you are the one sending them out yourself!!
> DALE: Thomas could never get a break in life. He put his faith in Catholic Church and gay community but ended up getting burn by both groups.
> JACKY: If this is the way we treat openly gay celebrities, you wonder why so many are still in the closet.
> LUKE: What this "scandal" represents most is that people, gay and straight, have a phobia of nudity.... We do tend to look better naked, after all, before our corpses have begun to rot.
> MOMO: I'm a nobody and I don't put my ass or cock up on ManCunt. (And they're nothing to be ashamed of, I assure you.)
I also asked Kenneth in the (212), the blogger who originally posted the pics, if he wanted to comment to Popnography. I didn't hear back, but the offer's still open and I'll pass it along if I do.
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