Out with the Truth

Even as Kunkle insisted that wouldn't affect the coalition's position, she called Foley's sexual orientation a sin. "It is also a dangerous lifestyle," she told me, "simply because of the high rate of infection and disease."

Norm Kent doesn't believe Foley's coming out would hurt him politically. "I think Republicans will embrace him under their umbrella," said Kent, a Democrat.

Thorne also said he feels that Foley could survive politically. "Mark is an enormously popular congressman despite the fact that most people who know who Mark Foley is -- know that he is gay," Thorne said. "It's been widely speculated and mumbled about for so long, and yet it's not hurt him."

Shane Gunderson, a gay Democratic political activist in Fort Lauderdale, holds the opposite opinion. "It would be political suicide," he says. "He would have to admit that he's hid who he really is. It's not a good value. You have to be true to who you are."

Of course it might damage him politically, at least in the short run. Sometimes the truth hurts.