"In many discussions I heard or participated in immediately after the Supreme Court ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick, antihomophobic or gay women and men speculated--more or less empathetically or venomously--about the sexuality of the people most involved with the decision. The question kept coming up, in different tones, of what it could have felt like to be a closeted gay court assistant, or clerk, or justice, who might have had some degree, even a very high one, of instrumentality in concieving or formulating or 'refining' or logistically facilitating this ruling, these ignominious majority opinions, the assaultive sentences in which they were framed" (75).
Not too long ago, they played a documentary at Circle Cinema--Outrage--about this very topic: the problem of closeted homosexuals in positions wherein they have the capability of helping along legislation, court rulings, etc. that are anti-gay. Though I just said this was played not too long ago, it was actually long enough that I don't precisely remember the exact details, but, suffice it to say that this has been a fairly significant and recent issue. Kirby Dick, the director, seeks to present the case of several politicians who are believed to be gay, but who have strongly anti-gay voting records (presumably to deflect attention from their orientation, which, were it to "come out," they believe would be a detriment to their political career). Some of these men (I do not recall any women being included) are married and very succesful (I believe one was seen as some sort of rising-star with the possibility of a very high-level office in his future). The movie, I thought, was very thought-provoking--particularly in the depiction of one man's attempt to forcibly "out" those sorts of politicians. He made it his goal to force them out of the closet. I don't know how I feel about this or, maybe more importantly, how Sedgwick would feel about this manifestation of the closet dynamic. On the one hand, the politicians' (admittedly rumored) in-the-closet-ness is negatively affecting progress for homosexuals, but, on the other hand, it seems pretty vicious to take away someone's closet without their consent.