I’ll start with Idaho Republican Sen. Larry “Wide Stance” Craig. His bathroom stall footsie incident with an undercover police officer, evidently a solicitation for gay sex, was somewhat unexpected from a “family values” conservative who routinely voted against homosexual rights.

Along with Craig, there’s been an epidemic of conservative Republicans caught in acts monstrously contradicting their public policies and personae.

Examples are plentiful, and include former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s congressional page scandal, a prostitution connection for Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and the arrest of Florida state Rep. Bob Allen, formerly John McCain’s state campaign co-chairman, for solicitation to commit prostitution.

Allen was accused, and recently convicted, of peering over a stall in a men’s public park restroom and offering an undercover police officer $20 to let him perform oral sex. He’s the same Florida Republican who sponsored a bill against “lewd or lascivious” acts.

The most recently outed Republican gay sex aficionado is Washington state Rep. Richard Curtis, a lawmaker who has also voted against homosexual rights.

The Associated Press reported Curtis “was quoted in police reports as saying a man he had sex with after they met at an erotic video store was trying to blackmail him.”

CNN added Curtis was “dressed in women’s lingerie” at the time.

The GOP isn’t the party of the big tent, it’s the party of the big closet. The high-profile downfall of a prominent evangelical preacher also deserves mention. Sure, discovering that a religiously self-righteous man is a hypocrite is as surprising as more stories of Roman Catholic priests sexually molesting young boys, but it’s fascinating to see just how pathologically repressed the pious can be.

Ted Haggard, the sanctimonious pastor of a megachurch in Colorado, resigned in disgrace when allegations of drug use and a homosexual relationship emerged. Haggard later admitted he was “guilty of sexual immorality,” and was “a deceiver and a liar.”

I admit experiencing a jolt of schadenfreude when politicians and preachers become victims of the sexually repressive society they’ve helped foster, but mostly I feel pity. The psychological anguish and self-loathing these men must have endured is unimaginable. Their public condemnation of homosexuality appears to have been a dramatic overcompensation for possessing sexual desires their religion deems wicked.

Perhaps the animosity many “faithful” people have toward homosexuality, and why they repeatedly launch into nonsensical attacks on such behavior, stems from an inner conflict between their sexuality and religious values. “Homophobia,” a term I never considered technically accurate, may be an appropriate label in many cases.

Openly homosexual individuals may literally frighten some conservative Christians because they serve as a conspicuous reminder of desires they despise or deny in themselves.

It’s also worth recalling the subject of my previous column titled “Blaming disasters on deities foolish” (SN 11/7). It’s a sad fact that many conservative Christians believe homosexual behavior is wickedly sinful, which, if tolerated, will inevitably provoke God’s wrathful judgment on us all. It’s an obvious fear response to homosexuality.

Understanding these issues makes me marginally sympathetic toward gay-hating religious conservatives. Whether they live in fear of god’s wrath, their own concealed sexual predispositions or societal change related to an expanding moral circle of acceptance, conservative Christians are clearly intimidated by homosexuality. This fear explains their endless obsession with the private sexual behaviors of consenting adults.

Perhaps we shouldn’t reflexively denounce small-minded anti-gay conservatives. Instead, with some compassion, we should treat these intolerant individuals as victims of their morally antiquated religious values.

John Bice is a State News columnist and MSU staff member. Reach him at bice@msu.edu