The upside of being in the closet is that you develop skills of duplicity, which are great for big-time politicians.

There's a whole gay culture in DC, and there are as many gay Republicans as there are gay Democrats.

People in New York, LA, San Francisco, they scratch their head at the concept of a gay Republican, but it really makes sense there.

I do think there are very few extreme right-wing gay Republicans. Although it depends how you define "extreme right-wing." They're making a political calculation.

What I really hope for, ultimately, is that the closet will be a non-factor in American politics in a couple of decades.

The closet exists because people don't talk about it, so that people going into political careers make a calculation early on. They say to themselves, "well, the closet is under the radar, I can do this."

Sometimes there's kind of an "ick" factor around talking about anything about gay sexuality, for certain readers.