We Guess That's Why They Don't Call It Wonkbutch.

You may have read on other gay blogs about the controversy surrounding David Lat, the former “Underneath Their Robes” blogger who is about to begin helming Wonkette . Conservative Lat has a great resume: Harvard undergrad and Yale Law. And he’s a funny little bitch. But what’s causing a ruckus among the queers is a series of columns he wrote for the Harvard Crimson years ago, which some say were homophobic. Is someone with an anti-gay bias going to change the heart and soul of a popular blog? Some say, yes. Won’t it be funny when everyone learns that the person is gay himself? We say, sure!

First off, here’s a sample of his college writing: "National Coming Out Day is just another event in the recent rash of identity-based pride rallies. These alleged celebrations of diversity have devolved into mutual masturbation festivals. They reassure people who are still deeply troubled by their lifestyle choices and are desperately seeking a stamp of approval. We have a duty to deny them this approval."

Ouch. That was way harsh, Tai.

Still, what’s interesting to us is not that he once wrote a series of columns that sounded homophobic. We’ve all written/said/snorted some things in our lives we wish would go away. But in his new position as Wonkette editor, Lat is likely to have to write about hypocritical arch-conservatives who lead secret gay lives. A few popular DC blogs (America Blog and Blog Active) focus on this topic. If Lat, an arch-conservative, had an under-the-radar gay life of his own, it seems to be a conflict of interest that should at least be recognized. And outrageously mocked – Wonkette is the ass-fucking blog, after all.

And yet, here we are. It is our understanding that in fact, yes, Mr. Lat is one of us – and relatively open among his friends about that fact. Otherwise, we’d be reluctant to say anything. While at Yale, he had a relationship with an undergraduate male known to us. Which makes sections of the recent Times article about him that refer to his “double life” and his difficulty explaining it to his parents especially humorous. Not to mention this passage:

"David was on this one side a hard-core Federalist Society type, who clerked for an extremely hard-right judge, and was way to the right of most of his associates. And he had this whole other side of flamboyant, theater-watching, Oscar-watching, shoe-loving, litigatrix. How do these two sides get reconciled?"

We emailed Mr. Lat to get comment and see if he had anything to say. After all, there is a possibility that we are mistaken. But he declined to respond to our questions, and hedged with a grace matched only by Anderson Cooper:

“I'm flattered by all the interest in my personal life, but I'm really undeserving of all this attention. While the publicity whore in me is obviously gratified by the media coverage, I realize it's ridiculous that this much ink has been spilled over me. I am a mere blogger -- and not just any blogger, with all the insignificance that the term denotes, but a blogger who got his start writing about judges (a topic most Americans find soporific).”

And then he asked us to call him if we were ever in DC, so we could go out. Ass fucking, here we come!