Dan Savage has an interesting post today about how straight people’s “gaydar” are becoming more and more finely tuned, and he included a report on a study in which a large majority correctly identified a man’s sexual orientation, first by looking at photographs of men, and then certain facial features.

Then he zeroed in on Marcus Bachmann:

You know, people had gaydar back in the bad old days—back before gay people started coming out and living openly—but Marcus Bachmann would’ve gotten a pass. He would’ve gotten multiple passes: a pass for the way he looks, for the way he speaks, the way he walks, the way he dances. Being a homosexual used to be considered so vile, disgusting, and immoral—so criminal—that a man like Marcus Bachmann had to be given the benefit of every doubt. Being gay was literally the worst thing you could think about a person. So straight people went out of their way to avoid thinking it. Even when evidence of a man’s gayness was on conspicuous display, straight people would refuse to see it. Which explains why millions of blue-haired old ladies went to their graves convinced that Liberace was straight.
Times have changed.
Straight people haven’t just gotten used to gay people—to openly gay people—they’ve come to the realization that they prefer openly gay people to tormented closet cases. They would rather have a beer with an honest Cam than a glass of champagne with a lying Liberace. And that’s why Marcus Bachmann is being ridiculed: it’s not because he’s perceived to gay—it’s not because he pings on everyone’s gaydar save Michele’s—it’s because he’s perceived to be dishonest. He’s appears to be a lying closet case, a lying closet case whose made convincing other gay people to join him in the closet his life’s work. And straight people don’t like being lied to. Not anymore.